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Limit Call Length

Posted by dozment on Thu, 01/01/2009
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Thirdlane platform General Questions

We had some outbound calls that seem to have gotten hung last month. The billable seconds on each of about four calls is something like 300,000 seconds each or about $125 each the way we are buying minutes.

I would like to set a limit on call length to keep this from happening again. If I set the limit to something like 8 hours it would allow for any reasonable call length but cut off anything like this that goes crazy.

Is there an easy way to limit the length of calls in MTE? I was looking at adding absolutetimeout() to the dial plan, but wondered if that is the easiest way. I also thought about just setting up a cron job to restart asterisk in the middle of the night.

Submitted by eeman on Thu, 01/01/2009 Permalink

that application is depreciated, its now covered by the TIMEOUT function...

Set(TIMEOUT(absolute)=28800)

Submitted by dozment on Thu, 01/01/2009 Permalink

Thanks, Eric. I did see that absolutetimeout() has been deprecated after I posted this. The good news is as I was testing Set(TIMEOUT(absolute) in an outbound script I got an email from my sip trunking provider saying that they did not see the long duration calls. Looks like it's a problem with my CDR data.

Submitted by thirdlane on Fri, 01/02/2009 Permalink

I could add something like this to the standard script (perhaps based on the presence and the value of a global variable).

Would you like that added? Should it be on a tenant level - my feeling is that global should be sufficient? Your thoughts?

Submitted by dozment on Sat, 01/03/2009 Permalink

My first thought is that it would be nice it if it could be set at a global level but overridden at a tenant level. I can't imagine a call ever needing to last eight hours, but who knows.

On the other hand, my provider didn't see calls of that kind of duration. So, I think the problem was either a problem with the CDR record or something like the call dropped and the sip channel didn't end cleanly.

Submitted by citacommunications on Mon, 07/06/2009 Permalink

I think that this is a necessary feature, and implementing it on the global level would be perfectly sufficient.

Submitted by gerteizinga on Mon, 02/22/2010 Permalink

Hi

Is this call limitation already implemented? and if zo where can i find this, if not will this be impmented anytime soon?

Regards

Gert

Submitted by eeman on Mon, 02/22/2010 Permalink

thirdlane is a fully customizable platform... feel free to customize it as you see fit. This is something best handled by the client. TL should not be placed in a situation of being asked to design the system to purposefully drop calls even if the motivations are altruistic :)