Freeswitch configure caller-ID with mod_lcr

Question

I am working to get LCR (Least Cost Routing) working with Freeswitch. Using mod_lcr in Freeswitch 1.4.9. I have set it up and it is working. My install is actually a FusionPBX instance, but this should not matter for the following discussion.

The problem is - I want to set the caller-ID for specific routes (i.e. digits) and I am using regexes in the cid column of the LCR table, as per the documentation.

It is working inasmuch I can see in the output and logs that this sets the "origination_caller_id_number" variable. However, the destination phone does not show that caller-ID.

Also if I set this variable "origination_caller_id_number" in the dial plan without LCR it does not get used seemingly and the callee never sees it.

If I set "effective_caller_id_name" then the callee sees it.

Next I tried: use LCR in the dial plan as application, then set effective_caller_id_name = ${origination_caller_id_number}, which should have been set by the LCR app, then call BRIDGE with the "auto_lcr_route" variable.

See the XML here:

<extension name="LCR.Route.1" >
   <condition field="destination_number" expression="^300(\d{9,17})$" >
       <action application="set" data="sip_h_X-accountcode=${accountcode}" />
       <action application="set" data="sip_h_X-Tag=" />
       <action application="set" data="call_direction=outbound" />
       <action application="set" data="hangup_after_bridge=true" />
       <action application="set" data="inherit_codec=true" />
       <action application="set" data="continue_on_fail=true" />
       <action application="lcr" data="$1" />
       <action application="set" data="effective_caller_id_name=${origination_caller_id_number}" />
       <action application="bridge" data="${lcr_auto_route}" />
   </condition>
</extension>

The call completes successfully but it does not set the "effective_caller_id_name" at all.

The FusionPBX CDR data "Application log section" shows

Application Log     
Name    Data
set     call_direction=outbound 
set     call_direction=outbound 
set     hangup_after_bridge=true 
set     inherit_codec=true 
set     continue_on_fail=true 
lcr     xxxxxxxx
set     effective_caller_id_name=                           <--------- nothing set here. Phone shows SIP "FROM" user.
bridge      [lcr_carrier=carrier1,lcr_rate=0.15552,origination_caller_id_number=
            99999999]sofia/gateway/cae1e311-8cbc-4ae9-af28-1e2d9706779a/xxxxxxx|
           [lcr_carrier=carrier2,lcr_rate=0.90625,origination_caller_id_number=
            99999999]sofia/gateway/09266491-caee-4e67-920e-a30c2610a84c/xxxxxxxx

As you can see from this log, the "origination_caller_id_number" SHOULD have been set after the LCR application has been run.

It seems that when LCR sets "origination_caller_id_number", it is in another scope and cannot be retrieved from the dialplan?

So there are two questions:

Why does the caller ID not show when the bridge application uses the variable "origination_caller_id_number"?

Chances are that the receiving phone provider may not understand what's being sent, or maybe only uses "..._name" instead of "..._number" - but mod_lcr only sets that one variable - which brings me to the 2nd question:

Is the variable actually being set by running the LCR application, or does this happen only upon executing BRIDGE?

and

Why can I not set "effective_caller_id_name" by retrieving the value of "origination_caller_id_number"? the value is apparently being set by the LCR application but I cannot retrieve it from the dialplan. The Freeswitch documentation is very hazy about scoping issues - so is this normal? Can I do something to get to that value?

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 03 '16 at 14:19

I worked it out myself.

To answer the questions:

Whether the number shows as caller-ID on the remote phone depends on the service provider / carrier (mainly the one of the originating end).
No, the LCR application does not set the channel variables. It does set a few variables of its own, the most notable being "auto_lcr_route". This contains the result value of the LCR call. Only when calling "BRIDGE" will channel variables get set.
That is answered in (2) - no variables were set at this stage, except "lcr_auto_route". So after all, it isn't a scoping issue.

The way I solved it was to extract the "origination_caller_id_number" value from the lcr_auto_route variable value with a regex, like so:

<action application="lcr" data="$1" />
<action application="set" data="effective_caller_id_name=${regex(m:~${lcr_auto_route}~^(.*)origination_caller_id_number=(.*?)](.*)$~%2)}" />
<action application="bridge" data="${lcr_auto_route}" />

Note that you need to use the ~ character and prefix the regex with "m:" (and not the usual "|") because auto_lcr_route may contain multiple calling routes separated by a "|" character.

Freeswitch configure caller-ID with mod_lcr

1 Answers1