LCR: routing strategy and failover

An LCR (least-cost routing) profile is the rule that decides which provider actually carries a call, when more than one could. This page covers ordering several providers and what happens when all of them fail.

The LCR list

In the sidebar, go to Routing > LCR / routing.

LCR / routing list with three rows: Default Routing (Order Price, 1 provider), Demo LCR - Failover Order (Order Priority, 2 providers), and test (Order Price, 1 provider), each with Manage and Delete actions. — The LCR list. "Demo LCR - Failover Order" is a second demo LCR built for this page, with two providers in it.

Note

To show ordering and failover with more than one provider, this page's demo data adds a second carrier, "Demo Backup Carrier" (see Providers in depth), and a new LCR that uses both. The Quick Start's "Default Routing" LCR was left exactly as that guide built it.

Order: the four routing strategies

An LCR's Order setting decides the sequence its providers are tried in, when it holds more than one.

Order	What it means
`Price (cheapest first)`	One of the four strategies offered in the `Order` field, as labeled in the interface.
`Priority (manual)`	Try providers in the exact order you set, moved with the ↑/↓ buttons below.
`Percent distribution`	Split traffic across providers by a weight percentage you set for each one, instead of a strict order.
`Quality`	One of the four strategies offered in the `Order` field, as labeled in the interface.

Several providers and their order

Open an LCR to see its Settings and its Provider list together.

LCR detail page for 'Demo LCR - Failover Order': Settings section with Order set to Priority (manual), First provider percent limit and Min. margin both 0, and a Provider table listing #1 Demo Carrier and #2 Demo Backup Carrier (both active) with up/down/Disable/Remove actions, an Add provider selector, and a Failover provider dropdown set to Demo Backup Carrier. — The demo LCR: two providers in manual priority order, "Demo Carrier" first, "Demo Backup Carrier" second — and also set as the LCR's failover provider.

With Order set to Priority (manual), each provider's row gets ↑ / ↓ buttons — move a provider up to try it earlier, or down to try it later (or after a failed attempt on the one above it). Under Percent distribution these are replaced by an editable percentage per provider and a Save percentages button instead.

What each setting means

Field	Meaning
`Name` / `Order`	The LCR's name, and its routing strategy from the table above.
`First provider percent limit (%)`	Skip a following provider once its price is this many percent above the first one in the list. `0` turns it off.
`Min. margin (%)`	An extra minimum-margin setting alongside Order — leave at `0` unless your setup specifically relies on it.
`# / Provider / Status`	Each provider's position, name and whether it is active in this LCR (Disable takes it out of rotation without removing it).
`Add provider`	Choose any provider not already in the list and select Add.

Failover: the provider tried last

The Failover provider dropdown picks one provider from this same LCR's list to be tried once more, after every provider in the ordered list above has already failed the call — it is a designated last resort, not a second LCR. Set it to — no failover — to skip this step entirely, or tick — no failover — in Settings to disable it sitewide for this LCR even if a provider is still selected.

Tip

In the demo LCR above, "Demo Backup Carrier" is both priority 2 and the failover provider. In practice you would more often pick a provider that is not already in the ordered list as the failover — a genuinely separate last resort, rather than one that was already tried moments earlier.

Check

Open the LCR and confirm every provider you expect shows active status, in the order (or with the weights) you intend — and that Failover provider is set the way you want, or explicitly turned off.