Dualog Portal - Least Cost Routing

INTRODUCTION

Least Cost Routing (LCR), also referred to as 'Automatic Cloud Connection,' involves configuring automatic connection intervals for communication equipment and setting up failover to backup carriers if the primary carrier is unavailable due to coverage issues or service disruptions.

This article will cover the following topics:

• Enabling Least Cost Routing
• Setting priority
• Defining 'skip'
• Automatic Cloud Connection Settings
  • Connection interval
  • Warning delay
  • Outbound traffic check

For the ship version, please click here.

HOW TO ENABLE THE AUTOMATIC CLOUD CONNECTION

1. Login to the Dualog portal with an admin account with enough privileges.
2. Got to Main Menu > Connection Suite > CS Ship Setup
3. Select the vessel 
4. Click on the Communication tab
5. Scroll down to the Communication Equipment section
    
6. You may enable the Automatic cloud connection for the methods you would like to connect at an automatic interval, by default every 20 minutes.
   
7. Once the Automatic Cloud Connection is enabled, it is possible to choose the priority of the methods with the up/down arrows if automatic connections are enabled for more than one piece of equipment. Typically, the equipment with unlimited or cheapest data packages such as VSAT should be set as first priority.
   
   
   
   Disclaimer: This is an example of the most common configuration, in which the Dualog system will attempt to connect over the configured first priority, such as VSAT, and failover to the second priority, such as Fleet Broadband or Iridium, if the connection over the configured first priority fails more than a certain number of times.
    

SKIP SETTINGS

It is possible to adjust the the balance between carriers, by configuring the Skip setting.

This can be used to attempt one or more additional connections over the first priority equipment before failing over to the second priority equipment. A skip count, defines how many times equipment would be skipped in subsequent connection attempts.
 
To configure the amount of skips,

1. Open the drop-down menu 
2. Click on Skip settings. 
3. This will open the Edit Skip Settings dialogue window
   
   
   
   
   

AUTOMATIC CLOUD CONNECTION SETTINGS

Under Cloud Connection Settings, there are additional configuration options to fine-tune the connections interval behaviour.
 

• Scroll down to the Cloud Connection settings section
• Click on Cloud connection settings to expand the section

Connection Frequency: This defines the automatic connection time interval, which is set to 20 minutes by default.
The interval can be changed to be shorter or longer, or, less frequently, at specific UTC clock times.

Warning Delay: This is the delay before the Dualog system will send an automated warning message to the vessel's postmaster account stating that Automatic Cloud Connection has failed. It is common to set this to at least "3" to prevent the postmaster account from receiving a large number of these automated messages when coverage is poor or intermittent.

Outbound traffic check: Outbound traffic checking runs concurrently with the connection interval, where the Dualog system checks every 'X' minutes to see if there are any pending outbound emails on the vessel, where 'X' is the optionally specified number.
If this is the case, Dualog will perform a connection before the Connection Frequency interval is triggered.

Primary method retry: this defines the number of minutes that need to pass before trying to connect again if the primary connection method fails.