How long do status polls take?

Last Updated : Feb 01, 2013 |

One consider location step polls one remote location. Does this mean that an optimal multisite BSR application polls every switch in a network? No.

Let us look at an example of a moderately large network, containing 16 switches. The primary vector on switch 1 can be written as shown in the following vector example. Polling response times are variable. If this is a slow response network and each status poll takes 1 second, the consider series in this vector adds as much as 15 seconds to a time of a call in vector processing. In fact, the vector in the example of what NOT to do.

Intelligent polling for multi switch networks

1. wait time 0 secs hearing ringback
2. consider skill     1 pri m  adjust-by  0
3. consider skill     2 pri m  adjust-by 20
4. goto step 20 if expected-wait for best = 0
5. consider location 1         adjust-by 30
6. consider location 2         adjust-by 30
7. consider location 3         adjust-by 30
8. consider location 4         adjust-by 30
9. consider location 5         adjust-by 30
10. consider location 6        adjust-by 30
11. consider location 7        adjust-by 30
12. consider location 8        adjust-by 30
13. consider location 9        adjust-by 30
14. consider location 10       adjust-by 30
15. consider location 11       adjust-by 30
16. consider location 12       adjust-by 30
17. consider location 13       adjust-by 30
18. consider location 14       adjust-by 30
19. consider location 15       adjust-by 30
20. queue-to best
21. announcement 1001
22. wait time 60 secs hearing music
23. goto step 21 if unconditionally

First, even in very large networks you can obtain nearly all of the possible benefits in agent utilization with very few polling connections. In a network of 16 switches, 99 percent of the total benefits possible with BSR can be obtained if each switch polls just 4 others.

Now our vector looks like the following. Is polling time now cut from 15 seconds to 4 seconds, proportional to the reduction in consider steps?

1. wait time 0 secs hearing ringback
2. consider skill     1 pri m   adjust-by  0
3. consider skill     2 pri m   adjust-by  0
4. goto step 9 if expected-wait for call = 0
5. consider location 5          adjust-by 30
6. consider location 10         adjust-by 30
7. consider location 13         adjust-by 30
8. consider location 15         adjust-by 30
9. queue-to best
10. announcement 1001
11. wait time 60 secs hearing music
12. goto step 10 if unconditionally

In fact, polling time in this vector can be around 0.4 seconds per call because of mechanisms in BSR that constantly react to network conditions and resource usage to minimize the number of status polls. The mechanisms, whose combined operation is called Intelligent Polling, also function to make each status poll as productive as possible.