Error handling and service continuation

This page explains how to maintain continuation of service and how errors can be handled in setups with VoiceAI Connect. Mitigation of errors can be done for both new calls and ongoing calls.

The following configuration options can be used for mitigating problems:

• VoiceAI Connect High-Availability: Redundancy of VoiceAI Connect components can be used for fail-over of new calls.

• Alternative routing: Define what should be done in case a conversation fails to initiate. For example, re-route to a human agent or play a prompt.

• Fail-over actions: Define what should be done in case a conversation was terminated due to an error. For example, re-route to a human agent or play a prompt.

• Defining timeouts: Optimize the timeouts for your setup for best user experience.

• Handling bot delays: Play a prompt to the user in case a delay occurs.

Errors overview

Loss of connectivity

Such errors can occur either when a call is initiated or during a call, and might be temporary or permanent.

For problems that occur before the call was initiated, the SBC can be configured to perform an alternative route to a human agent. See Defining alternative routing below.

For problems that occur during a call, you can Defining fail-over actions as described below.

For problems that only cause a delay with the bot response, you can use the handle the bot delay as described below.

Bot logic errors

As most of the bot frameworks allows code to be executed as part of the bot's logic (e.g., using a webhook), there might be exceptions or connectivity problems during the execution.

We recommended to trap or catch all the exceptions in the code, so errors could be handled according to the bot's internal logic.

Additionally, some bot frameworks allows you to specify an action to be taken when a webhook execution fails (e.g., Dialogflow CX handling).

In case the error was not handled internally by the bot, it is usually reflected to VoiceAI Connect as a bot-framework service error (see next section).

Bot-framework service errors

VoiceAI Connect might receive an error response from the bot-framework service due to either connectivity problems or bot logic errors. Usually, both types of errors will have the same handling, and will disconnect the conversation with the bot.

You can define fail-over actions for handling those timeouts.

VoiceAI Connect failures

VoiceAI Connect High-Availability can be used to maintain continuation of service in case of failure in one of VoiceAI Connect components.

When an error occur in one of the VoiceAI  Connect components during an ongoing conversation, it will usually lead to disconnection of the conversation with the bot.

Mitigation options

VoiceAI Connect High-Availability

High-Availability (HA) is achieved by deploying a cluster of VoiceAI Connect components. All component in the cluster share the same configuration, and new calls are load-balanced between the components.

In case of failure of one component, new calls are seamlessly routed to one of the active components.

Please contact AudioCodes support for more information.

Defining alternative routing

The SBC can be configured to perform alternative routing in cases of call initiation failures. The alternative route can be to a human agent, to another bot or to playing a prompt to the user.

Please contact AudioCodes support for more information.

Defining fail-over actions

You can define what will be the actions to perform in case of failure during an ongoing call (a call that is already connected).

The errors that are handled can be one of the following:

• Bot framework errors

• Speech service errors

• Logical errors on VoiceAI Connect

The actions can be any combination of:

• Play a prompt to the user (textual or audio file).

• Transfer the call (to a human agent or to another bot).

• Disconnect the call with specific reason.

• Switch to an alternative speech service provider.

General fail-over

Alternative speech-to-text providers in case of speech-to-text failure

The Administrator can configure fallback speech-to-text providers using the sttProviders parameter. See Configuring multiple speech providers for more details.

{
  "sttFallbackProvider": [
    {
      "sttProvider": "other provider",
      "sttEndpointId": "Endpoint ID",
      "sttContextId": "Context Id value",
      "sttModel": "stt model type"
    }
  ]
}

Alternative text-to-speech providers in case of text-to-speech fail-over

{
  "ttsFallbackProviders": [
    {
      "ttsProvider": "provider Name",
      "voiceName": "voice name output",
      "ttsDeploymentId": "deploymentId string"
    }
  ]
}

Handling bot delays

For handling bot delays (or no response from the bot), see Handling bot delay.

Azure-specific configuration

The following bot parameter can be used to define how bot errors are handled:

The following providers parameter can be used to define retries for sending messages to the bot:

Defining timeouts

The following provider parameters can be used for setting timeouts for various services. You can define fail-over actions for handling those timeouts.