The current generation of routers typically include Layer 2 switches, and many modern switches include some Layer 3 routing capability. Routers offered by Cisco, the source of 90% of the industry's routers, have advanced significantly in function and speed and Cisco makes a comprehensive portfolio that includes routers built to meet the requirements of customers from households to nationwide ISPs.

The most recent Integrated Services Routers released by Cisco have the speed and integrated functionality to support data voice and video plus virtualization while at the same time providing fault tolerance, remote administration, seamless expandability, and enhanced security and compliance. These routers allow your business to build a solid basis for an information network that can evolve seamlessly as you add more employees, establish extra sites, activate new services, give access to your network to clients and vendors, and build an an increasingly mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco CCIE network engineers offer immediate and affordable remote expertise to assist your company to plan, configure, administer, update, and troubleshoot Cisco's most advanced routers and can assist you to support your legacy routers or move efficiently to Cisco's current networking products.
Cisco Routers Designed for Home Offices and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for small companies and branch offices offer low-cost and dependable entry-level alternatives that enable limited sets of users to have secure connectivity to wide area networks. These single-configuration desktop devices feature at minimum four Ethernet ports with Wi-Fi options and built-in firewall for advanced protection. Designed for easy setup, administration, and troubleshooting, Cisco's small business and home routers minimize TCO by lowering equipment and maintenance expenses. Progent's online troubleshooting specialists have in-depth experience providing fast and economical technical assistance for small organizations to set up and maintain these devices, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can help you to understand ways these routers can increase the business value of your information network.
ISR 900 Series Routers
Cisco's ISR 900 Series desktop routers are small-footprint, fanless, fixed-configuration devices intended for SMBs, branch offices, and home offices. These entry-level routers have four GE LAN ports and offer Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connectivity. Cisco's ISR 900 router family delivers three times the IPsec throughput of the ISR 800 Series routers. All ISR 900 models offer Group Encrypted TransportVPN (GETVPN), dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN, FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is as high as 250 Mbps. All router models allow up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported automatic failover protocols for business continuity include VRRP, HSRP, and Multigroup HSRP. Provisioning and management can be done with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS Software. ISR 900 Series routers do not support Cisco's SD-WAN solution.
The Cisco ISR 921 router features dual GE WAN ports, LTE Cat 4, and an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN throughput is 150 Mbps. The ISR 926 and ISR 927 models have external power supplies and support one GE WAN interface, Category 4 LTE, plus VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. VPN performance for both devices is 150 Mbps. The high-performance Cisco ISR 931 features dual GE WAN and has an internal power supply. VPN performance is 250 Mbps.
Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX line of desktop routers combine software-defined wide area networking and cloud-hosted unified threat management (UTM) in a single small-footprint appliance able to handle 50 to 200 users. Each MX router must be licensed to the Meraki cloud. For venues having multiple external network options (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows administrators to assign the WAN interface a given application uses or to create performance-based algorithms to determine the preferred interface. MX fixed-configuration desktop security appliances share key capabilities that include:
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) using Cisco IOS XE software are a line of fanless appliances intended to deliver network service, wireless support, and multilayer security for SMBs, branch offices, retail stores, customer premises equipment (CPE), and machine-to-machine venues. Parallel processing cores and the ability to run Cisco IOS XE software enable these routers to deliver capabilities consistent with Cisco's entire line of Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 family ISR models are offered with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and provide Gigabit Ethernet (GE) packet forwarding. Available features include Power over Ethernet (PoE) and PoE+, zero-touch provisioning, plus a range of integrated or pluggable options for LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, G.fast DSL, LTE wireless, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and SFP. Cisco 1000 and 1100 family ISR models can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN services for transparent multiple-cloud access, multilayer cybersecurity, and unified management across hybrid network models.

Cisco's rackmount or desktop 1100-4G ISR router comes with four built-in GE WAN/LAN ports, built-in 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE antenna connectors, and a micro-SIM slot. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps. The ISR 1100-6G router also includes two 1G SFP Fiber ports and delivers encryption speed of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop ISR 1101-4P router comes with four built-in GE connections, supports 802.11ac and 3G/4G LTE, and delivers encryption speed of 280 Mbps. The ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers have two or four built-in GE ports and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps.
Cisco's rackmount or desktop 111x-4P/8P ISR routers have four or eight built-in switched GE interfaces (two or four provide PoE) and support VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP Fiber. Encryption packet processing throughput is 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 1111X-8P router has eight integrated switched GE ports (four with POE) and a port for 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing performance is 340 Mbps. The ISR 112x-8P router features eight built-in switched GE interfaces with PoE and supports SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and SFP. Encryption speed is 340 Mbps. Cisco's 1161X-8P ISR router features eight built-in GE ports with Power over Ethernet and supports 3G/4G LTE and 1G SFP. Encryption rate is 450 Mbps.
Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco Catalyst 8000 line of routers are modular devices designed to operate at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge in support of hybrid network environments that can incorporate a mix of public and private clouds and cloud-hosted applications. Catalyst 8000 routers are powered by Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide scalability, intelligent cloud security, and 5G access. Performance is enhanced via custom silicon, a multicore architecture, high port density, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software suites provide ongoing access to the latest SD-WAN technology and enable centralized management with advanced cybersecurity, application-optimized policies, network segmentation, and cloud readiness.
Catalyst 8200 Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Catalyst 8200 Series routers are successors to Cisco's 4300 Series ISRs, delivering higher IPsec throughput and scale, accelerated crypto, plus higher built-in WAN port density. These 1RU appliances are designed to provide Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge, SD-WAN and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise WAN edge. The Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model includes four CPU cores, supports 500 Mbps IPsec traffic, and allows 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L platform does not support container-based apps. Cisco's Catalyst C8200-1N-4T router includes eight CPU cores, delivers 1Gb IPsec performance, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with in-place container architectures. Both appliances come with a NIM slot, one Pluggable Interface Module slot, two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN copper interfaces, and two 1G Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) ports. 4-port and 8-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 models.
Cisco Catalyst 8300 Enterprise Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers are intended to replace Cisco's 4400 line of ISR Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN technology to mid-sized and large enterprise branches looking for high WAN IPSec performance combined with cohesive SD-WAN services. Advanced capabilities include 5G wireless support, built-in cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) with application-aware optimization. Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers support edge computing for an in-place container architecture for Cisco UCS-E modules available on Cisco's 4000 family of ISR routers. All models in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series line allow 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and feature backup power supplies for high availability.
The Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router is a 1RU appliance that features 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates of up to 1.9Gbps. The unit comes with one SM plug-in slot, one NIM slot, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T model is a 2RU appliance that features 8 CPU cores and supports 2G SD-WAN performance and IPsec performance of up to 1.9Gbps. The router has two SM expansion slots, two NIM slots, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router model is a one-rack unit device that includes 8 CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance as high as 15Gbps. The router has one one SM expansion slot, a NIM slot, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four integrated 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X model is a two-rack unit device that features 12 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates up to 18Gbps. The unit has two Service Module plug-in slots, two NIM slots, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. LAN expansion modules offered by Cisco range from a four-port 1-Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch Service Module.
Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, one-rack unit aggregation routers for SD-WAN and colocation deployments. Built-in features include route processor, ESP, and aggregation hardware for various interfaces and connectivity choices. IPsec performance is twice that of Cisco's earlier generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Available interface options include 1GE to 100 GE WAN interfaces. 8500 routers include dual power units for improved resilience. Software subscription suites allow continuing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer centralized management of security, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud support.
The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is intended to offer the same basic functionality as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X includes four 1/10GE WAN ports and can deliver up to 20 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 19Gbps. The Cisco Catalyst C8500-12X router has 12 integrated 1/10GE WAN ports and supports up to 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC unit comes with four built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and eight 1G ports and delivers up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 68 Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-20X6C high-density router has 20 built-in SFP+ interfaces and six x QSFP+ ports. The Catalyst C8500-20X6C delivers as much as 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance.
Cisco Integrated Services G2 Routers
Cisco's ISR G2 routers are intended to provide satellite offices of enterprises with advanced video and voice applications, virtual networking, security, and dependable connectivity. Integrated Services Generation 2 routers feature an architecture that preserves past investments in service modules for first-generation Integrated Services Routers and reduces down-the-line costs by allowing field installation of additional modules as they are developed. Compared to older ISR routers, Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers feature 2-7 times more performance, substantially more, and more affordable support. All Cisco ISR Generation 2 routers offer gigabit switching and include multi-core processors and ultra-fast fabric for faster performance. Integrated Services Generation 2 routers also support intelligent power control for improved energy efficiency.
A major advance with ISR Generation 2 routers is the IOS Software Universal image which contains all of the Cisco IOS feature sets so that you can quickly license and activate extra services as required without needing to download and transfer a new IOS Software image over to yourrouter. Progent's group of CCIE network engineers offer proven skills to help your business to plan, implement, and maintain multi-location deployments of Cisco ISR G2 routers that enhance branch office productivity and reduce the price of expansion and support.
Cisco's ISR 800 Line of Routers
Cisco's 800 Series of ISR routers has been functionally replaced by the higher performance Cisco ISR 900 series but remains widely deployed. Cisco's extensive portfolio of 800 Series ISR routers consists of desktop, fanless appliances intended for small businesses, branch offices, retail venues, telecommuters, and customers of ISPs. Many models in Cisco's 800 product line have been released with many options over many years. The 881 Series of ISR routers exemplifies the vast selection of options offered within the Cisco 800 Series line of routers. Models in Cisco's 881 router portfolio can enable converged media networks by delivering IP voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in one integrated appliance. Built-in security can include encryption, VPN, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available features for 881 routers include duplicate wide area network connections or support for wired high-speed WAN connections like DSL as well as multiple cellular 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all built into a single appliance.

The baseline Cisco 881 router features a 4-port fast Ethernet managed switch with up to 15 Mbps performance, the ability to handle 20 users, 2-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. The Cisco 881W ISR router supports 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router includes four FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) failover with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST). With a Cisco CUBE feature license, the Cisco 881 ISR router supports SIP trunking as a replacement for legacy PRI lines or FXO voice connectivity to a PSTN service provider. SIP trunks can also support remote call agents in Cisco Call Center environments.
4000 Series ISR Routers
Cisco's 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) are compact modular and scalable platforms designed for organizations with multiple branches and offsite users requiring direct communication with private data centers as well as public clouds across VPNs and the Internet. The 4000 series delivers the bandwidth required for distributed enterprise sites to support mobile workers, cloud services, and HD video applications by utilizing network optimization, deep packet inspection, and advanced traffic-management techniques. Models in Cisco's 4000 family are powered by Cisco's IOS XE software, come in a 1-rack-unit (RU) or 2RU package, are able to handle Up to 2 Gbps of throughput, and can have up to 3 network interface module slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in Gigabit Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core server modules. ISR 4000 models can support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. To handle unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR offers comprehensive edge support for policy-enhanced SBC, branch telephony fault tolerance, and TDM gateways.

The main difference between the Cisco 4400 and 4300 Series Routers is dual power supply support in the 4400 ISR Series, offering a greater degree of fault tolerance. The 4321 Integrated Services Router comes in a 1 RU desktop form factor with two network interface modules (NIMs), offers as much as 100 Mbps performance, and allows up to 240 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 ISR Router comes in a 1 RU package and includes two NIMs, delivers up to 300 Mbps throughput, and can handle 360 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 ISR Router has a 2 RU package with three network interface modules, delivers as much as 400 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's power-redundant 4431 model features a 2 RU form factor with three NIMs, provides up to 1 Gbps performance, and supports 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's fault-tolerant 4431 model has a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, delivers up to 2 Gbps performance, and can handle 1200 Digital Voice/Video Channels.
Cisco's WAN Edge Routers and Service Provider Routers
Cisco's midrange and service provider routers offer enterprises with high-performance, secure head ends to manage satellite office and off-site data packets and to offer service providers cost-effective WAN edge routing. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router product line includes the ASR 1000 routers and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services routers.

Progent's national group of Cisco CCIE network consultants have extensive backgrounds helping enterprises and ISPs to design efficient deployments and seamless expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance consultants offer unbiased, third-party security vulnerability evaluations, penetration testing services and advanced Security information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions to help companies that use Cisco's WAN aggregation routers to comply with business standards and government regulations for IT information security and incident reporting. Progent also offers help with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for threat assessment. NodeZero relies on AI technology to simplify the threat assessment cycle of discovering security gaps in perimeters and within the internal network, prioritizing repairs, fixing problems, and verifying successful repairs.
Cisco ASR 1000 WAN Edge Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services line of routers is positioned in the middle of Cisco's midrange products that focus on acting as headends at the WAN edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers provide a small footprint, single-product solution for large businesses looking for satellite office aggregation at supergigabit Ethernet speeds. ASR 1000 WAN Edge routers introduce a revolutionary architecture that combines hardware acceleration with software versatility in order to deliver a multitude of simultaneous services while preserving dependable responsiveness.
ASR 1000 WAN Edge routers include Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor incorporating 40 custom Packet Processing Engines (PPEs) that together can support up to 160 simultaneous threads. This massive parallelism, in conjunction with hardware acceleration for every service, allows the high-end ASR 1006 router to scale up to 000 hardware queues, 32K subscribers, 4,000 IP security VPN tunnels at 10,000 sessions/second, and 2M Netflow records. This processing power permits ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers to support a wide variety of sophisticated services simultaneously in massive volume while avoiding performance decay that could compromise adherence to service level agreements. These advanced services include IOS Firewall, intrusion-detection services, Network Address Translation, FPM, and deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic control for applying multiple levels of QoS to a packet in one pass, improving the user experience for resource-intensive voice, video, and conferencing applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers
Cisco's ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are intended as edge routers for service providers who are required to deliver world-class data, voice and video services to residential, commercial, and mobile customers by offering zero downtime availability, high speed, and application-aware intelligence. All platforms in the Cisco ASR 9000 family of Routers run the IOS XR, a distributed operating system built for continuous availability. Throughput of the Cisco ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers can scale to as high as 96 Tbps per system. the Cisco ASR 9000 family of Routers can handle high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 GE and have fully redundant fabric and power supply, power entry modules, plus backup control planes.
The ASR 9001 model is a provider-edge router that comes in a 6 RU form factor with 120 Gbps of full-duplex fabric capacity. The ASR 9001 has two modular bays to accept port adapters for 1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit, and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The chassis has four 10 GE SFP+ ports and ports for GPS Stratum 1 clocking, building integrated timing supply, and management. The Cisco ASR 9904 Router comes in a 6 RU chassis and provides dense 10 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet connections in space-limited sites. The 4-slot ASR 9094 can support up to 4 Tbps of switching capacity in a single box. The ASR 9912 Router has a 30 RU form factor and includes 12 slots slots that can provide up to 550 Gbps of throughput. The Cisco ASR 9912 includes 2 route CPUs as well as 6+1 Fabric Cards to provide N+1 redundancy.
How Progent Can Assist You with Cisco Routers
Progent's Cisco certified engineers can assist your business to design, configure, and maintain an integrated business network that can streamline processes, lower expenses, and speed the path to positive ROI. By combining Cisco integrated services routers with Catalyst switches expertise and Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless expertise, Progent can dramatically increase the strategic value of your connectivity environment. Progent offers on-premises and off-site troubleshooting and offers data center support throughout the U.S.
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