Cisco Certified Network Consultants

Basically, routers depend on computation to steer data based on sophisticated algorithms, offering versatility at the cost of throughput. Switches, in contrast, depend upon mostly fixed hardware configurations to move traffic at the highest feasible rate. The current generation of routers ordinarily come with L2 switches, and many modern switches have L3 routing functionality. Routers offered by Cisco, the producer of the vast majority of the industry's routers, have advanced significantly in capability and performance and Cisco now makes a comprehensive product line that includes routers designed to meet the requirements of users from individual telecommuters to the world's largest ISPs.

The most recent Integrated Services Routers released by Cisco have the performance and integrated features to manage IP voice and video plus virtualization while also providing high availability, web-based administration, seamless extensibility, and advanced security and compliance. These routers allow your company to build a solid basis for an information environment that can evolve seamlessly as you hire more employees, open extra offices, configure additional capabilities, give access to your system to customers and partners, and build an expanding mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco certified CCIE network consultants offer fast and economical remote support to help your company to select, configure, manage, update, and support Cisco's most advanced routers and can assist you to maintain your older routers or move non-disruptively to Cisco's newer networking solutions.

Cisco Routers for Home Offices and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for smaller companies and remote offices offer low-cost and dependable no-frills solutions that enable limited sets of workers to share secure connectivity to the Internet. These fixed-configuration desktop routers feature at least four Ethernet switches with Wi-Fi options and integrated firewall to provide enhanced security. Built for simple installation, management, and support, Cisco's small business and home routers reduce total cost of ownership by lowering equipment and maintenance investments. Progent's online support experts have in-depth backgrounds delivering immediate and affordable IT assistance for small organizations to set up and support these devices, and Progent's CCIE-certified network consultants can assist you to understand whether and how Cisco's small office routers can increase the strategic value of your information network.

ISR 900 Series Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series routers are compact, fanless, set-configuration devices designed for SMBs, branches, and home offices. These entry-level routers have four managed GE LAN ports and can support Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connectivity. The ISR 900 router product line delivers triple the IPsec performance of the ISR 800 Series family of routers. All ISR 900 Series routers feature GETVPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN (DMVPN), FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN throughput is up to 250 Mbps. All router models allow up to 50 VLANs. Supported automatic failover protocols for business continuity include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), and Multigroup HSRP (MHSRP). Provisioning and management can be done with Cisco CP Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. ISR 900 Series devices do not work with Cisco SD-WAN.

Cisco's ISR 921 router comes with dual GE WAN ports, Category 4 LTE, and an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN performance is 150 Mbps. The ISR 926 and ISR 927 routers have external power supplies and support a single WAN port, LTE Cat 4, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. VPN throughput for both devices is 150 Mbps. The high-performance Cisco ISR 931 supports dual GE WAN and includes an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN performance is 250 Mbps.

Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX portfolio of desktop routers combine software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and cloud-based unified threat management in one compact device able to handle 50 to 200 users. Every MX router must be licensed to the Meraki cloud. For venues having several external network connections (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology permits admins to specify the WAN connection an application uses or to build performance-based rules to select the appropriate connection. MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share important capabilities including:

• App and identity-based firewalling
• Content and web search filtering
• PCI-compliant Intrusion Detection and Prevention
• Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) with sandboxing
• Load balancing to aggregate multiple WAN connections into a single fast connection with policy-based QoS, traffic shaping, and failover
• Works with all IPsec VPN devices and services
• USB port for fast 3G/4G failover
• Wi-Fi versions have 802.11ac Wave 2 2x2 MU-MIMO

Cisco 1000 Series ISR Enterprise Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers running Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a selection of fanless routers designed to provide high-performance network service, wireless support, and advanced security for SMBs, enterprise branch offices, retail outlets, customer premises equipment (CPE), and M2M environments. Multiple parallel processing cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE software enable these routers to deliver capabilities consistent with Cisco's complete family of Enterprise routers. 1000 family ISR models are offered with 4 or 8 LAN ports and provide GE packet forwarding. Various models include PoE and PoE+, zero-touch provisioning, plus a selection of integrated or pluggable options for LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, G.fast DSL, LTE wireless, 802.11 wireless, and SFP. Cisco 1000 family ISR routers work with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for transparent multiple-cloud access, multilayer security, and unified administration across hybrid network models.

Cisco's rackmount or desktop 1100-4G ISR router includes four integrated GE ports, built-in 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE antenna SMA sockets, and a micro-SIM slot. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps. The Cisco 1100-6G ISR router adds two 1G SFP ports and features encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop ISR 1101-4P router has four built-in GE interfaces, supports 802.11ac and 3G/4G LTE, and features encryption rates of 280 Mbps. The ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers have two or four integrated switched GE connections and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps.

The Cisco rackmount or desktop 111x-4P/8P ISR routers include four or eight built-in GE connections (two or four with Power over Ethernet) and feature VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing speed is 280 Mbps. Cisco's rackmount or desktop 1111X-8P ISR router comes with eight built-in GE connections (four with POE) and supports 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing performance is 340 Mbps. The ISR 112x-8P router features eight switched GE interfaces with Power over Ethernet and supports SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP. Encryption packet processing speed is 340 Mbps. The 1161X-8P ISR router has eight GE connections with Power over Ethernet and supports 3G/4G LTE wireless and SFP. Encryption throughput is 450 Mbps.

Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco Catalyst 8000 family of routers are modular appliances intended to operate at the WAN edge to support hybrid networks that can incorporate multiple public and private clouds and cloud-hosted applications. Catalyst 8000 devices are powered by Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide scalability, advanced cybersecurity, and 5G connectivity. Throughput is enhanced via purpose-built hardware, a multicore architecture, high port capacity, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software suites provide ongoing access to current SD-WAN technology and allow centralized management with enhanced cybersecurity, application-optimized policies, segmentation, and cloud integration.

Cisco Catalyst 8200 WAN Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series routers are upgrades to Cisco's 4300 Series ISRs, offering higher IPsec throughput and scale, accelerated crypto, plus greater integrated WAN interface density. These one-rack unit routers are designed to provide Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge, SD-WAN and 5G-interface technology to enterprise branch offices and the enterprise WAN edge. The Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model includes four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec traffic, and permits 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. Cisco's Catalyst 8200L platform does not support container-based applications. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T router features eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec throughput, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with in-place container architectures. Both devices include a Network Interface Module slot, one Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN copper interfaces, and two 1G Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) interfaces. Four-port and eight-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 routers.

Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are designed to replace Cisco's 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN solution to mid-sized and large enterprise branch offices seeking high WAN IPSec throughput combined with cohesive SD-WAN services. Enhanced capabilities include 5G wireless connectivity, built-in security, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and DPI with application optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers enable edge computing for an in-place container architecture for Cisco UCS-E modules offered on Cisco's 4000 line of ISR routers. All versions in the Catalyst 8300 Series portfolio support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include dual power supplies for improved uptime.

The Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router model is a one-rack unit device that features eight CPU cores and offers 2G SD-WAN performance and IPsec performance as high as 1.9Gbps. The router comes with a single Service Module plug-in slot, one NIM slot, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T device is a two-rack unit device that features 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates of up to 1.9Gbps. The router has two Service Module expansion slots, two NIM slots, and six integrated 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router model is a one-rack unit appliance that has 8 CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates up to 15Gbps. The model includes one a single Service Module plug-in slot, one NIM slot, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X appliance is a two-rack unit router that features 12 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN data rates and IPsec performance up to 18Gbps. The router has two Service Module expansion slots, two Network Interface Module slots, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four built-in 1G Ethernet WAN ports. LAN expansion modules offered by Cisco range from a 4-port 1G Ethernet switch Network Interface Module module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch Service Module.

Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed, 1RU aggregation models for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Integrated features include route processor, embedded services processor, plus aggregation hardware for various interfaces and connectivity options. IPsec performance is twice that of Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Available interface options include 1GE, 10GE, 40GE, and 100GE WAN ports. 8500 routers include redundant power units for improved availability. Software subscription suites allow continuing use of Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer unified management of security, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.

The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X router is designed to offer the same basic functionality as Cisco's ASR 1000 appliance. The C8500L-8S4X includes four 1/10GE WAN ports and offers up to 20 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X appliance features 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and supports as high as 120 Gbps aggregate data rates. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC aggregation router includes four built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1-Gigabit interfaces and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 68 Gbps.

Cisco ISR G2 Routers
Cisco's Integrated Services Generation 2 routers are intended to offer branch offices of large businesses with enhanced collaboration, virtual networking, protection, and reliable WAN access. ISR G2 routers feature a design that preserves past investments in modules for older ISR routers and lowers future costs by permitting easy upgrades to new modules when they are developed. Compared to previous Integrated Services Routers, Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers offer 2-7 times higher throughput, far greater expandability, and easier support. All Cisco Integrated Services Generation 2 routers offer GE switching and incorporate multi-core CPUs and multigigabit fabric for higher throughput. ISR Generation 2 routers also offer intelligent power management for better energy efficiency.

A major advance with Integrated Services Generation 2 routers is the Cisco IOS Universal image which includes all of the Cisco IOS feature sets so that you can quickly authorize and deploy new features when required without needing to acquire and copy a new IOS image to yourrouter. Progent's group of Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers offer world-class skills to assist your business to design, implement, and maintain multi-location installations of Cisco Integrated Services Generation 2 routers that enhance satellite office productivity and cut the price of upgrades and maintenance.

Cisco's ISR 800 Series Routers
The 800 Series of ISR routers has been functionally replaced by the faster Cisco ISR 900 family but remains widely deployed. Cisco's comprehensive portfolio of 800 Series ISR routers is made up of desktop devices intended for small businesses, branch locations, retail venues, telecommuters, and customers of ISPs. A wealth of models in Cisco's 800 product line have been released with many options over many years. Cisco's 881 line of ISR routers exemplifies the wide array of options available within Cisco's 800 product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 Series router portfolio can enable converged media networks by delivering voice and video, wireless and data in one integrated router and switch. Built-in security can include encryption, VPN tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For survivability, available options for Cisco 881 routers include redundant wide area network connections or support for landline broadband WAN links like DSL as well as multiple 3G and 4G wireless connections all on one appliance.

The basic Cisco 881 router includes a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch that delivers 15 Mbps throughput, support for up to 20 users, two-port integrated PoE, and IPv6 support. Cisco's 881W router supports 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. The 881 SRST router features 4 FXS ports and 1 FXO port for PSTN fallback with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony. With a Cisco CUBE license, the Cisco 881 ISR router allows SIP trunking to replace legacy PRI lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks also connect offsite call agents in Cisco Call Center environments.

Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco's 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers are compact modular and expandable routers designed for businesses with multiple branches and remote workers requiring direct access to private data centers as well as public clouds across VPNs and the Internet. The 4000 series delivers the throughput required for distributed enterprise sites to support mobile users, cloud services, and HD video applications by using WAN optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management technology. Models in Cisco's ISR 4000 product line run Cisco's IOS XE software, come in a 1RU or 2RU form factor, are able to support Up to 2 Gbps of throughput, and can have up to 3 interface module slots, 2 service module slots, 4 integrated Gigabit Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core server modules. Cisco ISR 4000 models support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PR1, xDSL and other interfaces. To handle unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR offers comprehensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced session border control, branch telephony fault tolerance, and TDM gateways.

The major difference between Cisco's 4400 ISR and 4300 Series Routers is redundant power supply support in the 4400 ISR Series, offering a higher level of availability. The 4321 Integrated Services Router has a 1 RU desktop form factor with two network interface modules (NIMs), delivers as much as 100 Mbps throughput, and can handle 240 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 router comes in a 1 RU form factor and includes two network interface modules, offers up to 300 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 360 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The 4351 ISR Router comes in a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, offers up to 400 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The dual power supply 4431 Integrated Services Router has a 2 RU form factor and includes three NIMs, delivers as much as 1 Gbps performance, and supports 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The fault-tolerant 4431 router has a 2 RU form factor with three NIMs, offers as much as 2 Gbps throughput, and can handle 1200 Digital Voice and Video Channels.

Cisco's WAN Edge Routers and Carrier-class Routers
Cisco's WAN edge and carrier routers offer larger businesses with high-performance, protected headends to manage satellite office and remote user traffic and to offer carriers cost-optimized wide area network edge routing. Cisco's WAN aggregation and service provider router portfolio includes the Cisco ASR 1000 routers and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services family.

Progent's nationwide group of CCIE certified network consultants have in-depth backgrounds working with enterprise businesses and service providers to plan optimal installations and smooth expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance consultants can provide objective, independent security inventory assessments, penetration services and advanced Security information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions to help enterprises with Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to meet business standards and government requirements for network information protection and incident reporting.

Cisco ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 WAN Edge line of routers is positioned in the middle of Cisco's midrange routers that concentrate on aggregating services at the WAN edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers provide a small form factor, multi-function answer for large businesses who need satellite office service aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet speeds. ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers introduce an innovative architecture that mixes on-board acceleration with programmable flexibility in order to offer a rich set of simultaneous services while preserving dependable performance.

ASR 1000 Series routers include Cisco's proprietary QuantumFlow Processor made up of 40 custom Packet Processing Engines (PPEs) that in combination can support up to 160 concurrent threads. This massive parallelism, in conjunction with hardware acceleration for all services, enables the high-end ASR 1006 Aggregation Services router to scale up to 128 queues, 32K subscribers, 4,000 IPsec tunnels at 10K sessions/second, and 2 million Netflow log records. This processing capability allows ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers to deliver a variety of sophisticated services simultaneously in massive volume while avoiding throughput decay that might threaten compliance with SLAs. These services include IOS Firewall, intrusion-detection services, Network Address Translation, FPM, and in-line deep packet inspection. The ASR 1000 also allows tiered traffic control for performing multiple levels of QoS to a packet in one pass, enhancing the user experience for high-bandwidth voice, video, and conferencing applications.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are intended as edge routers for carriers who are required to support the highest quality HD multimedia services to home, commercial, and mobile users by providing non-stop operation, high speed, and application-aware intelligence. All platforms in the Cisco ASR 9000 line of Aggregation Services Routers run the IOS XR, a self-healing, distributed operating system designed for continuous availability. Performance of Cisco's ASR 9000 family of Aggregation Services Routers can be expanded to as high as 96 Tbps per system. the ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers support Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 GE, and 100 GE and have fully redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, plus backup switch fabric.

The ASR 9001 model is a provider-edge router in a 6 RU package that delivers 120 Gbps of nonblocking fabric performance. The Cisco ASR 9001 has two modular bays to accept adapters for 1, 10, and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The base chassis has four 10 GE enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) ports as well as ports for Stratum 1 clocking, BITS, and management. The Cisco ASR 9904 Router comes in a 6 RU form factor and offers line-rate 10 and 100 GE connections in space-limited sites. The 4-slot router can scale up to 4 Tbps of switching capacity in one box. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router comes in a 30 RU form factor and includes 12 slots slots able to provide up to 550 Gbps of switching capacity. The Cisco ASR 9912 includes 2 route processors and 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.

How Progent Can Help Your Company with Cisco Routers
Progent's CCIE certified engineers can assist your business to plan, configure, and manage a converged network infrastructure that can simplify processes, lower costs, and accelerate 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 significantly enhance the strategic value of your information network. Progent offers onsite and off-site support and offers data center support throughout the U.S.

To see additional details about Progent's engineering help for Cisco solutions, select a subject:

• Introduction to Cisco Expertise
• Timely Online Support from a Cisco CCIE Engineer
• Cisco Firepower NGFW Series Firewalls: Configuration and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco ASA 5500-X Firewalls with Cisco Firepower Services: Setup and Management Services
• Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Consulting Assistance
• PIX 500 Series Firewall Maintenance Help
• Cisco Wireless Network Design Support
• Aironet APs Engineering Services
• Cisco Small Business Wireless Access Points System Design Help
• Catalyst Wi-Fi 6/6E Wireless Access Points Solution Design, Deployment and Troubleshooting Consulting
• Cisco Wireless Controllers Support Services
• Meraki Wireless APs Deployment Expertise
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Integration and Troubleshooting
• Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Consulting and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Solutions
• Cisco Jabber Migration and Support Services
• Cisco Catalyst Switches Configuration and Maintenance Expertise
• Nexus Switches Deployment Expertise
• Meraki MS Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Cisco VPN Integration Assistance
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and CUBE Integration Consulting
• Design Expertise for Cisco-powered Datacenters and Colocation Centers
• Infrastructure Design Expertise for Internet Service Providers
• Remote Management Solutions for Cisco-powered Environments