Cisco Network Consultants

The current generation of routers ordinarily come with L2 switches, and many of today's switches include L3 routing capability. Routers developed by Cisco, the producer of 90% of the industry's routers, have improved significantly in capability and performance and Cisco now makes an extensive product line that features routers engineered to handle the needs of users from households to the world's largest service providers.

The most recent Integrated Services Routers from Cisco offer the performance and integrated functionality to support data voice and video as well as virtual environments while at the same time offering high availability, remote management, seamless scalability, and enhanced protection. These routers enable your business to establish a firm foundation for an IT network that can grow seamlessly as you add more workers, establish extra sites, configure additional functions, give access to your system to customers and vendors, and support an an increasingly mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco qualified CCIE network consultants offer immediate and economical online support to assist you to plan, configure, administer, update, and troubleshoot Cisco's most advanced routers and can help you to support your older routers or move non-disruptively to Cisco's newer networking solutions.

Cisco Routers Designed for Home and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for smaller organizations and remote offices offer low-cost and reliable no-frills solutions that enable limited sets of workers to have secure connectivity to the Internet. All these single-configuration desktop routers include at least four Ethernet ports with wireless options plus built-in firewall for advanced security. Built for simple setup, administration, and support, Cisco's entry-level routers minimize TCO by lowering acquisition and operational investments. Progent's online support specialists have in-depth backgrounds delivering immediate and affordable IT help for small companies to set up and maintain these devices, and Progent's CCIE-certified network engineers can help you to determine how Cisco's entry-level routers can increase the strategic value of your IT network.

Cisco ISR 900 Series Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series routers are compact, quiet, set-configuration appliances designed for small to medium-sized businesses, branch offices, and home offices. These entry-level routers include four GE switch 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 family of routers. All ISR 900 Series routers feature Group Encrypted TransportVPN (GETVPN), DMVPN, FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is as high as 250 Mbps. All router models allow up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported dynamic failover technology for high availability and business continuity include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, Hot Standby Router Protocol, and Multigroup HSRP. Setup and management can be performed with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. Cisco ISR 900 Series devices 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. VPN throughput is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 models include external power and feature a single WAN port, Category 4 LTE, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+ high-speed broadband. VPN throughput for both routers is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line ISR 931 supports dual GE WAN ports and includes an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN throughput is 250 Mbps.

Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX series of desktop routers provide software-defined wide area networking and cloud-based unified threat management in one compact appliance able to support 50 to 200 users. Each MX series appliance needs to be licensed for the Meraki cloud. For sites with several WAN network connections (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology permits admins to specify the WAN connection an app should use or to build performance-based algorithms to select the appropriate interface. Cisco Meraki MX fixed-configuration desktop security appliances share important capabilities that include:

• Application and identity-based firewalling
• Content and web search filtering
• PCI-compliant Intrusion Detection and Prevention
• Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) with reputation-based filtering
• Load balancing to combine several WAN links into a single high-speed interface with policy-based Quality of Services, 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 and 1100 Series Integrated Services Routers powered by Cisco IOS XE software are a selection of fanless routers intended to deliver high-performance network service, wireless support, and multilayer cybersecurity for SMBs, enterprise branches, retail outlets, kiosks, and machine-to-machine (M2M) venues. Parallel CPU cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE software enable these routers to offer features consistent with Cisco's entire family of modern Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 family ISR models are offered with 4 or 8 LAN ports and provide GE packet forwarding. Various models include PoE and PoE+, auto provisioning, plus a range of built-in or pluggable connections for LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, G.fast DSL, 3G/4G Advanced wireless, 802.11 wireless, and SFP. Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR models can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN services for transparent multi-cloud access, multilayer cybersecurity, and cohesive monitoring and management of hybrid network models of any complexity.

Cisco's 1RU or desktop 1100-4G ISR router includes four built-in GE WAN/LAN ports, built-in 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE antenna sockets, and a micro-SIM slot. Encryption throughput is 200 Mbps. The ISR 1100-6G router also includes two 1G SFP Fiber connections and features encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop 1101-4P ISR router has four integrated switched GE ports, offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well as 3G/4G LTE wireless, and features encryption performance of 280 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers include two or four integrated GE interfaces and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption performance is 200 Mbps.

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

Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 family of routers are modular appliances designed to operate at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge to support hybrid network environments that can include a mix of public and private clouds and cloud-hosted applications. Catalyst 8000 devices are powered by Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide expandability, intelligent cloud security, and 5G access. Performance is enhanced via custom silicon, a multicore design, high port capacity, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software suites offer ongoing access to current SD-WAN technology and enable unified management with enhanced cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud integration.

Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series routers are upgrades to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), delivering higher IPsec performance and expandability, hardware-accelerated crypto, plus higher integrated WAN port density. These one-rack unit routers are designed to bring Cisco's SASE, Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and 5G-interface technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise WAN edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T router includes four CPU cores, supports 500 Mbps IPsec traffic, and allows 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based applications. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model includes eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec throughput, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and enables edge computing with in-place container models. Both devices come with a Network Interface Module (NIM) slot, a Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable interfaces. Four-port and eight-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 models.

Catalyst 8300 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are intended to replace Cisco's 4400 family of Integrated Services Routers, providing Cisco's secure SD-WAN architecture to mid-sized and large company branch offices seeking high WAN IPSec throughput with integrated SD-WAN services. Advanced capabilities include 5G wireless support, built-in security, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) with application optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 routers enable edge computing for an in-place container environment for Cisco UCS-E modules available on Cisco's 4000 line of ISR routers. All versions in the Catalyst 8300 portfolio allow 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include dual power supplies for high uptime.

The Cisco Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router is a one-rack unit device that features 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance as high as 1.9Gbps. The router comes with one SM plug-in slot, a Network Interface Module slot, and six integrated 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T router is a 2RU device that includes 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance of up to 1.9Gbps. The device has two Service Module plug-in slots, two Network Interface Module slots, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router model is a one-rack unit device that has 8 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance as high as 15Gbps. The model has one one Service Module plug-in slot, a Network Interface Module slot, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four fixed 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X appliance is a 2RU router that includes 12 CPU cores and delivers 5G SD-WAN performance and IPsec throughput up to 18Gbps. The device includes two Service Module expansion slots, two Network Interface Module slots, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four built-in 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. LAN plug-in modules available from 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 Aggregation Edge routers are fixed, 1RU aggregation routers for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Built-in features include route processor, embedded services processor (ESP), plus aggregation hardware for multiple interfaces and connectivity options. IPsec performance is double compared to Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Available connectivity options include 1GE, 10GE, 40GE, and 100GE WAN interfaces. 8500 Series routers come with dual AC or DC power units for enhanced resilience. Software subscription suites allow continuing use of Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and enable unified management of cybersecurity, application-aware policies, segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.

The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is intended to provide a similar basic functionality as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X comes with four 1/10GE WAN interfaces and can deliver up to 20 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 19Gbps. The Cisco Catalyst C8500-12X appliance features 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and supports up to 120 Gbps aggregate data rates. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC aggregation router comes with four built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and eight 1-Gigabit interfaces and delivers up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 68 Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-20X6C high-density router includes 20 built-in 1/10GE ports and 6 x QSFP+ ports. Cisco's C8500-20X6C delivers as much as 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance.

Cisco Integrated Services Generation 2 Routers
Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers are intended to offer satellite offices of enterprises with enhanced video and voice applications, virtual networking, security, and dependable WAN access. Integrated Services Generation 2 routers introduce a design that protects prior investments in service modules for first-generation ISR routers and reduces future expenses by allowing easy upgrades to new modules as they are developed. Compared to previous ISR routers, Cisco's ISR G2 routers feature 2-7 times more performance, substantially more, and easier support. All Cisco ISR Generation 2 routers support gigabit switching and include multi-core CPUs and ultra-fast fabric for faster performance. ISR G2 routers also support intelligent power management for improved energy conservation.

A notable advance with ISR G2 routers is the IOS Software Universal image which contains all of the Cisco IOS feature sets so that you can quickly authorize and deploy new services when 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 assist you to design, implement, and support multi-location installations of Cisco ISR G2 routers that improve branch office efficiency and reduce the price of upgrades and support.

Cisco's ISR 800 Line of Routers
Cisco's 800 Series of ISR routers has been superseded by the faster Cisco ISR 900 line but is still widely used. Cisco's extensive line of 800 Series ISR routers is made up of desktop, fanless devices designed and priced for small organizations, branch offices, retail shops, telecommuters, and customers of ISPs. Many devices in the 800 family of routers have been released with various options over the course of many years. The 881 Series of ISR routers suggests the wide selection of options available within Cisco's 800 product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 router portfolio can enable converged media environments by providing voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in one integrated router and switch. Advanced data protection can include encryption, VPN tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For survivability, available options for Cisco 881 ISR routers include redundant WAN links or support for wired broadband WAN connections such as DSL as well as multiple 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all built into one desktop appliance.

The basic Cisco 881 router has a 4-port fast Ethernet managed switch with up to 15 Mbps performance, the ability to handle up to 20 users, two-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. Cisco's 881W router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. The 881 SRST router features 4 FXS ports and 1 FXO port for PSTN failover with Cisco SRST. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) license, Cisco's 881 ISR router supports SIP trunk connectivity to replace legacy Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks also connect remote call agents in Cisco Call Center deployments.

4000 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco's 4000 Line of ISR Routers are modular and expandable platforms designed for businesses with a large number of branch offices and offsite workers who need direct access to private data centers and public clouds via VPNs and the Internet. Cisco's 4000 series provides the bandwidth needed for distributed enterprise sites to support mobile workers, Cloud-based services, and multimedia applications by using wide area network optimization, deep packet inspection, and advanced traffic-management technology. Devices in Cisco's 4000 product line are powered by Cisco's powerful IOS XE software, come in a 1RU or 2RU package, can handle as much as 2 Gbps of traffic, and can include up to 3 interface slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core integrated server modules. Cisco ISR 4000 models can support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. For unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR provides extensive edge support for SBC, branch telephony survivability, and TDM gateways.

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

Cisco's Midrange WAN Aggregation Routers and Service Provider Routers
Cisco's midrange and service provider routers offer larger businesses with high-performance, secure head ends to manage branch office and remote user data packets 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 product line and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services family.

Progent's nationwide group of CCIE network consultants have extensive experience helping enterprises and service providers to design optimal installations and seamless expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance consultants offer unbiased, independent security inventory assessments, stealth penetration testing services and advanced SIEM solutions to help enterprises that use Cisco's WAN aggregation routers to comply with industry standards and statutory mandates for IT data protection and incident reporting. Progent also offers expertise with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for penetration testing. NodeZero relies on AI technology to streamline the vulnerability evaluation cycle of discovering security gaps in network perimeters and within the internal network infrastructure, prioritizing remediation, mitigating problems, and verifying fixes.

Cisco ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services line of routers is designed to fill the middle of Cisco's midrange devices that focus on acting as headends at the WAN edge. ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers offer a small form factor, single-product solution for enterprises requiring satellite office aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet performance. ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers introduce an innovative design that mixes on-board acceleration with software versatility in order to offer a rich set of concurrent services while preserving consistent responsiveness.

Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers feature Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor made up of 40 custom Packet Processing Engines (PPEs) that together can support up to 160 concurrent threads. This parallel CPU architecture, combined with hardware acceleration for every service, enables the top-of-the-line ASR 1006 router to scale up to 000 hardware queues, 32K clients, 4,000 IPsec tunnels at 10K sessions/second, and 2M Netflow records. This processing capability allows ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers to deliver a broad range of sophisticated services simultaneously in high volume without suffering throughput degradation that could compromise compliance with SLAs. Examples of these services include IOS Firewall, IPS, Network Address Translation, FPM, and deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic management for performing numerous levels of Quality of Service to a data packet in a single pass, improving responsiveness for high-bandwidth IP voice and video applications.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers
Cisco's ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are designed as edge routers for carriers who are required to deliver world-class data, voice and video services to home, commercial, and mobile users by providing always-on availability, high speed, and application-aware intelligence. All models in the ASR 9000 portfolio of Routers run the IOS XR, a distributed operating system built for non-stop availability. Throughput of the ASR 9000 Series of Routers can be expanded to as high as 96 Tbps per chassis. the ASR 9000 portfolio of Routers support high-density Gigabit Ethernet, 10 GE, and 100 GE and feature redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, and fan trays plus redundant control planes.

The Cisco 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 Cisco ASR 9001 has two bays to support port adapters for 1 GE, 10 GE, and 40 GE. The base chassis includes four 10 GE enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) ports as well as ports for GPS Stratum 1 clocking, building integrated timing supply, and management. The Cisco ASR 9904 Router comes in a 6 RU chassis and offers line-rate 10 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity in space-limited environments. The 4-slot ASR 9094 can scale up to 4 Tbps of capacity in a single box. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router comes in a 30 RU chassis and includes 12 slots slots able to handle 550 Gbps of switching capacity. The ASR 9912 Router incorporates 2 route CPUs and 6+1 Fabric Cards to provide N+1 redundancy.

Ways Progent Can Assist You with Cisco Routers
Progent's Cisco certified engineers can assist your business to design, setup, and manage a converged network infrastructure that can automate processes, reduce costs, and accelerate time to positive ROI. By combining Cisco integrated services routers with Catalyst switches expertise and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless expertise, Progent can significantly enhance the strategic value of your integrated network. Progent offers on-premises and off-site troubleshooting and can provide data center support throughout the U.S.

To find out more details concerning Progent's consulting help for Cisco technology, pick a topic:

• Overview of Progent's Cisco Network Support
• Timely Remote Support from a CCIE Consultant
• Cisco Firepower Firewalls: Configuration and Troubleshooting Expertise
• Cisco ASA 5500-X Firewalls with Firepower Services: Setup and Management Expertise
• ASA 5500 Series Firewall Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco PIX 500 Firewall Management Expertise
• Cisco Wireless Engineering Help
• Aironet Wireless APs Design Support
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 WiFi APs System Design Help
• Catalyst 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6/6E Access Points Planning, Deployment and Troubleshooting Support
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Consulting
• Meraki Access Points Consulting Expertise
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Configuration and Troubleshooting
• Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Expertise and Wireless IP Phone Solutions
• Cisco Jabber Integration Services
• Cisco Catalyst Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Nexus Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Meraki Switches Deployment Expertise
• Cisco VPN and Security Integration Support
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Consulting
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for Remote Workers
• Design and Support for Cisco-based Datacenters
• Network Optimization Services for Service Providers
• Unified Cloud-based and Hybrid Management Techniques for Cisco-powered Infrastructure