Cisco Network Consultants

The current generation of routers usually come with Layer 2 switching capability, and many of today's switches have Layer 3 routing capability. Routers developed by Cisco, the source of 90% of the world's routers, have improved dramatically in function and performance and Cisco offers an extensive product line that features routers built to meet the requirements of users ranging from individual telecommuters to the world's largest ISPs.

The most recent ISR routers from Cisco have the speed and built-in features to support IP voice and video plus virtualization while also providing fault tolerance, web-based administration, easy extensibility, and enhanced protection. These routers allow you to establish a firm foundation for an IT environment that can grow seamlessly as you add new employees, open new offices, deploy additional capabilities, extend your network to customers and vendors, and build an expanding mobile user base. Progent's Cisco certified CCIE network engineers can provide fast and economical remote support to assist you to plan, configure, manage, upgrade, and troubleshoot Cisco's most advanced router technology and can assist you to maintain your older routers or move non-disruptively to Cisco's current networking products.

Cisco Routers for Home Offices and Small Offices and Branch Offices
Cisco's routers for small companies and remote offices offer affordable and reliable entry-level alternatives that allow limited groups of workers to share safe access to wide area networks. All these single-configuration desktop devices feature at least four 10/100 switched Ethernet with Wi-Fi options and integrated firewall for advanced protection. Designed for easy installation, management, and troubleshooting, Cisco's small business and home routers reduce TCO by cutting acquisition and operational expenses. Progent's online support experts have extensive backgrounds providing fast and economical technical assistance for small companies to configure and maintain these routers, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants can help your company to understand how Cisco's small office routers can add to the business value of your IT network.

Cisco ISR 900 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco's ISR 900 Series routers are small-footprint, quiet, fixed-configuration devices intended for SMBs, branches, and home offices. These entry-level routers include four managed GE switch ports and can support Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connections. The ISR 900 router product line provides three times the IPsec performance of the ISR 800 Series routers. All ISR 900 Series routers feature Group Encrypted Transport VPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN, Cisco FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN throughput is up to 250 Mbps. All versions support up to 50 VLANs. Supported dynamic failover technology for high availability include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, Hot Standby Router Protocol, and MHSRP. Provisioning and management can be performed with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS Software. ISR 900 Series routers do not work with Cisco's SD-WAN solution.

Cisco's ISR 921 router comes with dual GE WAN ports, Category 4 LTE, and a built-in power supply. VPN throughput is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 models use external power supplies and support a single WAN interface, LTE Cat 4, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+ high-speed broadband. VPN performance for both devices is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line Cisco ISR 931 features dual GE WAN and includes an internal power supply. VPN throughput is 250 Mbps.

Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX line of desktop routers combine SD-WAN and cloud-hosted unified threat management (UTM) in a single compact device able to support 50 to 200 users. Every MX router must be licensed to the Meraki cloud. For venues with several WAN network options (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows admins to assign the WAN connection an app uses or to create performance-based algorithms to determine the appropriate connection. MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share important features including:

• App and ID-based firewalling
• Content and web search filtering
• PCI-compliant Intrusion Detection and Prevention
• Advanced Malware Protection with reputation-based filtering
• Load balancing to combine multiple WAN links into a single high-speed interface 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 of each model have 802.11ac Wave 2 2x2 MU-MIMO

Cisco 1000 Series ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers using Cisco IOS XE software are a selection of fanless appliances intended to deliver high-performance network service, wireless support, and multilayer security for SMBs, enterprise branches, retail outlets, customer premises equipment (CPE), and machine-to-machine (M2M) venues. Parallel processing CPU cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE software allow these routers to offer capabilities consistent with Cisco's entire family of modern Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 family ISR routers are available with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and provide Gigabit Ethernet packet forwarding. Available features include PoE and PoE+, auto provisioning, plus a selection of integrated or pluggable options such as LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, G.fast DSL, 4G LTE Advanced wireless, 802.11 Wi-Fi, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for seamless multi-cloud access, multilayer security, and unified management across hybrid network models of any complexity.

Cisco's 1RU or desktop 1100-4G ISR router comes with four built-in GE WAN/LAN ports, integrated 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE SMA sockets, and one micro-SIM plug-in slot. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps. The Cisco 1100-6G ISR router adds two 1G SFP Fiber ports and delivers encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop-only 1101-4P ISR router comes with four built-in GE connections, offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 3G/4G LTE wireless, and delivers encryption performance of 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1109-2P/4P ISR desktop routers have two or four built-in GE ports and dual pluggable 3G/4G LTE wireless ports. Encryption throughput is 200 Mbps.

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

Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 line of routers are modular devices designed to work at the enterprise branche and 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 expandability, advanced cybersecurity, and 5G connectivity. Performance is optimized using custom silicon, a multicore design, high port density, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software services offer continual access to the latest SD-WAN technology and enable unified management with enhanced cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud readiness.

Catalyst 8200 Enterprise Edge Routers
Catalyst 8200 routers are upgrades to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), delivering higher IPsec performance and expandability, accelerated encryption, plus higher integrated WAN interface density. These 1RU routers are designed to bring Cisco's SASE, Software-Defined WAN and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise WAN edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model includes four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec performance, and allows 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L platform does not support container-based apps. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model includes eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec performance, permits 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with existing container architectures. Both appliances include a Network Interface Module (NIM) slot, a PIM slot, two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN copper ports, and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable ports. Four-port and eight-port 1G Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 models.

Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are designed to supersede Cisco's 4400 line of ISR Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN solution to mid-sized and large company branch offices looking for high WAN IPSec throughput combined with integrated SD-WAN services. Enhanced capabilities include 5G wireless connectivity, built-in cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection with application-aware optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers enable edge computing for an existing container architecture for Cisco UCS-E modules offered on Cisco's 4000 line of ISR appliances. All models in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series line allow 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include backup power supplies for high uptime.

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

Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, one-rack unit aggregation models for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Integrated features include route processor, ESP, and aggregation hardware for various interfaces and connectivity options. IPsec throughput is double compared to Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Flexible connectivity alternatives include 1GE to 100 GE WAN interfaces. 8500 Series routers come with redundant AC or DC power units for improved resilience. Software subscription packages provide continuing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer centralized management of cybersecurity, application-aware policies, network segmentation, and cloud support.

The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is designed to offer a similar key features as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X has four 1/10GE WAN ports and delivers up to 20 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X router includes 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and supports up to 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC model includes four built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and eight 1GE ports and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 68 Gbps. The C8500-20X6C router comes with 20 integrated SFP+ interfaces and six x 40/100GE ports. Cisco's C8500-20X6C delivers up to 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance.

Cisco ISR G2 Routers
Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers are designed to offer branch offices of enterprises with advanced collaboration, virtualization, protection, and reliable WAN access. ISR Generation 2 routers feature an architecture that protects prior investments in modules for first-generation Integrated Services Routers and reduces down-the-line costs by allowing easy installation of additional modules when they become available. Compared to older ISR routers, Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers offer 2-7 times higher throughput, substantially more, and more affordable maintenance. All Cisco ISR G2 routers offer GE switching and incorporate multi-core processors and multigigabit fabric for higher performance. Integrated Services G2 routers also offer smart power control for improved energy efficiency.

A notable innovation with Integrated Services Generation 2 routers is the IOS Software Universal image which contains all of the Cisco IOS technology sets so that your company can quickly authorize and activate extra services as required without needing to download and transfer a different IOS image to yourrouter. Progent's group of Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants offer proven expertise to assist your business to plan, implement, and support multi-location deployments of Cisco ISR G2 routers that enhance branch office efficiency and reduce the price of upgrades and maintenance.

Cisco's ISR 800 Line of Routers
The 800 Series of ISR routers has been functionally replaced by the higher performance Cisco ISR 900 series but remains widely used. Cisco's comprehensive line of 800 Series ISR routers consists of desktop appliances designed and priced for small organizations, branch locations, retail shops, teleworkers, and clients of broadband service providers. A wealth of models in Cisco's 800 Series family of routers have been developed with many options for many years. The 881 line of ISR routers suggests the wide array of options available within Cisco's 800 Series product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 Series router catalog can support unified media networks by delivering IP voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in a single integrated appliance. Built-in security can include encryption, VPN tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available features for Cisco 881 ISR routers include duplicate wide area network connections or support for landline high-speed WAN links such as DSL plus multiple different cellular 3G and 4G wireless connections all on a single desktop appliance.

The basic Cisco 881 has a 4-port fast Ethernet managed switch that delivers 15 Mbps throughput, support for 20 users, 2-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. Cisco's 881W ISR 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 supports SIP trunk connectivity as a replacement for outdated Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. CUBE-based SIP trunks also connect offsite agents in Cisco Call Center environments.

4000 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco's 4000 Line of Integrated Services Routers are modular and scalable routers designed for businesses with a large number of branches and offsite workers who need direct communication with private data centers and public clouds across VPNs and the Internet. Cisco's 4000 series provides the bandwidth required for distributed enterprise sites to accommodate mobile workers, cloud services, and HD multimedia applications by utilizing network optimization, deep packet inspection, and advanced traffic-management techniques. Devices in the ISR 4000 product line are powered by Cisco's powerful IOS XE software, come in a 1-rack-unit (RU) or 2RU form factor, can handle Up to 2 Gbps of traffic, and can include up to 3 interface module slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 8 CPU core server modules. Cisco ISR 4000 models support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. To handle unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR provides extensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced SBC, telephony survivability, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.

The main difference between Cisco's 4400 ISR and 4300 Series Routers is redundant power supply support in the 4400 Series, providing a greater degree of availability. The 4321 Integrated Services Router comes in a 1 RU desktop form factor with two network interface modules (NIMs), offers up to 100 Mbps performance, and can handle 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The 4331 Integrated Services Router comes in a 1 RU form factor and includes two network interface modules, delivers as much as 300 Mbps performance, and can handle 360 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 model has a 2 RU package and includes three NIMs, delivers as much as 400 Mbps throughput, and supports 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The power-redundant 4431 Integrated Services Router has a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, provides up to 1 Gbps performance, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The fault-tolerant 4431 Integrated Services Router comes in a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, offers as much as 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, protected distribution points to aggregate branch office and off-site data packets and to offer service providers cost-optimized wide area network edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and service provider router portfolio features the Cisco ASR 1000 product line and the 9000 ASR routers.

Progent's national group of CCIE certified network experts have extensive backgrounds working with global businesses and ISPs to plan optimal installations and seamless expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance consultants can provide objective, third-party security inventory assessments, penetration testing services and advanced SIEM solutions to help enterprises with Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to comply with industry standards and statutory mandates for IT data security and incident reporting.

Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge family of routers is designed to fill the center of Cisco's midrange routers that focus on acting as headends at the wide area network edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 routers offer a small footprint, multi-function solution for large businesses who need satellite office aggregation at supergigabit Ethernet speeds. Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers incorporate a revolutionary design that combines on-board acceleration with programmable versatility to deliver a multitude of simultaneous services while preserving consistent performance.

ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers feature Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor incorporating 40 custom Packet Processing Engines (PPEs) that in combination can support up to 160 concurrent processor threads. This massive parallelism, in conjunction with on-board acceleration for every service, enables the high-end ASR 1006 Aggregation Services router to scale up to 128 hardware queues, 32,000 subscribers, 4K IP security VPN tunnels at 10K sessions per second, and 2M Netflow log records. This processing power allows Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers to deliver a variety of sophisticated services simultaneously in high volume without suffering performance degradation that could violate adherence to service level agreements. Examples of these advanced services include IOS Firewall, intrusion-detection services, NAT, Flexible Packet Matching, and in-line deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also allows sophisticated traffic management for applying numerous levels of QoS to a packet in one operation, enhancing the user experience for high-bandwidth multimedia applications.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are designed as edge routers for carriers who need to support world-class HD multimedia services to home, commercial, and mobile users by offering zero downtime availability, high performance, and application-aware intelligence. All models in the ASR 9000 Series of Routers are powered by Cisco's IOS XR operating system, a distributed operating system designed for non-stop uptime. Performance of Cisco's ASR 9000 portfolio of Aggregation Services Routers can scale to as high as 96 Tbps per chassis. the Cisco ASR 9000 line of Aggregation Services Routers can handle Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 GE and feature redundant fabric and power supply, power entry modules, and fan trays plus redundant switch fabric.

The Cisco ASR 9001 model is a carrier-edge router that comes in a 6 RU form factor that delivers 120 Gbps of nonblocking, full-duplex fabric performance. The ASR 9001 has two modular bays which can accept adapters for 1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit, and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The chassis incorporates four 10 Gbit Ethernet enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) ports as well as ports for GPS Stratum 1 clocking, building integrated timing supply (BITS), and management. The ASR 9904 Router comes in a 6 RU form factor and provides dense 10 and 100 GE connections in space-limited sites. The 4-slot router can scale up to 4 Tbps of switching capacity in one chassis. The Cisco ASR 9912 platform has a 30 RU form factor with 10 line-card slots that can provide up to 550 Gbps of switching capacity. The ASR 9912 has 2 route processors and 6+1 Fabric Cards to provide N+1 redundancy.

Ways Progent Can Help Your Company with Cisco Routers
Progent's Cisco certified consultants can help you to design, setup, and support a converged network infrastructure that can automate processes, reduce expenses, and speed the path to positive return on investment. By combining Cisco routers with Cisco Catalyst switches expertise and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless integration, Progent can dramatically enhance the business value of your integrated network. Progent can provide onsite and remote support and offers data center support throughout the U.S.

To find out additional details about Progent's professional support for Cisco networking products, pick a subject:

• Introduction to Progent's Cisco Support
• Fast and Affordable Online Assistance from a CCIE Network Engineer
• Cisco Firepower Firewalls: Configuration and Management Expertise
• Cisco ASA 5500-X Firewall with Firepower Services: Integration and Management Expertise
• ASA 5500 Series Firewall Integration Support
• PIX Firewall Consulting Expertise
• Cisco Wireless Consulting Help
• Aironet Access Points Deployment Support
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 WiFi Access Points Engineering Support
• Cisco Catalyst Wi-Fi 6/6E APs Planning, Deployment and Troubleshooting Consulting
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Experts
• Cisco Meraki APs Engineering Expertise
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Integration and Troubleshooting
• Cisco VoIP Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Consulting Services and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber Migration and Support Expertise
• Catalyst Switches Configuration and Maintenance Expertise
• Cisco Nexus Switches Support and Troubleshooting Services
• Meraki Switches Configuration and Maintenance Expertise
• Cisco VPN Consulting Assistance
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP Trunking and CUBE Integration Consulting
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for Remote Workers
• Infrastructure Design for Cisco-powered Datacenters
• Infrastructure Design Services for Service Providers
• Centralized Cloud-based and Hybrid Network Management Techniques for Cisco Infrastructure