Today's routers typically come with L2 switches, and many of today's switches have L3 routing capability. Routers offered by Cisco, the source of 90% of the industry's routers, have advanced dramatically in capability and speed and Cisco makes an extensive product line that features routers built to handle the needs of customers ranging from households to nationwide ISPs.

The most recent Integrated Services Routers released by Cisco offer the performance and built-in functionality to manage data voice and video plus virtual environments while also offering fault tolerance, web-based administration, easy expandability, and enhanced protection. These routers allow you to build a firm foundation for an IT network that can grow seamlessly as you add more workers, open extra sites, configure additional capabilities, give access to your network to clients and vendors, and support an expanding mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco qualified CCIE network consultants can provide immediate and affordable remote support to assist your company to plan, deploy, manage, upgrade, and troubleshoot Cisco's latest routers and can assist you to support your older routers or move efficiently to Cisco's newer router solutions.
Cisco Routers for Home Offices and Small Offices and Branch Offices
Cisco's routers for smaller businesses and branch offices provide low-cost and dependable no-frills solutions that allow limited sets of users to have safe access to wide area networks. All these single-configuration desktop devices include at minimum four 10/100 Ethernet switches with Wi-Fi options and integrated firewall for advanced protection. Built for simple setup, management, and support, Cisco's small business and home routers reduce total cost of ownership by lowering acquisition and maintenance investments. Progent's online troubleshooting specialists have in-depth backgrounds providing immediate and affordable technical assistance for small organizations to configure and maintain these routers, and Progent's CCIE network consultants can help your company to determine ways these routers can add to the business value of your IT network.
Cisco ISR 900 Series Routers
Cisco's ISR 900 Series routers are compact, fanless, set-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 connections. The ISR 900 router family provides triple 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 (DMVPN), Cisco 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, Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), and MHSRP. Setup and management can be done 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 features 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 routers have external power and feature one GE WAN port, LTE Cat 4, plus VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+ high-speed broadband. GE WAN VPN throughput for both routers is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line Cisco ISR 931 router supports dual GE WAN ports and has 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 for the Meraki cloud. For sites with several external network connections (e.g., MPLS, fiber optic, cellular), SD-WAN technology permits administrators to specify the WAN connection a given application should use or to build performance-based rules to determine the appropriate interface. Cisco Meraki MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share key capabilities that include:
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Family ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers using Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a line of fanless appliances intended to deliver network connectivity, wireless access, and multilayer security for small and midsize businesses, branch offices, retail outlets, kiosks, and machine-to-machine (M2M) environments. Parallel CPU cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE enable these routers to deliver capabilities consistent with Cisco's complete line of modern Enterprise routers. 1000 family ISR models are available with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and offer Gigabit Ethernet packet forwarding. Available features include PoE and PoE+, zero-touch provisioning, plus a range of integrated or pluggable connections such as LAN, WAN, WLAN, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 4G LTE Advanced wireless, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for transparent multiple-cloud access, advanced cybersecurity, and unified monitoring and management across hybrid networks.

Cisco's 1RU or desktop 1100-4G ISR router comes with four integrated GE ports, integrated 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE antenna sockets, and a micro-SIM plug-in slot. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps. The Cisco ISR 1100-6G router adds two 1G SFP ports and features encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop ISR 1101-4P router comes with four integrated switched GE interfaces, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 3G/4G LTE wireless, and features encryption speed of 280 Mbps. The ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers have two or four built-in GE connections and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption performance is 200 Mbps.
The Cisco 1RU or desktop 111x-4P/8P ISR routers come with four or eight built-in GE connections (two or four with Power over Ethernet) and feature VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and SFP Fiber. Encryption rate is 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1RU or desktop 1111X-8P ISR router includes eight built-in switched GE ports (four with Power over Ethernet) and supports SFP. Encryption packet processing speed is 340 Mbps. The 112x-8P ISR router features eight integrated GE interfaces with PoE and supports SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and SFP Fiber. Encryption rate is 340 Mbps. The ISR 1161X-8P router includes eight switched GE interfaces with PoE and supports 3G/4G LTE and SFP Fiber. Encryption throughput is 450 Mbps.
Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco Catalyst 8000 family of routers are modular appliances intended 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. All Catalyst 8000 devices use Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide expandability, advanced cloud security, and 5G access. Performance is optimized using custom silicon, a multicore design, high port density, and in-line encryption. Cisco's subscription software services offer continual access to current SD-WAN technology and enable centralized management with advanced cybersecurity, application-based policies, network 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, accelerated encryption, plus greater integrated WAN interface density. These one-rack unit appliances are built to bring Cisco's SASE, Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and 5G-interface technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise WAN edge. The Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model features four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec throughput, and allows 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. Cisco's Catalyst 8200L platform does not support container-based apps. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T router includes eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec throughput, permits 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with in-place container architectures. Both appliances include one NIM slot, one PIM slot, two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN copper ports, and two 1G Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) ports. Four-port and eight-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 routers.
Catalyst 8300 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers are intended to replace Cisco's 4400 family of Integrated Services Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN architecture to medium-sized and large enterprise branch offices looking for high WAN IPSec performance with unified SD-WAN services. Advanced capabilities include 5G wireless connectivity, integrated security, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection (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 available on Cisco's 4000 line of ISR appliances. All models in the Catalyst 8300 Series line support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and feature backup power supplies for high availability.
The Cisco Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router is a one-rack unit appliance that includes 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN performance and IPsec performance of up to 1.9Gbps. The unit includes one SM expansion slot, one NIM slot, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T device is a two-rack unit model that features 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance as high as 1.9Gbps. The router has two SM plug-in slots, two NIM slots, and six built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router is a 1RU device that has eight CPU cores and delivers 5G SD-WAN performance and IPsec throughput up to 15Gbps. The model includes one one SM expansion slot, one Network Interface Module slot, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X model is a two-rack unit router that features 12 CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance up to 18Gbps. The appliance includes two SM expansion slots, two NIM slots, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. LAN expansion modules available from Cisco range from a 4-port 1G Ethernet switch Network Interface Module module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch SM module.
Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, one-rack unit aggregation appliances for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Integrated features include route processor, embedded services processor, plus aggregation hardware for various connection choices. IPsec performance is twice that of Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Available connectivity options include 1GE, 10GE, 40GE, and 100GE WAN interfaces. 8500 Series routers include redundant power supplies for enhanced availability. Software subscription packages provide continuing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer centralized management of cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.
The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is designed to offer a similar basic functionality as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X includes four 1/10GE WAN interfaces and delivers up to 20 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X appliance features 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and supports as high as 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate data rates. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC model comes with four built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1G ports and delivers up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 68 Gbps. Cisco's C8500-20X6C high-density router comes with 20 built-in SFP+ interfaces and six x QSFP+ ports. The Catalyst C8500-20X6C delivers as much as 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput.
Cisco ISR Generation 2 Routers
Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers are designed to offer branch offices of enterprises with enhanced video and voice applications, virtual networking, protection, and reliable connectivity. Integrated Services G2 routers feature a design that protects past investments in service modules for older Integrated Services Routers and lowers future costs by permitting field upgrades to new modules as they become available. Compared to previous Integrated Services Routers, Cisco's Integrated Services Generation 2 routers offer 2-7 times more throughput, far more, and more affordable maintenance. All Integrated Services G2 routers support GE switching and incorporate multi-core CPUs and ultra-fast fabric for higher performance. Integrated Services G2 routers also support intelligent power management for better energy conservation.
A key advance with ISR Generation 2 routers is the Cisco IOS Universal image which includes all of the IOS feature sets so that your company can rapidly authorize and activate new functions as desired without having to download and copy a different IOS Software image over to yourrouter. Progent's group of CCIE-certified network engineers offer world-class expertise to help you to design, implement, and maintain multi-location deployments of Cisco Integrated Services G2 routers that enhance satellite office efficiency and reduce the costs of upgrades and support.
Cisco's ISR 800 Family 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 is made up of desktop, fanless devices intended for small organizations, branch offices, retail shops, teleworkers, and customers of broadband service providers. A wealth of models in Cisco's 800 family of routers have been released with various options over the course of many years. Cisco's 881 Series of ISR routers exemplifies the wide selection of options offered within the Cisco 800 line of routers. Models in Cisco's 881 Series router portfolio can enable unified media environments by providing IP voice and video, wireless and data in one integrated router and switch. Built-in data protection can include encryption, VPN, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available features for 881 ISR routers include duplicate WAN connections or support for wired broadband WAN connections such as DSL as well as multiple 3G and 4G wireless connections all built into a single desktop appliance.

The baseline Cisco 881 router has a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch with up to 15 Mbps throughput, the ability to handle up to 20 users, two-port integrated PoE, and IPv6 support. Cisco's 881W ISR router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 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, Cisco's 881 ISR router supports SIP trunk connectivity to replace legacy PRI lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks can also connect remote call agents in Cisco Call Center deployments.
Cisco 4000 Series ISR Routers
The Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) are modular and expandable platforms designed for businesses with multiple branch offices and remote users requiring direct access to in-house 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 users, Cloud-based services, and multimedia applications by using network optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management techniques. Models in Cisco's ISR 4000 family run Cisco's powerful IOS XE operating system, come in a 1RU or 2RU package, are able to handle as much as 2 Gbps of traffic, and can include up to 3 interface slots, 2 service module slots, 4 integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core server modules. ISR 4000 models can support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PR1, xDSL and other interfaces. To manage unified communications, the 400o ISR offers comprehensive edge support for policy-enhanced SBC, telephony fault tolerance, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.

The primary difference between the Cisco 4400 and 4300 Series Routers is dual power supply capability in the 4400 ISR Series, providing a higher level of fault tolerance. The 4321 ISR Router has a 1 RU desktop form factor with two network interface modules, offers up to 100 Mbps throughput, and supports 240 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The 4331 Integrated Services Router comes in a 1 RU package and includes two NIMs, offers as much as 300 Mbps performance, and supports 360 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 Integrated Services Router comes in a 2 RU package with three NIMs, delivers up to 400 Mbps performance, and supports 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The power-redundant 4431 model has a 2 RU package with three NIMs, delivers as much as 1 Gbps performance, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The fault-tolerant 4431 ISR Router comes in a 2 RU form factor with three NIMs, provides up to 2 Gbps throughput, and can handle 1200 Digital Voice/Video Channels.
Cisco's WAN Edge Routers and Carrier-class Routers
Cisco's WAN edge and carrier routers offer larger businesses with fast, protected headends to manage satellite office and off-site data packets and to offer carriers cost-effective WAN edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router product line features the Cisco ASR 1000 product line and the 9000 ASR routers.

Progent's national group of CCIE network engineers have in-depth backgrounds helping global businesses and ISPs to plan optimal installations and seamless upgrades of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance experts can provide unbiased, independent network security inventory evaluations, penetration testing and comprehensive SIEM solutions to help enterprises that use Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to comply with business standards and government regulations for network data protection and reporting. Progent also offers expertise with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for PEN testing. NodeZero relies on AI technology to streamline the threat evaluation cycle of discovering security gaps in network perimeters and inside the internal network infrastructure, prioritizing repairs, mitigating weaknesses, and verifying fixes.
Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services line of routers is positioned in the center of Cisco's midrange devices that focus on acting as headends at the wide area network edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers provide a small footprint, multi-function answer for enterprises requiring satellite office aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet speeds. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers incorporate an innovative design that combines on-board acceleration with software versatility to offer a rich set of concurrent services while preserving dependable performance.
ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers include Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor composed of 40 purpose-built Packet Processing Engines that together can support up to 160 simultaneous processor threads. This massive parallelism, combined with hardware acceleration for all services, allows the top-of-the-line ASR 1006 Aggregation Services router to scale up to 000 hardware queues, 32K clients, 4K IP security VPN tunnels at 10K sessions per second, and 2 million Netflow log records. This processing power permits Cisco's ASR 1000 routers to support a broad range of sophisticated services simultaneously in massive volume without suffering throughput degradation that might compromise compliance with service level agreements. These services include Cisco Firewall, IPS, Network Address Translation, Flexible Packet Matching, and in-line deep packet inspection. The ASR 1000 also permits tiered traffic management for applying multiple levels of QoS to a data packet in a single operation, enhancing responsiveness for high-bandwidth multimedia applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers
Cisco's ASR 9000 Series Routers are intended as edge routers for service providers who are required to deliver world-class HD multimedia services to residential, commercial, and mobile customers by offering non-stop availability, high performance, and application-aware intelligence. All models in the ASR 9000 portfolio of Aggregation Services Routers run the IOS XR operating system, a distributed OS designed for non-stop availability. Throughput of Cisco's ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers can be expanded up to 96 Tbps per system. Cisco's ASR 9000 line of Routers can handle Gigabit Ethernet, 10 GE, and 100 GE and have redundant fabric and power supply, power entry modules, plus backup control planes.
The ASR 9001 platform is a provider-edge router in a 6 RU package that delivers 120 Gbps of nonblocking fabric performance. The Cisco ASR 9001 has two bays which can accept port adapters for 1, 10, and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The base chassis has four 10 Gbit Ethernet SFP+ ports as well as ports for Stratum 1 clocking, building integrated timing supply (BITS), and management. The Cisco ASR 9904 Router has a 6 RU chassis and offers line-rate 10 GE and 100 GE connectivity in space-constrained sites. The 4-slot router can scale up to 4 Tbps of capacity in a single chassis. The ASR 9912 platform comes in a 30 RU form factor and includes 12 slots slots that can support 550 Gbps of switching capacity. The ASR 9912 incorporates 2 route processors and 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.
How Progent Can Help Your Company with Cisco Router Products
Progent's Cisco certified engineers can assist your company to plan, configure, and manage a converged network infrastructure that can simplify processes, reduce costs, and speed the path to positive return on investment. By combining Cisco routers with Catalyst switches expertise and Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless expertise, Progent can dramatically enhance the business value of your information network. Progent offers onsite and off-site troubleshooting and can provide data center support throughout the U.S.
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