The current generation of routers typically come with Layer 2 switching capability, and many of today's switches include Layer 3 routing functionality. Routers developed by Cisco, the producer of 90% of the industry's routers, have advanced significantly in function and performance and Cisco now makes a comprehensive product line that features routers engineered to meet the needs of users from households to nationwide ISPs.
The latest Integrated Services Routers from Cisco have the speed and integrated features to support IP voice and video as well as virtualization while also providing fault tolerance, web-based administration, easy scalability, and advanced protection. These routers allow your business to establish a firm basis for an information network that can evolve seamlessly as you add more employees, establish new offices, deploy additional services, give access to your system to clients and partners, and build an expanding mobile user base. Progent's Cisco CCIE network consultants offer immediate and economical remote support to help your company to select, configure, administer, upgrade, and support Cisco's most advanced routers and can assist you to support your legacy routers or migrate efficiently to Cisco's newer networking solutions.
Cisco Routers for Home and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for smaller businesses and branch offices provide low-cost and dependable no-frills alternatives that enable limited sets of users to share safe connectivity to wide area networks. All these single-configuration desktop devices feature at minimum four switched Ethernet with wireless options plus integrated firewall for enhanced security. Built for simple setup, administration, and support, Cisco's small business and home routers minimize TCO by lowering equipment and operational expenses. Progent's online troubleshooting experts have extensive experience delivering fast and affordable technical assistance for small organizations to set up and maintain these routers, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants can assist your company to understand ways Cisco's small office routers can increase the strategic value of your IT system.
ISR 900 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco's ISR 900 Series desktop routers are compact, quiet, set-configuration devices intended for small to medium-sized businesses, branches, and home offices. These value-priced routers have four managed GE switch ports and offer Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connections. The ISR 900 router family delivers three times the IPsec performance of Cisco's 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 support up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported automatic failover protocols for business continuity include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), and Multigroup HSRP (MHSRP). Setup and management can be done with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. ISR 900 Series routers do not support 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. GE WAN VPN performance is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 routers use external power supplies and support a single WAN port, LTE Cat 4, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+ high-speed broadband. GE WAN VPN performance for both routers is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line ISR 931 supports dual GE WAN ports and includes an internal power supply. VPN throughput is 250 Mbps.
Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX family of desktop routers provide software-defined wide area networking and cloud-hosted unified threat management in a single small-footprint device able to handle 50 to 200 users. Every MX router must be licensed for the Meraki cloud. For sites having several WAN network options (e.g., MPLS, fiber optic, cellular), SD-WAN technology permits administrators to assign the WAN interface a given app uses or to build performance-based rules to select the preferred interface. MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share key features that include:
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR Enterprise Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) using Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a line of fanless routers intended to provide high-performance network connectivity, wireless support, and multilayer cybersecurity for SMBs, enterprise branch offices, retail stores, kiosks, and machine-to-machine venues. Parallel processing CPU cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE enable these routers to offer features consistent with Cisco's entire line of modern Enterprise routers. 1000 family ISR models are available with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and provide Gigabit Ethernet packet forwarding. Available features include PoE and PoE+, zero-touch provisioning, plus a selection of integrated or pluggable options including LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 4G LTE Advanced wireless, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and SFP. Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for transparent multi-cloud connectivity, advanced cybersecurity, and unified administration 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, built-in 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE antenna SMA connectors, and one micro-SIM slot. Encryption packet processing speed is 200 Mbps. The Cisco 1100-6G ISR router also includes two 1G SFP connections and features encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop ISR 1101-4P router includes four integrated GE interfaces, supports 802.11ac as well as 3G/4G LTE wireless, and delivers encryption performance of 280 Mbps. The Cisco 1109-2P/4P ISR desktop routers have two or four built-in GE ports and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps.
The rackmount or desktop 111x-4P/8P ISR routers come with four or eight integrated GE interfaces (two or four with PoE) and feature VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP. Encryption speed is 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1RU or desktop 1111X-8P ISR router comes with eight integrated switched GE connections (four with POE) and supports SFP. Encryption packet processing throughput is 340 Mbps. The 112x-8P ISR router features eight GE ports with PoE and supports SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP Fiber. Encryption throughput is 340 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 1161X-8P router includes eight GE connections with PoE and provides 3G/4G LTE wireless and SFP. Encryption packet processing speed is 450 Mbps.
Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 Series routers are modular appliances designed to operate at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge in support of hybrid network environments that can include multiple public and private clouds and SaaS applications. All Catalyst 8000 devices use Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide expandability, advanced cybersecurity, and 5G connectivity. Throughput is optimized via custom hardware, a multicore architecture, high port capacity, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software suites offer ongoing access to the latest SD-WAN technology and enable unified management with advanced security, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud integration.
Catalyst 8200 Enterprise Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series routers are successors to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), offering higher IPsec performance and scale, accelerated encryption, plus higher integrated WAN interface density. These one-rack unit appliances are designed to bring Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge, Software-Defined WAN and 5G-interface technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise access edge. The Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T router includes four CPU cores, supports 500 Mbps IPsec performance, and permits 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L platform does not support container-based apps. Cisco's Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model includes eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec performance, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and enables edge computing with in-place container architectures. Both appliances include one Network Interface Module slot, a PIM slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN ports, and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable ports. Four-port and eight-port 1G Ethernet switch NIM modules are available for both 8200 models.
Catalyst 8300 Series Enterprise Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers are intended to supersede Cisco's 4400 line of Integrated Services Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN architecture to medium-sized and large enterprise branches seeking high WAN IPSec performance combined with integrated SD-WAN services. Enhanced features include 5G wireless connectivity, integrated cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) with application-aware optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers support edge computing for an in-place container architecture for Cisco UCS-E modules offered on Cisco's 4000 Series ISR routers. All models in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 portfolio support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include dual power supplies for high uptime.
The Cisco Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router is a 1RU device that includes 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates as high as 1.9Gbps. The router includes a single Service Module plug-in slot, one NIM slot, and six integrated 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T appliance is a two-rack unit model that includes 8 CPU cores and offers 2G SD-WAN performance and IPsec data rates of up to 1.9Gbps. The unit has two Service Module expansion slots, two NIM slots, and six integrated 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router is a 1RU device that has 8 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN performance and IPsec performance as high as 15Gbps. The appliance includes one a single SM plug-in slot, a Network Interface Module slot, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four fixed 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X router is a two-rack unit model that features 12 CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec throughput as high as 18Gbps. The unit includes two SM plug-in slots, two Network Interface Module slots, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. LAN modules modules offered by Cisco range from a four-port 1G Ethernet switch NIM module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch Service Module.
Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge routers are fixed, one-rack unit aggregation models 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 throughput is twice that of Cisco's earlier generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Flexible interface options include 1GE to 100 GE WAN ports. The routers come with dual AC or DC power units for improved resilience. Software subscription packages provide continuing use of Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and enable unified management of cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.
The Cisco Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is intended to provide the same key features as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X includes four 1/10GE WAN interfaces and supports as high as 20 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X router features 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and supports as high as 120 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC unit comes with four built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and eight 1-Gigabit interfaces and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 68 Gbps. Cisco's C8500-20X6C high-density router has 20 integrated SFP+ ports and 6 x 40/100GE ports. The Catalyst C8500-20X6C supports as much as 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance.
Cisco ISR G2 Routers
Cisco's ISR G2 routers are designed to offer satellite offices of large businesses with enhanced video and voice applications, virtual networking, protection, and reliable WAN access. Integrated Services G2 routers introduce an architecture that protects prior investments in modules for older Integrated Services Routers and reduces future expenses by allowing easy installation of new modules as they become available. Compared to previous ISR routers, Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers offer 2-7 times more throughput, substantially greater expandability, and easier maintenance. All Integrated Services G2 routers offer GE switching and include multi-core processors and multigigabit fabric for higher performance. Integrated Services G2 routers also offer intelligent power control for better energy efficiency.
A notable innovation with ISR G2 routers is the Cisco IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the IOS feature sets so that your company can quickly authorize and deploy new features when required without needing to acquire and transfer a different IOS image over to yourCisco router. Progent's team of CCIE-certified network consultants offer world-class expertise to assist you to design, implement, and maintain multi-site deployments of Cisco ISR Generation 2 routers that improve satellite office productivity and reduce the price of upgrades and support.
Cisco's ISR 800 Series Routers
Cisco's 800 Series of ISR routers has been superseded by the higher performance Cisco ISR 900 family but is still widely used. Cisco's extensive line of 800 Series ISR routers consists of desktop appliances intended for small organizations, branch offices, retail shops, telecommuters, and clients of broadband service providers. A wealth of models in the 800 product line have been developed with many options over many years. The 881 Series of ISR routers suggests the vast array of options available within the Cisco 800 product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 router portfolio can enable converged media environments by providing IP voice and video, wireless and data in one integrated router and switch. Advanced security can include encryption, VPN tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For survivability, available features for 881 routers include redundant wide area network connections or support for wired high-speed WAN connections such as DSL as well as multiple different 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all on a single desktop appliance.
The baseline Cisco 881 includes a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch with up to 15 Mbps throughput, support for 20 users, two-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. The Cisco 881W ISR router supports 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. The 881 SRST router features four FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) failover with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) feature license, the Cisco 881 ISR router supports SIP trunking as a replacement for outdated PRI lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks can also connect remote agents in Cisco Call Center environments.
4000 Series ISR Routers
The Cisco 4000 Line of Integrated Services Routers are compact modular and scalable platforms intended for businesses with a large number of branch offices and remote workers requiring direct access to in-house data centers and public clouds via VPN tunnels and the Internet. Cisco's 4000 series provides the bandwidth required for distributed enterprise sites to support mobile users, cloud services, and multimedia applications by using WAN optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management technology. Devices in Cisco's 4000 family are powered by Cisco's IOS XE software, come in a 1RU or 2RU package, can handle Up to 2 Gbps of traffic, and can include up to 3 network interface module slots, 2 service module slots, 4 integrated Gigabit Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core integrated server modules. ISR 4000 models support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. For unified communications, the 400o ISR provides comprehensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced session border control, telephony survivability, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.
The main difference between Cisco's 4400 ISR and 4300 Series is the inclusion of dual power supply capability in the 4400 Series, providing a greater degree of fault tolerance. The 4321 Integrated Services Router has a 1 RU desktop package and includes two network interface modules (NIMs), offers as much as 100 Mbps throughput, and can handle 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 model comes in a 1 RU form factor with two network interface modules, offers as much as 300 Mbps performance, and supports 360 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 model comes in a 2 RU package and includes three NIMs, delivers up to 400 Mbps performance, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's dual power supply 4431 ISR Router has a 2 RU form factor with three NIMs, provides as much as 1 Gbps throughput, and supports 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The fault-tolerant 4431 model features a 2 RU package with three network interface modules, provides up to 2 Gbps throughput, and allows up to 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 high-performance, protected headends to manage branch office and off-site data packets and to offer service providers cost-optimized wide area network edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router product line includes the Cisco ASR 1000 routers and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services family.
Progent's national group of CCIE network engineers have extensive backgrounds helping global businesses and ISPs to design optimal deployments and seamless expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance consultants can provide unbiased, independent network security vulnerability assessments, penetration testing services and comprehensive Security information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions to help enterprises that use Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to comply with business guidelines and statutory mandates for network data protection and incident reporting. Progent also can provide help with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for pentesting. NodeZero depends on AI technology to streamline the threat evaluation cycle of finding security gaps in network perimeters and within the internal network, recommending remediation, fixing weaknesses, and verifying fixes.
Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services family of routers is designed to fill the center of Cisco's midrange devices that focus on acting as headends at the wide area network edge. ASR 1000 Series routers provide a small form factor, single-product solution for enterprises looking for satellite office aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet performance. Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers incorporate a revolutionary architecture that mixes hardware acceleration with software flexibility in order to deliver a rich set of simultaneous services while preserving dependable performance.
ASR 1000 Series routers feature Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor composed of 40 purpose-built Packet Processing Engines that together can handle up to 160 concurrent threads. This multi-processing structure, combined with on-board acceleration for all services, enables the high-end ASR 1006 router to expand up to 128 queues, 32,000 subscribers, 4,000 IP security tunnels at 10K sessions/second, and 2 million Netflow records. This processing capability allows ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers to support a broad range of sophisticated services simultaneously in massive volume while avoiding throughput degradation that could threaten compliance with service level agreements. Examples of these advanced services include Cisco Firewall, intrusion-detection services, Network Address Translation, FPM, and deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic management for applying numerous levels of Quality of Service to a data packet in one pass, improving responsiveness for high-bandwidth voice, video, and conferencing applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are intended as WAN-edge routers for service providers who need to support the highest quality HD multimedia services to home, business, and mobile users by providing continual availability, high speed, and application awareness. All models in Cisco's ASR 9000 family of Routers run Cisco's IOS XR, a self-healing, distributed OS built for non-stop availability. Performance of the Cisco ASR 9000 portfolio of Aggregation Services Routers can scale up to 96 Tbps per system. Cisco's ASR 9000 line of Aggregation Services Routers support high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 GE, 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 provider-edge router that comes in a 6 RU form factor with 120 Gbps of nonblocking fabric capacity. The Cisco ASR 9001 has two modular bays which can support port adapters for 1 GE, 10 GE, and 40 GE. The chassis includes four 10 Gbit Ethernet enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) ports and ports for Stratum 1 clocking, BITS, and management. The ASR 9904 Router has a 6 RU chassis and offers line-rate 10 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet connections in space-constrained sites. The 4-slot ASR 9094 can scale up to 4 Tbps of capacity in one box. The ASR 9912 platform comes in a 30 RU form factor with 12 slots slots able to support up to 550 Gbps of throughput. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router includes 2 route processors and 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.
How Progent's Consultants Can Help Your Company with Cisco Routers
Progent's CCIE and CCNP certified engineers can assist you to plan, setup, and support an integrated business network that can automate operations, lower expenses, and speed time to positive return on investment. By combining Cisco integrated services routers with Cisco Catalyst switches expertise and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless expertise, Progent can dramatically increase the business value of your connectivity environment. Progent offers on-premises and remote troubleshooting and can provide data center support throughout the U.S.
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