Cisco Network Consulting

Basically, routers rely on CPUs to move traffic based on complex algorithms, providing intelligence at the cost of throughput. Switches, in contrast, depend on mostly fixed hardware configurations to send data at the highest feasible speed. Today's routers ordinarily incorporate Layer 2 switches, and many modern switches have Layer 3 routing functionality. Routers offered by Cisco, the source of 90% of the industry's routers, have advanced dramatically in function and speed and Cisco makes a comprehensive portfolio that includes routers built to handle the needs of users from households to nationwide ISPs.

The latest ISR routers from Cisco have the performance and built-in functionality to manage data voice and video plus virtual environments while also offering fault tolerance, web-based management, easy expandability, and enhanced protection. Cisco's ISR routers allow you to establish a solid basis for an information network that can grow smoothly as you add more employees, establish new offices, configure additional functions, give access to your network to customers and vendors, and support an expanding mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco certified CCIE network consultants offer fast and economical remote expertise to assist your company to plan, deploy, administer, upgrade, and troubleshoot Cisco's most advanced router technology and can help you to support your older routers or migrate efficiently to Cisco's newer networking solutions.

Cisco Routers for Home and Small Offices and Branch Offices
Cisco's routers for smaller businesses and branch offices provide low-cost and dependable entry-level solutions that allow small groups of workers to have safe connectivity to the Internet. These single-configuration desktop routers feature at minimum four 10/100 Ethernet ports with Wi-Fi options and built-in firewall for enhanced protection. Built for easy setup, management, and support, Cisco's small business and home routers minimize ownership costs by cutting acquisition and operational investments. Progent's remote troubleshooting experts have in-depth backgrounds providing immediate and economical technical help for small organizations to set up and support these devices, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants can help your company to determine whether and how Cisco's entry-level routers can add to the business value of your information network.

ISR 900 Series Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series routers are compact, quiet, fixed-configuration devices intended for small to medium-sized businesses, branch offices, and home offices. These value-priced routers have four managed GE LAN ports and can support Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connections. The ISR 900 router family delivers three times the IPsec throughput of the ISR 800 Series routers. All ISR 900 models feature GETVPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN (DMVPN), FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN throughput is up to 250 Mbps. All router models support up to 50 VLANs. Supported dynamic failover technology for high availability include VRRP, Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), and Multigroup HSRP. Setup and management can be done with Cisco CP Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS Software. ISR 900 Series devices do not work with Cisco SD-WAN.

The Cisco ISR 921 router comes with dual GE WAN ports, Category 4 LTE, and an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN performance is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 models include external power supplies and support a single WAN port, LTE Cat 4, plus VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. VPN performance for both routers is 150 Mbps. The high-performance ISR 931 supports dual GE WAN and has an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN throughput 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-hosted unified threat management (UTM) in one small-footprint appliance able to support 50 to 200 users. Each MX series appliance must be licensed to the Meraki cloud. For venues with multiple external network options (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows administrators to assign the WAN connection a given app uses or to create performance-based algorithms to select the preferred connection. MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share key features including:

• Application and identity-based firewalling
• Content and web search filtering
• PCI-compliant Intrusion Detection and Prevention
• Cisco Advanced Malware Protection with reputation-based filtering
• Load balancing to combine several WAN links into one high-speed connection with policy-based Quality of Services, traffic shaping, and fast 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 Enterprise Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers using Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a selection of fanless routers designed to deliver network service, wireless access, and advanced security for small and midsize businesses, enterprise branches, retail outlets, kiosks, and machine-to-machine (M2M) environments. Multiple parallel processing cores and the ability to run Cisco IOS XE software enable these routers to offer features consistent with Cisco's complete family of Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 Series ISR routers are offered with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and provide Gigabit Ethernet (GE) packet forwarding. Various models include Power over Ethernet (PoE) and PoE+, zero-touch provisioning, plus a selection of integrated or pluggable options for LAN, WAN, WLAN, VDSL2/ADSL2+, LTE Advanced wireless, 802.11 wireless, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 family ISR routers work with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for transparent multiple-cloud connectivity, multilayer cybersecurity, and cohesive administration across hybrid network models of any complexity.

Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 1100-4G router comes with four integrated GE ports, built-in 3G/4G LTE with two LTE antenna SMA sockets, and one micro-SIM slot. Encryption throughput is 200 Mbps. The 1100-6G ISR router also includes two 1G SFP connections and features encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop 1101-4P ISR router comes with four integrated GE ports, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well as 3G/4G LTE, and features encryption rates of 280 Mbps. The Cisco 1109-2P/4P ISR desktop routers include two or four integrated GE ports and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE wireless ports. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps.

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

Catalyst 8000 Series WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 Series routers are modular devices designed to operate at the WAN edge in support of hybrid networks that can incorporate 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 scalability, advanced cloud security, and 5G access. Performance is enhanced using custom silicon, a multicore architecture, high port capacity, and in-line encryption. Cisco's subscription software services offer continual access to current SD-WAN technology and allow unified management with advanced cybersecurity, application-optimized policies, segmentation, and cloud readiness.

Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series WAN Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 routers are successors to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers, offering higher IPsec performance and scale, accelerated crypto, plus greater integrated WAN port density. These 1RU routers are designed to provide Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), SD-WAN and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise access edge. The Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model features four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec throughput, and permits 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based applications. Cisco's Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model features eight CPU cores, delivers 1Gb IPsec throughput, permits 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with existing container models. Both appliances come with a Network Interface Module slot, one Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable ports. Four-port and eight-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 models.

Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are intended to supersede Cisco's 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN technology to medium-sized and large company branch offices looking for high WAN IPSec performance with integrated SD-WAN services. Enhanced features include 5G wireless support, built-in cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, 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 environment for Cisco UCS-E modules offered on Cisco's 4000 family of ISR appliances. All versions in the Catalyst 8300 family support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include dual power supplies for improved uptime.

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

Cisco Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, one-rack unit aggregation devices for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Integrated features include route processor, embedded services processor, plus aggregation hardware for various connection choices. IPsec performance is double compared to Cisco's earlier generation ASR1001-X router. Flexible connectivity alternatives include 1GE to 100 GE WAN ports. The routers come with dual power supplies for enhanced availability. Software subscription packages provide continuing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer unified management of security, application-aware policies, segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.

The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is intended to provide a similar experience as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X includes four 1/10GE WAN ports and offers up to 20 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X appliance features 12 integrated 1/10GE WAN ports and delivers as high as 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC aggregation router comes with four integrated 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1GE interfaces and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 68 Gbps.

Cisco ISR G2 Routers
Cisco's Integrated Services Generation 2 routers are intended to offer satellite offices of enterprises with enhanced collaboration, virtualization, security, and dependable connectivity. Integrated Services G2 routers feature a design that preserves past investments in modules for first-generation Integrated Services Routers and reduces future expenses by permitting field installation of additional modules as they become available. Compared to previous ISR routers, Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers offer 2-7 times more performance, far more, and easier support. All Integrated Services Generation 2 routers offer GE switching and incorporate multi-core processors and ultra-fast fabric for higher throughput. Integrated Services G2 routers also offer smart power management for better energy conservation.

A major advance with Integrated Services G2 routers is the Cisco IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the Cisco IOS feature sets so that you can rapidly license and activate extra features as required without needing to acquire and copy a different IOS Software image to yourCisco router. Progent's team of CCIE network engineers offer proven skills to assist your business to design, configure, and support multi-site installations of Cisco Integrated Services Generation 2 routers that improve branch office efficiency and cut 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 family but remains widely deployed. Cisco's comprehensive portfolio of 800 Series ISR routers is made up of desktop, fanless appliances intended for small businesses, branch offices, retail shops, telecommuters, and clients of broadband service providers. Many models in Cisco's 800 family of routers have been developed with various options for many years. The 881 Series of ISR routers exemplifies the vast selection of options offered within Cisco's 800 product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 Series router portfolio can enable unified media environments by delivering voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in a single integrated appliance. Built-in data protection can include encryption, VPN, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available options for 881 ISR routers include redundant WAN links or support for wired broadband WAN links such as DSL plus multiple different 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all on a single appliance.

The baseline Cisco 881 router features a 4-port fast Ethernet managed switch with up to 15 Mbps throughput, the ability to handle up to 20 users, two-port integrated PoE, and IPv6 compatibility. Cisco's 881W router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router includes four FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) fallback with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) license, Cisco's 881 ISR router allows SIP trunking to replace outdated Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks also connect offsite agents in Cisco Call Center environments.

Cisco 4000 Series ISR Routers
Cisco's 4000 Line of ISR Routers are modular and scalable routers designed for businesses with a large number of branches and offsite users requiring direct communication with private data centers as well as public clouds across VPN tunnels and the Internet. The 4000 series delivers the bandwidth needed for distributed enterprise sites to accommodate mobile users, cloud services, and HD video applications by utilizing network optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management techniques. Devices in the ISR 4000 product line run Cisco's powerful IOS XE software, come in a 1RU or 2RU form factor, are able to support as much as 2 Gbps of throughput, and can have up to 3 interface 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 for session border control, telephony survivability, and TDM gateways.

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

Cisco's Midrange WAN Aggregation Routers and Service Provider Routers
Cisco's midrange and service provider routers can provide larger businesses with fast, protected head ends to manage branch office and remote user data packets and to offer ISPs cost-effective WAN edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router product line features the Cisco ASR 1000 routers and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services routers.

Progent's national group of CCIE certified network experts have in-depth experience helping global businesses and ISPs to design efficient installations and seamless upgrades of Cisco's WAN edge routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance experts can provide objective, independent security inventory evaluations, stealth penetration testing and advanced SIEM solutions to help companies that use Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to comply with business standards and government regulations for IT data protection and incident reporting.

Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services family of routers is designed to fill the middle of Cisco's midrange routers that focus on aggregating services at the wide area network edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers provide a small form factor, single-product solution for enterprises requiring branch office service aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet speeds. Cisco's ASR 1000 routers introduce a revolutionary architecture that mixes hardware acceleration with programmable flexibility to offer a rich set of simultaneous services without sacrificing dependable responsiveness.

Cisco's ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers feature Cisco's proprietary QuantumFlow Processor incorporating 40 custom Packet Processing Engines that together can handle up to 160 concurrent threads. This massive parallelism, combined with hardware acceleration for every service, enables the top-of-the-line ASR 1006 router to scale up to 128K queues, 32K subscribers, 4,000 IPsec VPN tunnels at 10,000 sessions/second, and 2 million Netflow log records. This CPU capability permits Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers to support a variety of advanced services simultaneously in massive volume while avoiding performance decay that could threaten compliance with service level agreements. These services include Cisco Firewall, IPS, NAT, Flexible Packet Matching, and in-line deep packet inspection. The ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic management for applying numerous levels of QoS to a packet in a single pass, improving responsiveness for next-generation IP voice and video applications.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are designed as WAN-edge routers for carriers who are required to deliver world-class HD multimedia services to residential, business, and mobile customers by offering always-on operation, high performance, and application-aware intelligence. All models in the ASR 9000 family of Routers run the IOS XR operating system, a distributed OS built for continuous availability. Throughput of Cisco's ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers can scale up to 96 Tbps per chassis. the ASR 9000 family of Aggregation Services Routers can handle high-density Gigabit Ethernet, 10 GE, and 100 GE and have redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, and fan trays plus backup switch fabric.

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

Ways Progent Can Help Your Company with Cisco Router Products
Progent's Cisco certified engineers can help you to plan, configure, and maintain an integrated business network that can simplify operations, lower costs, and speed time to positive ROI. By teaming Cisco integrated services routers with Cisco Catalyst switches support and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless integration, Progent can significantly enhance the business value of your integrated network. Progent can provide on-premises and remote support and can provide data center support throughout the U.S.

To learn additional information about Progent's consulting help for Cisco technology, pick a topic:

• Introduction to Progent's Cisco Expertise
• Fast and Affordable Online Support from a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Network Engineer
• Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewalls: Integration and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco ASA 5500-X Firewalls with Firepower: Setup and Management Support
• ASA 5500 Firewall Engineering Assistance
• Cisco PIX Firewall Consulting Services
• Cisco Wireless Network Design Services
• Cisco Aironet Access Points Deployment Support
• Cisco Small Business WiFi Access Points System Design Services
• Cisco Catalyst 802.11ax Wireless Access Points Planning, Configuration and Debugging Consulting
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Support Services
• Meraki Wireless APs Engineering Support
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Configuration and Troubleshooting
• Cisco VoIP Phones and IP Video Phones Consulting Services and Cisco Wireless VoIP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber Migration and Support Services
• Cisco Catalyst Switches Configuration and Maintenance Expertise
• Nexus Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Cisco Meraki MS Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Cisco VPN and Security Engineering Services
• SIP and CUBE Infrastructure Solutions: SIP Trunking and Cisco CUBE Integration Expertise
• Infrastructure Design for Cisco-based Datacenters and Colocation Centers
• Network Design Services for Internet Service Providers
• Centralized Management Strategies for Cisco Infrastructure