The current generation of routers typically come with Layer 2 switches, and many of today's switches include Layer 3 routing functionality. Routers developed by Cisco, the source of 90% of the world's routers, have improved dramatically in capability and speed and Cisco makes an extensive portfolio that features routers built to handle the requirements of users from households to nationwide ISPs.
The most recent ISR routers from Cisco offer the performance and built-in functionality to manage IP voice and video plus virtual environments while at the same time offering high availability, web-based management, easy extensibility, and enhanced security and compliance. Cisco's ISR routers allow you to build a firm basis for an IT environment that can grow seamlessly as you hire new employees, establish extra sites, configure new functions, extend your system to customers and partners, and support an an increasingly mobile user base. Progent's Cisco CCIE network consultants offer immediate and affordable remote support to help your company to select, deploy, manage, upgrade, and troubleshoot Cisco's most advanced router technology and can help you to support your older routers or move efficiently to Cisco's current router products.
Cisco Routers Designed for Home and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for smaller organizations and remote offices provide affordable and reliable no-frills solutions that enable small sets of users to have safe connectivity to wide area networks. All these single-configuration desktop routers include at least four Ethernet switches with wireless options and built-in firewall to provide advanced protection. Designed for easy setup, administration, and troubleshooting, Cisco's small business and home routers minimize TCO by cutting acquisition and maintenance investments. Progent's remote troubleshooting experts have in-depth experience providing immediate and economical technical assistance for small companies to configure and maintain these devices, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can help your company to determine whether and how Cisco's entry-level routers can increase the strategic value of your information system.
ISR 900 Series Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series routers are compact, fanless, fixed-configuration appliances designed for SMBs, branches, and home offices. These value-priced routers include four managed GE LAN ports and offer Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connectivity. Cisco's ISR 900 router family delivers three times the IPsec throughput of the ISR 800 Series routers. All ISR 900 models feature Group Encrypted Transport VPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN, FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is up to 250 Mbps. All versions support up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported automatic failover technology for high availability and business continuity include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), Hot Standby Router Protocol, and Multigroup HSRP (MHSRP). Provisioning and management can be done with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. Cisco ISR 900 Series routers do not work with Cisco's SD-WAN solution.
Cisco's ISR 921 router comes with dual GE WAN ports, LTE Cat 4, and an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN performance is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 models use external power and support one GE WAN port, LTE Cat 4, plus VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+ high-speed broadband. VPN performance for both devices is 150 Mbps. The high-performance ISR 931 supports dual GE WAN 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 series of desktop routers provide SD-WAN and cloud-based unified threat management (UTM) in one small-footprint appliance able to support 50 to 200 users. Every MX series appliance needs to be licensed to the Meraki cloud. For venues with multiple external network connections (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology permits administrators to specify the WAN connection a given app uses or to create performance-based rules to select the preferred interface. Cisco Meraki MX fixed-configuration desktop security appliances share important capabilities that include:
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR Enterprise Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers powered by Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a line of fanless appliances intended to deliver network service, wireless support, and multilayer cybersecurity for small and midsize businesses, enterprise branches, retail outlets, kiosks, and machine-to-machine (M2M) venues. Multiple parallel CPU cores and the ability to run Cisco IOS XE allow these routers to offer features consistent with Cisco's entire line of modern Enterprise routers. 1000 family ISR routers are offered with 4 or 8 LAN ports and offer Gigabit Ethernet (GE) packet forwarding. Available features include PoE and PoE+, zero-touch provisioning, plus a range of built-in or pluggable options such as LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, SHDSL, 3G/4G wireless, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 Series ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN services for seamless multi-cloud access, multilayer security, and unified administration of hybrid network models.
Cisco's rackmount or desktop ISR 1100-4G router comes with four built-in GE ports, integrated 3G/4G LTE with two LTE antenna SMA sockets, and a micro-SIM slot. Encryption performance is 200 Mbps. The Cisco ISR 1100-6G router adds two 1G SFP ports and delivers encryption speed of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop ISR 1101-4P router includes four built-in GE connections, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 3G/4G LTE wireless, and delivers encryption throughput of 280 Mbps. The Cisco ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers include two or four built-in GE ports and dual pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption throughput is 200 Mbps.
Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 111x-4P/8P routers have four or eight built-in GE ports (two or four provide PoE) and feature VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP. Encryption packet processing throughput is 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1RU or desktop 1111X-8P ISR router comes with eight GE connections (four with POE) and supports SFP. Encryption throughput is 340 Mbps. The ISR 112x-8P router features eight integrated switched GE interfaces with PoE and supports SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE, and 1G SFP. Encryption performance is 340 Mbps. Cisco's 1161X-8P ISR router includes eight integrated GE ports with PoE and provides 3G/4G LTE and SFP. Encryption packet processing rate is 450 Mbps.
Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series routers are modular appliances designed to work at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge in support of hybrid network environments that can include a mix of public and private clouds and cloud-hosted applications. Catalyst 8000 devices use Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and offer expandability, intelligent cloud security, and 5G access. Performance is optimized via purpose-built silicon, a multicore architecture, high port capacity, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software services offer ongoing access to the latest SD-WAN technology and enable centralized management with advanced cybersecurity, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud integration.
Catalyst 8200 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series routers are successors to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers, delivering higher IPsec performance and expandability, hardware-accelerated encryption, plus greater built-in WAN interface density. These one-rack unit appliances are designed to bring Cisco's SASE, Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branch offices and the enterprise WAN edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T router features four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec performance, and allows 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based apps. Cisco's Catalyst C8200-1N-4T router features eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec throughput, permits 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with existing container architectures. Both devices come with a NIM slot, a Pluggable Interface Module slot, two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN SFP interfaces. Four-port and eight-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 routers.
Catalyst 8300 Enterprise Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers are designed to replace Cisco's 4400 family of ISR Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN architecture to medium-sized and large company branch offices seeking high WAN IPSec throughput with integrated SD-WAN services. Enhanced capabilities include 5G wireless support, built-in security, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) with application optimization. Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers enable edge computing for an in-place container architecture for Cisco UCS-E modules offered on Cisco's 4000 line of ISR routers. All versions in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series portfolio allow 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and feature backup power supplies for improved uptime.
The Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router model is a one-rack unit appliance that features eight CPU cores and offers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates as high as 1.9Gbps. The router includes one SM expansion slot, one NIM slot, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T appliance is a two-rack unit model that includes 8 CPU cores and supports 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance as high as 1.9Gbps. The router includes two SM expansion slots, two Network Interface Module slots, and six built-in 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router model is a 1RU appliance that has eight CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN data rates and IPsec throughput as high as 15Gbps. The model includes one one Service Module plug-in slot, one Network Interface Module slot, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four built-in 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X router is a 2RU device that includes 12 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN performance and IPsec data rates up to 18Gbps. The router has two Service Module expansion slots, two Network Interface Module slots, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four built-in 1G Ethernet WAN ports. LAN modules modules offered by Cisco range from a 4-port 1G Ethernet switch Network Interface Module module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch SM module.
Cisco Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Cisco Catalyst 8500 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 multiple connection choices. IPsec performance is twice that of Cisco's earlier generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Available connectivity alternatives include 1GE, 10GE, 40GE, and 100GE WAN interfaces. These routers include redundant AC or DC power units for improved resilience. Software subscription suites provide ongoing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer centralized management of cybersecurity, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud support.
The Cisco Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is designed to offer the same experience as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X has four 1/10GE WAN interfaces and offers up to 20 Gbps aggregate data rates. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X appliance includes 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and supports up to 120 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC unit includes four built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1-Gigabit ports and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 68 Gbps. The C8500-20X6C router comes with 20 built-in SFP+ ports and six x QSFP+ interfaces. Cisco's C8500-20X6C supports up to 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput.
Cisco ISR Generation 2 Routers
Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers are intended to offer branch offices of enterprises with enhanced collaboration, virtualization, protection, and reliable connectivity. ISR G2 routers feature a design that preserves past investments in service modules for older ISR routers and reduces future costs by permitting easy installation of additional modules when they are developed. In comparison to previous ISR routers, Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers offer 2-7 times more throughput, far greater expandability, and more affordable support. All Cisco Integrated Services G2 routers support Gbit switching and include multi-core CPUs and ultra-fast fabric for faster throughput. Integrated Services G2 routers also offer smart power control for improved energy efficiency.
A notable advance with Integrated Services Generation 2 routers is the Cisco IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the Cisco IOS feature sets so that you can quickly license and activate new features as desired without needing to download and copy a different IOS image over to yourrouter. Progent's team of Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers offer proven skills to help your business to design, implement, and support multi-location deployments of Cisco Integrated Services G2 routers that enhance satellite office efficiency and reduce the price of upgrades and maintenance.
Cisco's ISR 800 Series Routers
Cisco's 800 Series of ISR routers has been functionally replaced by the higher performance Cisco ISR 900 line but remains widely deployed. Cisco's extensive portfolio of 800 Series ISR routers is made up of desktop, fanless appliances intended for small businesses, branch locations, retail shops, teleworkers, and customers of broadband service providers. A wealth of models in Cisco's 800 product line have been released with many options over many years. Cisco's 881 line of ISR routers suggests the wide selection of options available within the Cisco 800 Series product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 Series router portfolio can enable converged media networks by delivering IP voice and video, wireless and data in a single integrated appliance. Advanced security can include encryption, VPN tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available features for 881 ISR routers include redundant WAN links or support for wired high-speed WAN connections such as DSL plus multiple cellular 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all on one appliance.
The baseline Cisco 881 router has a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch that delivers 15 Mbps throughput, the ability to handle 20 users, 2-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. The Cisco 881W ISR router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router includes four FXS ports and 1 FXO port for PSTN fallback with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) license, the Cisco 881 ISR router allows SIP trunk connectivity to replace legacy Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN service provider. SIP trunks can also support remote agents in Cisco Call Center deployments.
4000 Series Integrated Services Routers
The Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers are compact modular and expandable routers intended for organizations with a large number of branches and offsite workers who need direct communication with in-house data centers and public clouds via VPN tunnels and the Internet. The 4000 series delivers the throughput required for hybrid WAN environments to support mobile workers, Cloud-based services, and HD multimedia applications by utilizing wide area network optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management technology. Models in Cisco's ISR 4000 product line are powered by Cisco's powerful IOS XE operating system, come in a 1RU or 2RU package, can handle as much as 2 Gbps of throughput, and can have 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 can support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. To manage unified communications, the 400o ISR provides comprehensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced session border control, telephony fault tolerance, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.
The major difference between the Cisco 4400 ISR and 4300 Series is the inclusion of redundant power supply capability in the 4400 ISR Series, providing a higher degree of availability. Cisco's 4321 Integrated Services Router has a 1 RU desktop form factor with two network interface modules, offers up to 100 Mbps performance, and can handle 240 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 router has a 1 RU package and includes two network interface modules, provides up to 300 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 360 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 model comes in a 2 RU package with three network interface modules, offers as much as 400 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's power-redundant 4431 Integrated Services Router features a 2 RU package with three NIMs, delivers up to 1 Gbps performance, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's redundant-power 4431 model comes in a 2 RU package with three NIMs, offers up to 2 Gbps performance, and allows up to 1200 Digital Voice and Video Channels.
Cisco's WAN Edge Routers and Service Provider Routers
Cisco's WAN aggregation and service provider routers can provide enterprises with high-performance, secure headends to aggregate branch office and off-site traffic and to provide service providers cost-optimized WAN edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router portfolio features the ASR 1000 routers and the 9000 ASR routers.
Progent's national group of CCIE network engineers have in-depth backgrounds working with enterprises and Internet service providers to design optimal deployments and seamless upgrades of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance experts offer objective, independent security inventory evaluations, penetration testing services and comprehensive SIEM solutions to help enterprises with Cisco's WAN aggregation routers to comply with business standards and statutory mandates for IT information security and incident reporting. Progent also can provide help with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for threat assessment. NodeZero relies on AI technology to streamline the vulnerability assessment cycle of finding cybersecurity gaps in perimeters and within the internal network infrastructure, prioritizing remediation, fixing weaknesses, and verifying fixes.
Cisco ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services family of routers is positioned in the center of Cisco's midrange routers that concentrate on aggregating services at the WAN edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers offer a small form factor, multi-function solution for enterprises requiring satellite office service aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet speeds. Cisco's ASR 1000 WAN Edge routers introduce a revolutionary design that combines on-board acceleration with software versatility to offer a multitude of simultaneous services while preserving consistent responsiveness.
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers include Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor composed of 40 custom Packet Processing Engines (PPEs) that in combination can handle as many as 160 concurrent processor threads. This parallel CPU architecture, in conjunction with hardware acceleration for every service, allows the high-end ASR 1006 router to expand up to 000 queues, 32,000 clients, 4,000 IP security VPN tunnels at 10K sessions per second, and 2 million Netflow records. This processing capability permits ASR 1000 Series routers to support a variety of advanced services simultaneously in high volume without suffering performance decay that could violate adherence to service level agreements. Examples of these advanced services include Cisco Firewall, IPS, NAT, Flexible Packet Matching, and deep packet inspection. The ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic control for performing multiple levels of Quality of Service to a data packet in a single operation, improving responsiveness for high-bandwidth voice, video, and conferencing applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are designed as edge routers for service providers who need to support the highest quality HD multimedia services to home, business, and mobile users by providing continual operation, high speed, and application awareness. All models in the Cisco ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers are powered by the IOS XR operating system, a distributed operating system built for continuous uptime. Performance of the Cisco ASR 9000 portfolio of Aggregation Services Routers can be expanded to as high as 96 Tbps per chassis. the ASR 9000 Series of Routers support high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 GE, and 100 GE and feature redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, and fan trays plus backup control planes and switch fabric.
The ASR 9001 platform is a provider-edge router in a 6 RU package with 120 Gbps of nonblocking, full-duplex fabric performance. The ASR 9001 has two 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 and ports for Stratum 1 clocking, building integrated timing supply, and management. The ASR 9904 Router comes in a 6 RU form factor and offers dense 10 and 100 GE connections in space-constrained environments. The 4-slot ASR 9094 can scale up to 4 Tbps of capacity in a single box. The Cisco ASR 9912 platform has a 30 RU form factor and includes 12 slots slots able to provide up to 550 Gbps of throughput. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router incorporates 2 route CPUs and 6+1 Fabric Cards to provide N+1 redundancy.
How Progent's Consultants Can Assist Your Business with Cisco Routers
Progent's CCIE certified consultants can assist you to design, configure, and support an integrated business network that can streamline processes, lower expenses, and accelerate time to positive return on investment. By combining Cisco integrated services routers with Catalyst switches support and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless expertise, Progent can dramatically increase the strategic value of your connectivity environment. Progent can provide in-person and remote help and can provide data center support throughout the U.S.
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