The current generation of routers typically incorporate L2 switching capability, and many modern switches include some Layer 3 routing capability. Routers offered by Cisco, the producer of 90% of the industry's routers, have advanced significantly in function and performance and Cisco now makes a comprehensive portfolio that features routers designed to handle the requirements of users ranging from individual telecommuters to the world's largest service providers.

The latest Integrated Services Routers released by Cisco offer the speed and integrated functionality to manage data voice and video plus virtualization while also providing fault tolerance, remote management, seamless scalability, and advanced security and compliance. These routers enable your company to establish a solid foundation for an information environment that can grow seamlessly as you hire more workers, open new sites, deploy additional functions, extend your network to customers and vendors, and build an an increasingly mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco CCIE network consultants can provide fast and affordable remote expertise to help you to plan, deploy, administer, upgrade, and support Cisco's latest routers and can assist you to support your older routers or migrate non-disruptively to Cisco's current router solutions.
Cisco Routers Designed for Home Offices and Small Offices and Branch Offices
Cisco's routers for smaller companies and remote offices offer affordable and reliable no-frills solutions that enable limited sets of users to have safe access to the Internet. These single-configuration desktop routers feature at least four 10/100 Ethernet switches with Wi-Fi options plus integrated firewall to provide advanced security. Designed for easy installation, management, and support, Cisco's small business and home routers reduce total cost of ownership by lowering equipment and maintenance investments. Progent's remote troubleshooting specialists have in-depth backgrounds providing immediate and economical IT help for small organizations to set up and maintain these devices, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can assist your company to understand whether and how Cisco's entry-level routers can increase the strategic value of your information network.
ISR 900 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco's ISR 900 Series desktop routers are small-footprint, quiet, fixed-configuration devices designed for small to medium-sized businesses, branches, and home offices. These entry-level routers include four GE switch ports and offer Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connectivity. Cisco's ISR 900 router family provides triple the IPsec performance of the ISR 800 Series routers. All ISR 900 models offer GETVPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN (DMVPN), Cisco FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is as high as 250 Mbps. All models allow up to 50 VLANs. Supported dynamic failover protocols for high availability include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), and MHSRP. Setup and management can be done with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. ISR 900 Series devices do not support Cisco's SD-WAN solution.
The Cisco ISR 921 router features dual GE WAN, Category 4 LTE, and an internal power supply. VPN performance is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 routers have external power and support one GE WAN port, Category 4 LTE, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. GE WAN VPN performance for both routers is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line Cisco ISR 931 supports dual GE WAN and has an internal power supply. VPN throughput is 250 Mbps.
Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX line of desktop routers combine software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and cloud-hosted unified threat management (UTM) in a single compact appliance able to handle 50 to 200 users. Every MX series appliance must be licensed for the Meraki cloud. For sites having several WAN network options (e.g., MPLS, fiber optic, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows admins to assign the WAN connection a given app should use or to create performance-based algorithms to select the preferred connection. Cisco Meraki MX fixed-configuration desktop security appliances share important features that include:
Cisco 1000 Series ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers using Cisco IOS XE software are a line of fanless appliances designed to provide network connectivity, wireless support, and advanced cybersecurity for SMBs, enterprise branch offices, retail outlets, kiosks, and machine-to-machine (M2M) environments. Multiple parallel processing cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE software allow these routers to deliver capabilities consistent with Cisco's complete line of modern Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 Series ISR models are offered with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and provide Gigabit Ethernet (GE) packet forwarding. Various models include PoE and PoE+, auto provisioning, plus a range of built-in or pluggable connections for LAN, WAN, WLAN, SHDSL, LTE Advanced wireless, 802.11 wireless, and SFP. Cisco 1000 Series ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for seamless multiple-cloud connectivity, multilayer cybersecurity, and cohesive administration of hybrid networks.

Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 1100-4G router includes four built-in GE ports, built-in 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE SMA connectors, and one micro-SIM plug-in slot. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps. The Cisco 1100-6G ISR router also includes two 1G SFP Fiber ports and delivers encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop-only ISR 1101-4P router comes with four integrated GE interfaces, offers 802.11ac as well as 3G/4G LTE, and delivers encryption throughput of 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1109-2P/4P ISR desktop routers include two or four integrated GE connections and dual pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps.
Cisco's rackmount or desktop ISR 111x-4P/8P routers have four or eight built-in switched GE ports (two or four with Power over Ethernet) and feature VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and SFP. Encryption throughput is 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 1111X-8P router includes eight built-in GE connections (four with Power over Ethernet) and supports SFP Fiber. Encryption throughput is 340 Mbps. The ISR 112x-8P router has eight built-in GE ports with Power over Ethernet and features SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and SFP Fiber. Encryption packet processing speed is 340 Mbps. The Cisco 1161X-8P ISR router includes eight built-in switched GE interfaces with PoE and provides 3G/4G LTE and SFP Fiber. 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 line of routers are modular devices designed to operate at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge to support hybrid networks that can incorporate multiple public and private clouds and cloud-hosted applications. All Catalyst 8000 devices use Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide scalability, intelligent cloud security, and 5G access. Performance is enhanced via purpose-built hardware, a multicore architecture, high port capacity, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software suites offer continual access to the latest SD-WAN technology and enable centralized management with advanced cybersecurity, application-optimized policies, segmentation, and cloud readiness.
Catalyst 8200 Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Catalyst 8200 Series routers are upgrades to Cisco's 4300 Series ISRs, offering higher IPsec performance and expandability, hardware-accelerated crypto, plus greater integrated WAN port density. These 1RU appliances are designed to bring Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge, Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branch offices and the enterprise access edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T router features four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec traffic, and permits 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. Cisco's Catalyst 8200L platform does not support container-based apps. Cisco's Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model includes eight CPU cores, delivers 1Gb IPsec performance, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with existing container models. Both devices come with one Network Interface Module slot, a Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces, and two 1G Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) interfaces. Four-port and eight-port 1G Ethernet switch NIM modules are available for both 8200 models.
Catalyst 8300 Series Enterprise Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are designed to replace Cisco's 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers, providing Cisco's secure SD-WAN technology to medium-sized and large enterprise branches looking for high WAN IPSec performance combined with integrated SD-WAN services. Advanced features include 5G wireless connectivity, integrated security, WAN MACSec, enhanced Layer 2 switching, and DPI with application optimization. Catalyst 8300 routers support edge computing for an existing container environment for Cisco UCS-E modules offered on Cisco's 4000 Series ISR routers. All versions in the Catalyst 8300 line support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include dual power supplies for improved availability.
The Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router is a 1RU device that includes 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec performance as high as 1.9Gbps. The unit comes with a single Service Module expansion slot, one Network Interface Module slot, and six built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T appliance is a 2RU model that includes 8 CPU cores and offers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates of up to 1.9Gbps. The unit has two Service Module expansion slots, two NIM slots, and six built-in 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router is a 1RU device that has 8 CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates as high as 15Gbps. The device has one a single SM plug-in slot, a Network Interface Module slot, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four built-in 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X device is a 2RU model that features 12 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN data rates and IPsec data rates as high as 18Gbps. The router has two Service Module plug-in slots, two Network Interface Module slots, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. LAN plug-in modules offered by Cisco range from a four-port 1-Gigabit Ethernet switch Network Interface Module module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch SM module.
Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, one-rack unit aggregation devices for SD-WAN and colocation deployments. Built-in features include route processor, embedded services processor (ESP), and aggregation hardware for various connection choices. IPsec throughput is double compared to Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Available interface options include 1GE, 10GE, 40GE, and 100GE WAN interfaces. 8500 Series routers come with redundant AC or DC power units for enhanced availability. Software subscription packages provide continuing use of Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and enable centralized management of cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud support.
The 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 ports and supports up to 20 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X appliance includes 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and delivers up to 120 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC unit includes four built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1GE ports and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 68 Gbps. The C8500-20X6C router includes 20 integrated SFP+ ports and six x 40/100GE interfaces. Cisco's 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 provide branch offices of large businesses with enhanced collaboration, virtualization, security, and dependable WAN access. Integrated Services Generation 2 routers feature an architecture that protects past investments in modules for older Integrated Services Routers and reduces future expenses by allowing easy installation of additional modules as they are developed. Compared to previous Integrated Services Routers, Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers offer 2-7 times higher performance, far greater expandability, and easier support. All Cisco Integrated Services G2 routers support gigabit switching and include multi-core processors and ultra-fast fabric for faster performance. Integrated Services Generation 2 routers also support intelligent power control for better energy efficiency.
A key advance with Integrated Services G2 routers is the IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the IOS feature sets so that you can quickly license and deploy new services when desired without having to download and copy a new IOS Software image over to yourCisco router. Progent's group of Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants can provide world-class expertise to help you to plan, configure, and maintain multi-site installations of Cisco ISR G2 routers that improve satellite office efficiency and reduce the costs of upgrades and maintenance.
Cisco's ISR 800 Line of 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 devices designed and priced for small organizations, branch offices, retail shops, telecommuters, and clients of broadband service providers. Many models in Cisco's 800 product line have been developed with various options for many years. Cisco's 881 line of ISR routers suggests the wide array of options offered within Cisco's 800 product family. Models in Cisco's 881 Series router portfolio can enable unified media networks by providing voice and video, wireless and data in a single integrated appliance. Advanced data protection can include encryption, VPN tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For survivability, available options for Cisco 881 ISR routers include redundant WAN connections or support for wired broadband WAN links such as DSL as well as multiple cellular 3G and 4G wireless connections all built into one appliance.

The baseline Cisco 881 router has a 4-port fast Ethernet managed switch with up to 15 Mbps performance, support for up to 20 users, two-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. The Cisco 881W router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router includes 4 FXS ports and 1 FXO port for PSTN failover with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) feature license, Cisco's 881 ISR router supports SIP trunk connectivity as a replacement for outdated PRI lines or FXO voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks can also connect remote call agents in Cisco Call Center deployments.
4000 Series ISR Routers
The Cisco 4000 Line of Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) are compact modular and scalable platforms designed for businesses with multiple branch offices and offsite workers who need direct communication with in-house data centers as well as public clouds via VPNs and the Internet. Cisco's 4000 series delivers the throughput required for hybrid WAN environments to support mobile workers, Cloud-based services, and HD multimedia applications by utilizing network optimization, deep packet inspection, and advanced traffic-management technology. Devices in Cisco's ISR 4000 family run Cisco's IOS XE operating system, come in a 1RU or 2RU package, can handle Up to 2 Gbps of traffic, and can include up to 3 network interface slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, and 8 CPU core integrated server modules. Cisco ISR 4000 models can support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PR1, xDSL and other interfaces. For unified communications, the 400o ISR offers extensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced session border control, branch telephony fault tolerance, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.

The major difference between Cisco's 4400 and 4300 Series Routers is the inclusion of redundant power supply support in the 4400 Series, offering a higher degree of availability. Cisco's 4321 Integrated Services Router has a 1 RU desktop package with two network interface modules (NIMs), provides as much as 100 Mbps performance, and can handle 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 router has a 1 RU package and includes two network interface modules, offers up to 300 Mbps performance, and supports 360 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 model has a 2 RU form factor with three NIMs, offers as much as 400 Mbps performance, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's power-redundant 4431 model features a 2 RU form factor with three NIMs, offers as much as 1 Gbps performance, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The redundant-power 4431 router has a 2 RU form factor and includes three NIMs, delivers as much as 2 Gbps throughput, and supports 1200 Digital Voice/Video Channels.
Cisco's Midrange WAN Aggregation Routers and Carrier-class Routers
Cisco's WAN edge and carrier routers can provide enterprises with high-performance, protected distribution points to manage satellite office and off-site data packets and to offer ISPs cost-optimized wide area network edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router product line features the ASR 1000 routers and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services routers.

Progent's nationwide team of Cisco CCIE network consultants have extensive experience working with enterprises and ISPs to plan efficient deployments and smooth expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance experts can provide objective, independent network security vulnerability assessments, stealth penetration testing services and advanced SIEM solutions to help enterprises that use Cisco's WAN aggregation routers to comply with industry guidelines and statutory mandates for IT information protection and reporting. Progent also can provide expertise with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for PEN testing. NodeZero relies on AI technology to streamline the vulnerability evaluation cycle of discovering cybersecurity gaps in perimeters and within the internal network, prioritizing remediation, mitigating weaknesses, and verifying successful repairs.
Cisco ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge line of routers is designed to fill the middle of Cisco's midrange devices that focus on aggregating services at the wide area network edge. ASR 1000 Series routers offer a small form factor, single-product answer for large businesses who need satellite office aggregation at supergigabit Ethernet performance. ASR 1000 Series routers introduce a revolutionary architecture that mixes on-board acceleration with programmable versatility in order to offer a rich set of simultaneous services while preserving consistent performance.
Cisco's ASR 1000 routers include Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor composed of 40 custom Packet Processing Engines that in combination can support as many as 160 concurrent threads. This multi-processing structure, in conjunction with on-board acceleration for every service, enables the top-of-the-line ASR 1006 WAN Edge router to expand up to 128 queues, 32,000 clients, 4K IP security tunnels at 10,000 sessions/second, and 2 million Netflow log records. This CPU power allows ASR 1000 WAN Edge routers to deliver a broad range of advanced services simultaneously in massive volume while avoiding performance decay that could compromise adherence to SLAs. Examples of these advanced services include Cisco IOS Firewall, IPS, NAT, FPM, and in-line deep packet inspection. The ASR 1000 also allows tiered traffic control for applying multiple levels of Quality of Service to a data packet in a single operation, improving the user experience for next-generation IP voice and video applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers are intended as WAN-edge routers for service providers who need to support the highest quality data, voice and video services to residential, business, and mobile customers by offering non-stop operation, high performance, and application-aware intelligence. All platforms in Cisco's ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers are powered by the IOS XR operating system, a distributed OS built for continuous availability. Throughput of Cisco's ASR 9000 family of Routers can scale up to 96 Tbps per system. the Cisco ASR 9000 Series of Routers support Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 GE, and 100 GE and have fully redundant fabric and power supply, power entry modules, and fan trays plus backup control planes.
The ASR 9001 model is a carrier-edge router that comes in a 6 RU form factor that delivers 120 Gbps of nonblocking fabric performance. The ASR 9001 has two bays which can accept port adapters for 1, 10, and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The base chassis incorporates four 10 GE SFP+ ports as well as ports for GPS clocking, building integrated timing supply (BITS), and management. The ASR 9904 Router has a 6 RU form factor and provides line-rate 10 and 100 GE connectivity in space-constrained sites. The 4-slot router can support up to 4 Tbps of capacity in a single chassis. The Cisco ASR 9912 platform has a 30 RU form factor with 10 line-card slots that can support up to 550 Gbps of throughput. The Cisco ASR 9912 incorporates 2 route CPUs as well as 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.
Ways Progent Can Assist Your Business to Support Cisco Routers
Progent's CCIE certified engineers can help your business to plan, configure, and support an integrated business network that can streamline operations, lower costs, and accelerate time to positive return on investment. By teaming Cisco integrated services routers with Cisco Catalyst switches expertise and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless integration, Progent can significantly enhance the business value of your connectivity environment. Progent can provide on-premises and off-site troubleshooting and offers data center support throughout the U.S.
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