The current generation of routers ordinarily come with Layer 2 switching capability, and many modern switches include L3 routing capability. Routers offered by Cisco, the producer of 90% of the industry's routers, have advanced significantly in capability and performance and Cisco now makes a comprehensive product line that includes routers engineered to handle the needs of users from households to nationwide service providers.
The latest Integrated Services Routers released by Cisco offer the performance and built-in functionality to manage IP voice and video as well as virtualization while also offering high availability, web-based management, seamless extensibility, and enhanced security and compliance. These routers allow you to establish a solid basis for an information environment that can evolve seamlessly as you add new employees, establish extra offices, configure additional functions, give access to your system to clients and partners, and support an expanding mobile user base. Progent's Cisco qualified CCIE network engineers can provide immediate and affordable remote expertise to assist you to select, deploy, administer, upgrade, and support Cisco's most advanced routers and can help you to maintain your older routers or migrate non-disruptively to Cisco's newer router products.
Cisco Routers for Home and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for small companies and remote offices provide affordable and dependable entry-level solutions that allow small sets of users to share secure access to the Internet. All these single-configuration desktop devices include at minimum four 10/100 Ethernet switches with Wi-Fi options and integrated firewall for advanced security. Built for easy installation, administration, and troubleshooting, Cisco's entry-level routers reduce ownership costs by lowering equipment and maintenance expenses. Progent's online troubleshooting experts have in-depth backgrounds delivering fast and economical IT assistance for small companies to configure and support these devices, and Progent's CCIE network engineers can help your company to understand how these routers can add to the strategic value of your information network.
Cisco ISR 900 Series Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series desktop routers are small-footprint, fanless, set-configuration appliances designed for SMBs, branches, and home offices. These value-priced routers have four GE LAN ports and offer Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connections. Cisco's ISR 900 router family provides three times the IPsec throughput of Cisco's ISR 800 Series routers. All ISR 900 models feature GETVPN, DMVPN, Cisco FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN throughput is as high as 250 Mbps. All router versions allow up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported dynamic failover technology for high availability and business continuity include VRRP, Hot Standby Router Protocol, and MHSRP. Setup and management can be performed with Cisco CP Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. Cisco ISR 900 Series devices do not support Cisco's SD-WAN solution.
Cisco's ISR 921 router comes with dual GE WAN, Category 4 LTE, and a built-in power supply. VPN performance is 150 Mbps. The ISR 926 and ISR 927 routers include external power and feature one GE WAN port, LTE Cat 4, plus VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. GE WAN VPN performance for both devices is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line ISR 931 supports dual GE WAN and includes an internal power supply. GE WAN 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-based unified threat management (UTM) in one compact appliance able to support 50 to 200 users. Each MX series appliance needs to be licensed to the Meraki cloud. For sites having several external network connections (e.g., MPLS, fiber optic, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows admins to assign the WAN connection an app uses or to create performance-based algorithms to determine the preferred connection. Cisco Meraki MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share important capabilities that include:
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR Enterprise Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 family Integrated Services Routers using Cisco IOS XE software are a selection of fanless routers intended to provide high-performance network connectivity, wireless support, and multilayer security for small and midsize businesses, enterprise branches, retail stores, customer premises equipment (CPE), and M2M venues. Multiple parallel processing cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE allow these routers to offer features consistent with Cisco's entire line of Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 family ISR routers are available with 4 or 8 LAN ports and offer Gigabit Ethernet packet forwarding. Available features include Power over Ethernet (PoE) and PoE+, zero-touch provisioning, plus a selection of integrated or pluggable options such as LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, SHDSL, 4G LTE wireless, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 family ISR models can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN services for transparent multi-cloud access, advanced cybersecurity, and cohesive administration across hybrid network models.
Cisco's rackmount or desktop 1100-4G ISR router includes four built-in GE ports, built-in 3G/4G LTE with two LTE SMA connectors, and a micro-SIM slot. Encryption performance is 200 Mbps. The 1100-6G ISR router adds two 1G SFP Fiber connections and delivers encryption throughput of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop ISR 1101-4P router has four built-in GE ports, supports 802.11ac and 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 switched GE interfaces and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps.
The Cisco rackmount or desktop 111x-4P/8P ISR routers include four or eight built-in switched GE connections (two or four with Power over Ethernet) and support VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP. Encryption rate is 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 1111X-8P router has eight integrated switched GE interfaces (four with Power over Ethernet) and a port for SFP Fiber. Encryption speed is 340 Mbps. The ISR 112x-8P router features eight switched GE interfaces with PoE and features SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE, and 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing throughput is 340 Mbps. Cisco's 1161X-8P ISR router has eight GE interfaces with PoE and provides 3G/4G LTE and SFP. Encryption throughput is 450 Mbps.
Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco Catalyst 8000 line of routers are modular devices intended to operate at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge to support hybrid network environments that can incorporate a mix of public and private clouds and SaaS applications. Catalyst 8000 devices use Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and offer expandability, advanced cloud security, and 5G access. Throughput is optimized using purpose-built hardware, a multicore architecture, high port capacity, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software services offer continual access to current SD-WAN technology and enable centralized management with advanced cybersecurity, application-optimized policies, network segmentation, and cloud readiness.
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series Enterprise Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series routers are successors to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), delivering higher IPsec throughput and scale, hardware-accelerated crypto, plus greater built-in WAN interface density. These one-rack unit routers are built to provide Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and 5G-interface technology to enterprise branch offices and the enterprise access edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T router features four CPU cores, supports 500 Mbps IPsec traffic, and permits 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. Cisco's Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based applications. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model features eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec performance, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with in-place container models. Both devices come with one Network Interface Module slot, a PIM slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN ports, and two 1G Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) interfaces. Four-port and eight-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are available for both 8200 routers.
Cisco Catalyst 8300 Enterprise Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers are designed to replace Cisco's 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN architecture to medium-sized and large company branch offices looking for high WAN IPSec throughput combined with unified SD-WAN services. Enhanced capabilities include 5G wireless support, built-in security, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and DPI with application optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series 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 Series line support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include dual power supplies for improved availability.
The Cisco Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router model is a one-rack unit device that features 8 CPU cores and offers 2G SD-WAN performance and IPsec performance as high as 1.9Gbps. The router includes a single Service Module expansion slot, a Network Interface Module slot, and six integrated 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T appliance is a two-rack unit model that includes 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN performance and IPsec data rates of up to 1.9Gbps. The device has two SM plug-in slots, two Network Interface Module slots, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router is a 1RU device that has 8 CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN performance and IPsec data rates up to 15Gbps. The model includes one a single Service Module expansion slot, one Network Interface Module slot, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four integrated 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X model is a two-rack unit appliance that features 12 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN data rates and IPsec throughput as high as 18Gbps. The router includes two Service Module expansion slots, two NIM slots, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four fixed 1G Ethernet WAN ports. LAN modules modules offered by Cisco range from a four-port 1G 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 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed, 1RU aggregation appliances for SD-WAN and colocation deployments. Built-in features include route processor, ESP, and aggregation hardware for various connection choices. IPsec performance is double compared to Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X aggregation services router. Available connectivity alternatives include 1GE, 10GE, 40GE, and 100GE WAN interfaces. 8500 Series routers include 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 security, application-aware policies, segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.
The Cisco Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is designed to offer a similar experience as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X has four 1/10GE WAN ports and delivers up to 20 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 19Gbps. The Cisco Catalyst C8500-12X router has 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and supports as high as 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC aggregation router includes four built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1G interfaces and delivers up to 200 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 68 Gbps. Cisco's C8500-20X6C router includes 20 integrated SFP+ ports and six x QSFP+ interfaces. Cisco's C8500-20X6C delivers as much as 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput.
Cisco ISR Generation 2 Routers
Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers are designed to offer branch offices of large businesses with advanced video and voice applications, virtual networking, security, and dependable connectivity. Integrated Services G2 routers feature a design that preserves prior investments in service modules for first-generation Integrated Services Routers and reduces future expenses by permitting easy installation of new modules as they become available. In comparison to older Integrated Services Routers, Cisco's Integrated Services Generation 2 routers feature 2-7 times higher performance, substantially greater expandability, and easier support. All Cisco Integrated Services G2 routers offer GE switching and include multi-core CPUs and multigigabit fabric for faster performance. ISR G2 routers also offer intelligent power management for improved energy efficiency.
A notable advance with ISR Generation 2 routers is the IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the Cisco IOS feature sets so that your company can quickly license and deploy extra features as required without needing to acquire and transfer a different IOS Software image over to yourCisco router. Progent's group of Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can provide proven skills to help you to plan, implement, and support multi-site installations of Cisco ISR G2 routers that improve branch office productivity and reduce the price of expansion and support.
Cisco's ISR 800 Family of Routers
Cisco's 800 Series of ISR routers has been superseded by the higher performance Cisco ISR 900 family but is still widely deployed. Cisco's extensive line of 800 Series ISR routers consists of desktop, fanless devices designed and priced for small businesses, branch offices, retail shops, telecommuters, and clients of ISPs. A wealth of models in the 800 product line have been developed with many options over the course of many years. The 881 Series of ISR routers exemplifies the wide array of options available within the Cisco 800 line of routers. Models in Cisco's 881 router catalog can enable unified media environments by delivering voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in one integrated appliance. Advanced data protection can include encryption, VPN, firewall, and URL filtering. For survivability, available options for Cisco 881 routers include redundant wide area network connections or support for landline high-speed WAN connections such as DSL plus multiple 3G and 4G wireless connections all on one appliance.
The baseline Cisco 881 features a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch that delivers 15 Mbps performance, the ability to handle 20 users, two-port integrated PoE, and IPv6 support. Cisco's 881W router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router features 4 FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) fallback with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony. With a Cisco CUBE license, the Cisco 881 ISR router supports SIP trunking to replace outdated PRI lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks can also connect offsite call agents in Cisco Call Center environments.
4000 Series Integrated Services Routers
The Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers are modular and expandable platforms designed for businesses with multiple branch offices and offsite users who need direct communication with private data centers and public clouds across VPNs and the Internet. Cisco's 4000 series delivers the throughput required for distributed enterprise sites to accommodate mobile workers, cloud services, and multimedia applications by using WAN optimization, deep packet inspection, and advanced traffic-management technology. Devices in the 4000 product line are powered by Cisco's powerful IOS XE operating system, come in a 1RU or 2RU package, are able to handle Up to 2 Gbps of traffic, and can have up to 3 network interface slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core integrated server modules. ISR 4000 models can support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. For unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR offers comprehensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced session border control, telephony survivability, and TDM gateways.
The primary difference between the Cisco 4400 and 4300 Series Routers is dual power supply support in the 4400 Series, offering a higher level of availability. Cisco's 4321 ISR Router comes in a 1 RU desktop package with two network interface modules (NIMs), provides as much as 100 Mbps throughput, and can handle 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 model has a 1 RU form factor with two network interface modules, offers as much as 300 Mbps performance, and allows up to 360 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 Integrated Services Router comes in a 2 RU form factor and includes three NIMs, provides as much as 400 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's power-redundant 4431 ISR Router features a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, provides as much as 1 Gbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The fault-tolerant 4431 model features a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, provides as much as 2 Gbps throughput, and can handle 1200 Digital Voice and Video Channels.
Cisco's WAN Edge Routers and Carrier-class Routers
Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier routers offer enterprises with high-performance, protected headends to aggregate branch office and remote user traffic and to offer ISPs cost-effective wide area network edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router portfolio includes the Cisco ASR 1000 product line and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services routers.
Progent's nationwide group of Cisco CCIE certified network engineers have in-depth backgrounds working with enterprise businesses and service providers to plan optimal installations and seamless expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance experts offer unbiased, independent network security vulnerability evaluations, stealth penetration testing and comprehensive SIEM solutions to help enterprises with Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to comply with industry guidelines and government regulations for IT information security and reporting. Progent also can provide expertise with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for penetration testing. NodeZero relies on AI technology to streamline the threat evaluation cycle of finding security gaps in perimeters and within the internal network, prioritizing repairs, fixing problems, and confirming fixes.
Cisco ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge 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 Aggregation Services routers provide a small footprint, multi-function answer for large businesses requiring branch office service aggregation at supergigabit Ethernet performance. Cisco's ASR 1000 routers incorporate an innovative design that mixes hardware acceleration with software flexibility to deliver a multitude of simultaneous services while preserving dependable performance.
ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers include Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor made up of 40 purpose-built Packet Processing Engines (PPEs) that together can support up to 160 concurrent threads. This parallel CPU architecture, combined with hardware acceleration for every service, allows the high-end ASR 1006 router to expand up to 000 queues, 32,000 clients, 4,000 IPsec tunnels at 10K sessions per second, and 2 million Netflow records. This processing power allows ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers to support a wide variety of sophisticated services simultaneously in high volume while avoiding performance degradation that could threaten adherence to service level agreements. Examples of these advanced services include Cisco IOS Firewall, intrusion-detection services, NAT, FPM, and in-line deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic control for performing numerous levels of QoS to a packet in one pass, improving responsiveness for resource-intensive IP voice and video applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are designed as edge routers for carriers who need to deliver world-class data, voice and video services to home, business, and mobile customers by offering zero downtime operation, high speed, and application-aware intelligence. All platforms in the ASR 9000 portfolio of Routers run the IOS XR operating system, a self-healing, distributed operating system designed for continuous uptime. Throughput of the ASR 9000 line of Aggregation Services Routers can be expanded up to 96 Tbps per system. Cisco's ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers support Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 GE, and 100 GE and feature fully redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, and fan trays plus backup control planes.
The ASR 9001 platform is a provider-edge router in a 6 RU package with 120 Gbps of full-duplex fabric capacity. The ASR 9001 has two modular bays to accept port adapters for 1 GE, 10 GE, and 40 GE. The base chassis has four 10 GE SFP+ ports and ports for GPS Stratum 1 clocking, BITS, and management. The Cisco ASR 9904 Router comes in a 6 RU chassis and provides dense 10 GE and 100 GE connections in space-limited sites. The 4-slot ASR 9094 can support up to 4 Tbps of switching capacity in one box. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router has a 30 RU form factor with 12 slots slots able to provide up to 550 Gbps of switching capacity. The ASR 9912 includes 2 route processors as well as 6+1 Fabric Cards to provide N+1 redundancy.
How Progent Can Assist Your Business with Cisco Router Products
Progent's Cisco certified engineers can assist your company to plan, setup, and maintain an integrated network infrastructure that can streamline processes, lower expenses, and speed time to positive return on investment. By combining Cisco integrated services routers with Cisco Catalyst switches expertise and Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless integration, Progent can dramatically enhance the business value of your information network. Progent offers onsite and off-site support and can provide data center support throughout the U.S.
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