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Generally, routers rely on processors to forward traffic using sophisticated software, providing versatility at the expense of throughput. Switches, in contrast, rely on mostly predefined hardware designs to forward data at the fastest possible speed. Today's routers typically come with Layer 2 switches, and many modern switches include Layer 3 routing capability. Routers offered by Cisco, the source of 90% of the industry's routers, have advanced significantly in function and speed and Cisco now makes a comprehensive product line that includes routers designed to meet the requirements of users from individual telecommuters to the world's largest service providers.

The latest Integrated Services Routers from Cisco have the speed and built-in functionality to support IP voice and video plus virtualization while at the same time providing fault tolerance, remote management, easy scalability, and enhanced protection. These routers allow your business to establish a firm basis for an information network that can evolve smoothly as you hire new employees, open new sites, activate new capabilities, extend your network to customers and vendors, and support an an increasingly mobile user base. Progent's Cisco CCIE network consultants can provide fast and affordable online expertise to help your company to select, configure, administer, upgrade, and support Cisco's latest routers and can help you to support your legacy routers or migrate efficiently to Cisco's newer router products.

Cisco Routers Designed for Home Offices and Small Offices and Branch Offices
Cisco's routers for small companies and remote offices offer affordable and dependable entry-level solutions that enable small groups of users to share secure connectivity to the Internet. These single-configuration desktop devices include at least four 10/100 switched Ethernet with wireless options and integrated firewall to provide enhanced security. Built for easy setup, management, and support, Cisco's entry-level routers reduce TCO by cutting equipment and operational expenses. Progent's remote troubleshooting specialists have extensive backgrounds providing immediate and economical technical help for small businesses to set up and maintain these routers, and Progent's CCIE network consultants can help your company to determine whether and how Cisco's small office 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, quiet, set-configuration appliances intended for small to medium-sized businesses, branch offices, and home offices. These value-priced routers have four managed GE switch ports and offer Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connections. The ISR 900 router product line delivers three times the IPsec performance of Cisco's ISR 800 Series family of routers. All ISR 900 Series routers feature GETVPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN, FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is up to 250 Mbps. All router versions allow up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported automatic failover protocols for high availability and business continuity include VRRP, Hot Standby Router Protocol, and Multigroup HSRP (MHSRP). Setup and management can be done with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. ISR 900 Series routers do not work with Cisco SD-WAN.

The Cisco ISR 921 router comes with dual GE WAN, Category 4 LTE, and an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN performance is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 models have external power supplies and feature a single WAN port, Category 4 LTE, 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 provide SD-WAN and cloud-based unified threat management in one small-footprint device able to support 50 to 200 users. Each MX series appliance needs to be licensed for the Meraki cloud. For venues having multiple external network connections (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows admins to assign the WAN connection a given app should use or to build performance-based rules to select the preferred connection. MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share key features that include:

• Application and ID-based firewalling
• Content and web search filtering
• PCI-compliant Intrusion Detection and Prevention
• Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) with sandboxing
• Load balancing to combine multiple WAN links into a single high-speed interface with policy-based Quality of Services, traffic shaping, and failover
• Works with all IPsec VPN devices and services
• USB port for fast 3G/4G failover
• Wi-Fi versions have 802.11ac Wave 2 2x2 MU-MIMO

Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR Enterprise Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) powered by Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a selection of fanless routers designed to provide network connectivity, wireless access, and advanced cybersecurity for small and midsize businesses, branch offices, retail stores, customer premises equipment (CPE), and machine-to-machine environments. Parallel CPU cores and the ability to run Cisco IOS XE software allow these routers to offer capabilities consistent with Cisco's complete family of Enterprise routers. 1000 family ISR routers are available with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and offer Gigabit Ethernet packet forwarding. Available features include Power over Ethernet (PoE) and PoE+, auto provisioning, plus a selection of integrated or pluggable options including LAN, WAN, WLAN, SHDSL, 4G LTE wireless, 802.11ac wireless, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 and 1100 family ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN services for seamless multiple-cloud connectivity, advanced cybersecurity, and centralized management of hybrid network models.

Cisco's rackmount or desktop ISR 1100-4G router includes four integrated GE WAN/LAN ports, integrated 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE SMA sockets, and one micro-SIM slot. Encryption packet processing speed is 200 Mbps. The 1100-6G ISR router adds two 1G SFP connections and delivers encryption throughput of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop-only 1101-4P ISR router includes four built-in switched GE connections, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well as 3G/4G LTE wireless, and features encryption performance of 280 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers have two or four integrated GE interfaces and dual pluggable 3G/4G LTE wireless ports. Encryption throughput is 200 Mbps.

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

Catalyst 8000 Series WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 family of routers are modular appliances intended to operate at the WAN edge in support of hybrid networks that can include multiple public and private clouds and SaaS applications. Catalyst 8000 routers use Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and offer scalability, advanced cybersecurity, and 5G access. Performance is optimized via purpose-built silicon, a multicore architecture, high port capacity, and in-line encryption. Cisco's subscription software services offer continual access to the latest SD-WAN technology and enable centralized management with enhanced cybersecurity, application-optimized policies, segmentation, and cloud integration.

Catalyst 8200 WAN Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series routers are successors to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), offering higher IPsec performance and expandability, hardware-accelerated crypto, plus greater integrated WAN interface density. These 1RU routers are built to provide Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge, SD-WAN and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise WAN edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model features four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec traffic, and permits 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based applications. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model includes eight CPU cores, delivers 1Gb IPsec performance, permits 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with existing container architectures. Both devices come with a Network Interface Module slot, a Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN copper interfaces, and two 1G Ethernet WAN SFP interfaces. 4-port and 8-port 1G Ethernet switch NIM modules are available for both 8200 routers.

Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are designed to replace Cisco's 4400 Series ISR Routers, providing Cisco's secure SD-WAN solution to mid-sized and large company branches looking for high WAN IPSec performance with integrated SD-WAN services. Advanced features include 5G wireless connectivity, integrated cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, enhanced Layer 2 switching, and DPI with application optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers enable edge computing for an existing container environment for Cisco UCS-E modules available on Cisco's 4000 line of ISR appliances. All versions in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series line support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include dual power supplies for improved uptime.

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

Cisco Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, 1RU aggregation models for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Integrated features include route processor, embedded services processor (ESP), and aggregation hardware for multiple interfaces and connectivity options. IPsec throughput is double compared to Cisco's earlier generation ASR1001-X router. Flexible interface options include 1GE to 100 GE WAN ports. The routers include redundant power supplies for enhanced availability. Software subscription packages allow ongoing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer centralized management of cybersecurity, application-aware policies, network segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.

The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is designed to offer a similar experience as Cisco's ASR 1000 appliance. The C8500L-8S4X includes four 1/10GE WAN ports and offers up to 20 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate data rates. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 19Gbps. The Catalyst C8500-12X appliance has 12 integrated 1/10GE WAN ports and supports up to 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC unit comes with four built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and eight 1-Gigabit ports and delivers up to 200 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 68 Gbps.

Cisco ISR G2 Routers
Cisco's Integrated Services Generation 2 routers are intended to offer branch offices of enterprises with enhanced collaboration, virtualization, security, and dependable connectivity. Integrated Services Generation 2 routers introduce an architecture that protects past investments in modules for first-generation ISR routers and lowers down-the-line expenses by permitting field installation of additional modules when they are developed. Compared to older ISR routers, Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers feature 2-7 times higher performance, substantially more, and more affordable maintenance. All ISR Generation 2 routers offer GE switching and incorporate multi-core processors and ultra-fast fabric for faster throughput. ISR G2 routers also support intelligent power control for better energy conservation.

A notable innovation with ISR Generation 2 routers is the Cisco IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the Cisco IOS technology sets so that your company can quickly license and deploy extra services as desired without having to download and copy a new IOS image over to yourCisco router. Progent's team of CCIE network consultants offer world-class skills to help your business to plan, implement, and maintain multi-site deployments of Cisco ISR Generation 2 routers that enhance satellite office productivity and reduce the price 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 series but remains widely deployed. Cisco's extensive portfolio of 800 Series ISR routers consists of desktop devices intended for small organizations, branch locations, retail shops, telecommuters, and customers of broadband service providers. Many devices in the 800 Series product line have been developed with various options over many years. The 881 line of ISR routers suggests the wide selection of options available within the Cisco 800 product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 Series router catalog can support converged media environments by delivering IP voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in a single integrated router and switch. Advanced data protection can include encryption, VPN, firewall, and URL filtering. For survivability, available features for 881 routers include redundant wide area network connections or support for landline high-speed WAN links such as DSL plus multiple cellular 3G and 4G wireless connections all built into a single appliance.

The basic Cisco 881 router includes a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch that delivers 15 Mbps throughput, support for 20 users, two-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 compatibility. The Cisco 881W router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. The 881 SRST router features four FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) fallback with Cisco SRST. With a Cisco CUBE feature license, Cisco's 881 ISR router supports SIP trunk connectivity as a replacement for legacy PRI lines or FXO voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks can also connect remote call agents in Cisco Call Center deployments.

Cisco 4000 Series ISR Routers
The Cisco 4000 Line of Integrated Services Routers are modular and expandable routers designed for businesses with a large number of branches and offsite workers requiring direct communication with private data centers as well as public clouds across VPN tunnels and the Internet. The 4000 series delivers the throughput required for distributed enterprise sites to support mobile users, Cloud-based services, and HD video applications by using wide area network optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management techniques. Devices in Cisco's ISR 4000 family run Cisco's powerful IOS XE operating system, come in a 1-rack-unit (RU) or 2RU package, are able to support as much as 2 Gbps of throughput, and can include up to 3 interface slots, 2 service module slots, 4 integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core integrated 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 offers comprehensive edge support technology for session border control, telephony survivability, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.

The primary difference between the Cisco 4400 ISR and 4300 Series is redundant power supply support in the 4400 ISR Series, offering a higher level of availability. The 4321 ISR Router comes in a 1 RU desktop form factor with two network interface modules (NIMs), provides up to 100 Mbps throughput, and supports 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The 4331 Integrated Services Router comes in a 1 RU package and includes two NIMs, offers up to 300 Mbps performance, and supports 360 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The 4351 ISR Router comes in a 2 RU package and includes three NIMs, offers up to 400 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The dual power supply 4431 router features a 2 RU package with three network interface modules, provides up to 1 Gbps performance, and supports 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's redundant-power 4431 Integrated Services Router features a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, provides as much as 2 Gbps performance, and supports 1200 Digital Voice and Video Channels.

Cisco's WAN Edge Routers and Service Provider Routers
Cisco's midrange and carrier routers can provide enterprises with high-performance, protected head ends to manage satellite office and off-site traffic and to offer ISPs cost-effective WAN edge routing. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router product line includes the Cisco ASR 1000 product line and the 9000 Series Aggregation Services family.

Progent's national group of Cisco CCIE certified network consultants have extensive experience helping enterprise businesses and service providers to plan optimal deployments and seamless expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance experts offer unbiased, independent network security inventory assessments, stealth penetration services and advanced SIEM solutions to help enterprises that use Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to meet business guidelines and government mandates for network information security and incident reporting.

Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 WAN Edge family of routers is designed to fill the center of Cisco's midrange products that focus on acting as headends at the WAN edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers provide a small footprint, single-product answer for large businesses looking for branch office aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet speeds. Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers incorporate an innovative design that combines hardware acceleration with software versatility to deliver a rich set of concurrent services without sacrificing consistent responsiveness.

ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers include Cisco's proprietary QuantumFlow Processor composed of 40 purpose-built Packet Processing Engines (PPEs) that in combination can support as many as 160 concurrent threads. This multi-processing structure, in conjunction with on-board acceleration for all services, enables the top-of-the-line ASR 1006 Aggregation Services router to expand up to 128 hardware queues, 32,000 clients, 4,000 IP security tunnels at 10,000 sessions/second, and 2M Netflow records. This processing power allows ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers to deliver a variety of sophisticated services simultaneously in massive volume while avoiding throughput degradation that could compromise compliance with SLAs. These services include Cisco IOS Firewall, IPS, NAT, Flexible Packet Matching, and in-line deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also allows tiered traffic control for performing multiple levels of QoS to a data packet in one operation, enhancing the user experience for next-generation IP voice and video applications.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers
Cisco's ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are intended as WAN-edge routers for carriers who are required to support the highest quality data, voice and video services to residential, business, and mobile customers by providing zero downtime availability, high performance, and application-aware intelligence. All models in Cisco's ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers run Cisco's IOS XR, a distributed operating system designed for non-stop availability. Performance of the Cisco ASR 9000 family of Routers can be expanded up to 96 Tbps per chassis. the Cisco ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers support Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 GE, and 100 GE and have redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, and fan trays plus backup control planes.

The Cisco ASR 9001 platform is a carrier-edge router in a 6 RU package with 120 Gbps of nonblocking, full-duplex fabric capacity. The ASR 9001 has two bays to support port adapters for 1 GE, 10 GE, and 40 GE. The chassis has four 10 GE SFP+ ports as well as ports for GPS Stratum 1 clocking, building integrated timing supply, and management. The ASR 9904 Router has a 6 RU chassis and provides dense 10 and 100 GE connections in space-limited environments. The 4-slot router can support up to 4 Tbps of capacity in a single chassis. The Cisco ASR 9912 platform comes in a 30 RU chassis with 12 slots slots that can handle 550 Gbps of throughput. The ASR 9912 Router has 2 route processors as well as 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.

How Progent Can Assist You to Support Cisco Router Products
Progent's CCIE and CCNP certified engineers can help you to plan, configure, and support an integrated network infrastructure that can automate operations, reduce costs, and accelerate time to positive ROI. By combining Cisco integrated services routers with Cisco Catalyst switches support and Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless integration, Progent can significantly increase the business value of your integrated network. Progent offers on-premises and off-site troubleshooting and can provide data center support throughout the U.S.

To find out additional information about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco solutions, choose a topic:

• Overview of Cisco Support
• Fast Remote Support from a CCIE Network Engineer
• Cisco Firepower Series Firewalls: Integration and Management Services
• ASA 5500-X Firewall with Firepower Services: Integration and Management Services
• Cisco ASA 5500 Firewalls Engineering Services
• Cisco PIX Firewall Engineering Expertise
• Cisco Wireless Network Design Support
• Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points Design Services
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 WiFi Access Points Consulting Expertise
• Cisco Catalyst 802.11ax Wireless APs Solution Design, Deployment and Debugging Services
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Integration Consulting
• Cisco Meraki APs Deployment Services
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Integration and Troubleshooting
• Cisco VoIP Phones and IP Video Phones Consulting and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber Consulting and Support Services
• Catalyst Switches Consulting and Support Services
• Cisco Nexus Switches Support and Troubleshooting Services
• Meraki MS Switches Support and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco VPN and Security Engineering Help
• SIP and CUBE Infrastructure Solutions: SIP Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Consulting
• Infrastructure Design for Cisco-based Data Centers
• Infrastructure Design Services for Service Providers
• Remote Management Technologies for Cisco-powered Infrastructure