The current generation of routers usually come with L2 switches, and many modern switches include L3 routing capability. Routers developed by Cisco, the source of 90% of the industry's routers, have improved dramatically in capability and performance and Cisco now makes a comprehensive portfolio that features routers designed to meet the needs of customers ranging from households to the world's largest service providers.
The most recent Integrated Services Routers from Cisco offer the performance and built-in features to support data voice and video plus virtualization while at the same time offering high availability, remote management, seamless expandability, and enhanced protection. These routers allow your company to establish a firm basis for an information network that can evolve smoothly as you add more workers, open new offices, deploy new capabilities, give access to your network to customers and vendors, and build an expanding mobile user base. Progent's Cisco CCIE network engineers can provide immediate and economical online support to assist you to select, deploy, manage, update, and troubleshoot Cisco's latest router technology and can assist you to maintain your older routers or migrate efficiently to Cisco's newer networking products.
Cisco Routers for Home and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for small companies and remote offices provide low-cost and dependable entry-level alternatives that enable small sets of users to share secure access to the Internet. These single-configuration desktop routers feature at minimum four Ethernet ports with wireless options and built-in firewall for advanced security. Built for easy setup, administration, and support, Cisco's entry-level routers reduce ownership costs by lowering acquisition and maintenance investments. Progent's online troubleshooting specialists have extensive experience providing immediate and affordable technical assistance for small businesses to set up and maintain these routers, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can assist your company to understand ways these routers can add to the strategic value of your IT system.
ISR 900 Series Integrated Services Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series routers are small-footprint, quiet, set-configuration devices designed for SMBs, branch offices, and home offices. These entry-level routers have four managed GE LAN ports and offer Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connections. Cisco's ISR 900 router family delivers three times the IPsec throughput of Cisco's ISR 800 Series family of routers. All ISR 900 models offer Group Encrypted Transport VPN, DMVPN, FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is as high as 250 Mbps. All router models allow up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported dynamic failover technology for high availability include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, Hot Standby Router Protocol, and Multigroup HSRP. Provisioning and management can be performed with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS Software. ISR 900 Series routers do not support Cisco's SD-WAN solution.
Cisco's ISR 921 router features dual GE WAN ports, LTE Cat 4, and a built-in power supply. VPN throughput is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 models use external power supplies and support one GE WAN port, LTE Cat 4, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. VPN throughput for both routers is 150 Mbps. The high-performance ISR 931 router features dual GE WAN ports and has an internal power supply. VPN performance is 250 Mbps.
Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX line of desktop routers provide SD-WAN and cloud-hosted unified threat management (UTM) in a single compact device able to support 50 to 200 users. Every MX router needs to be licensed for the Meraki cloud. For venues with multiple WAN network connections (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows administrators to specify the WAN connection a given app should use or to create performance-based rules to determine the appropriate connection. Cisco Meraki MX fixed-configuration desktop security appliances share key capabilities including:
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers powered by Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a line of fanless appliances designed to deliver network connectivity, wireless support, and multilayer security for small and midsize businesses, enterprise branches, retail stores, kiosks, and M2M venues. 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 Series ISR routers are available with 4 or 8 LAN switch ports and provide GE packet forwarding. Available features include PoE and PoE+, auto provisioning, plus a selection of integrated or pluggable connections for LAN, WAN, WLAN, G.fast DSL, 4G LTE Advanced wireless, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and SFP. Cisco 1000 Series ISR models can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN services for seamless multi-cloud connectivity, multilayer cybersecurity, and unified monitoring and management across hybrid networks.
Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 1100-4G router includes four integrated GE ports, built-in 3G/4G LTE wireless with two LTE antenna SMA connectors, and one micro-SIM slot. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps. The Cisco 1100-6G ISR router also includes two 1G SFP Fiber ports and features encryption performance of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop ISR 1101-4P router comes with four built-in GE interfaces, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 3G/4G LTE, and delivers encryption speed of 280 Mbps. The ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers include two or four built-in GE connections and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE wireless ports. Encryption performance is 200 Mbps.
Cisco's rackmount or desktop ISR 111x-4P/8P routers have four or eight built-in switched GE interfaces (two or four provide PoE) and support VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP. Encryption speed is 280 Mbps. Cisco's 1RU or desktop 1111X-8P ISR router has eight GE interfaces (four with Power over Ethernet) and supports 1G SFP. Encryption throughput is 340 Mbps. The 112x-8P ISR router features eight built-in GE connections 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. The ISR 1161X-8P router features eight built-in switched GE interfaces with Power over Ethernet and provides 3G/4G LTE and 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing rate is 450 Mbps.
Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 line of routers are modular appliances designed to operate at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge in support of hybrid network environments that can incorporate multiple public and private clouds and cloud-hosted applications. Catalyst 8000 routers are powered by Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and offer scalability, advanced cybersecurity, and 5G connectivity. Throughput is optimized via 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 allow unified management with advanced cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud readiness.
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Catalyst 8200 Series routers are upgrades to Cisco's 4300 Series ISRs, delivering higher IPsec performance and expandability, hardware-accelerated encryption, plus greater built-in WAN interface density. These one-rack unit routers are designed to bring Cisco's SASE, Software-Defined WAN and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise WAN edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T router features four CPU cores, supports 500 Mbps IPsec throughput, 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 in-place container models. Both devices include a Network Interface Module slot, a Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN ports, and two 1G Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) ports. Four-port and eight-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 routers.
Cisco Catalyst 8300 Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers are intended to replace Cisco's 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers, providing Cisco's secure SD-WAN technology to mid-sized and large company branches looking for high WAN IPSec performance combined with unified SD-WAN services. Enhanced features include 5G wireless connectivity, integrated security, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection with application optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers enable edge computing for an existing container environment for Cisco UCS-E modules available on Cisco's 4000 family of ISR appliances. All models in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 line allow 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and feature backup power supplies for improved uptime.
The Cisco Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router model is a one-rack unit appliance that includes eight CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates of up to 1.9Gbps. The router comes with one Service Module plug-in slot, a NIM slot, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T device is a 2RU device that includes 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates as high as 1.9Gbps. The router includes two SM plug-in slots, two Network Interface Module slots, and six built-in 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router is a 1RU appliance that includes eight CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN performance and IPsec performance as high as 15Gbps. The device features one one SM plug-in slot, a NIM slot, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X model is a 2RU device that includes 12 CPU cores and delivers 5G SD-WAN data rates and IPsec data rates up to 18Gbps. The unit includes two SM expansion slots, two Network Interface Module slots, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four integrated 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.
Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Cisco Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed, 1RU aggregation models for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Built-in features include route processor, embedded services processor, and aggregation hardware for multiple interfaces and connectivity choices. IPsec throughput is twice that of Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X router. Flexible connectivity alternatives include 1GE to 100 GE WAN interfaces. 8500 routers come with dual power supplies for enhanced resilience. Software subscription suites provide ongoing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer unified management of cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud support.
The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is designed to provide the same experience as Cisco's ASR 1000 appliance. The C8500L-8S4X comes with four 1/10GE WAN interfaces and can deliver up to 20 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 19Gbps. The Cisco Catalyst C8500-12X appliance includes 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and delivers up to 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC model includes four integrated 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1-Gigabit ports and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance can reach 68 Gbps. Cisco's C8500-20X6C router has 20 built-in 1/10GE interfaces and six x 40/100GE interfaces. The 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 enterprises with enhanced collaboration, virtual networking, security, and reliable WAN access. ISR G2 routers introduce an architecture that preserves past investments in modules for older Integrated Services Routers and reduces down-the-line expenses by allowing easy upgrades to additional modules as they become available. Compared to previous ISR routers, Cisco's Integrated Services Generation 2 routers offer 2-7 times more throughput, far greater expandability, and more affordable support. All Integrated Services Generation 2 routers offer Gbit switching and incorporate multi-core CPUs and multigigabit fabric for faster performance. ISR G2 routers also support intelligent power management for improved energy conservation.
A key advance with Integrated Services Generation 2 routers is the Cisco IOS Universal image which includes all of the IOS technology sets so that you can quickly license and activate extra services when required without needing to download and copy a different IOS Software image to yourrouter. Progent's team of CCIE network consultants offer proven skills to help you to design, configure, and support multi-location deployments of Cisco Integrated Services Generation 2 routers that improve branch office efficiency and cut the costs of upgrades and maintenance.
Cisco's ISR 800 Line of Routers
The 800 Series of ISR routers has been functionally replaced by the faster Cisco ISR 900 series but is still widely deployed. Cisco's comprehensive line of 800 Series ISR routers consists of desktop appliances designed and priced for small organizations, branch offices, retail shops, telecommuters, and customers of ISPs. A wealth of models in Cisco's 800 Series product line have been released with various options over many years. The 881 Series of ISR routers suggests the wide selection of options offered within Cisco's 800 Series product family. Various models in Cisco's 881 router portfolio can enable converged media environments by providing 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 tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available features for 881 routers include duplicate wide area network links or support for landline high-speed WAN connections like DSL plus multiple different cellular 3G and 4G wireless connections all built into a single desktop appliance.
The baseline Cisco 881 has a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch with up to 15 Mbps throughput, the ability to handle 20 users, two-port integrated PoE, and IPv6 support. The Cisco 881W ISR router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. The 881 SRST router features 4 FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) fallback with Cisco SRST. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) feature license, the Cisco 881 ISR router allows SIP trunk connectivity as a replacement for legacy PRI lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. CUBE-based SIP trunks also connect remote call agents in Cisco Call Center environments.
Cisco 4000 Series ISR Routers
The Cisco 4000 Line of Integrated Services Routers are modular and scalable routers designed for organizations with multiple branch offices and offsite users requiring direct access to private data centers as well as public clouds via VPNs and the Internet. Cisco's 4000 series delivers the bandwidth required for hybrid WAN environments to support mobile workers, cloud services, and multimedia applications by utilizing network optimization, deep packet inspection, and advanced traffic-management technology. Models in Cisco's ISR 4000 family run Cisco's IOS XE operating system, come in a 1-rack-unit (RU) or 2RU package, are able to handle Up to 2 Gbps of traffic, and can include up to 3 interface module slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, and 8 CPU core integrated server modules. ISR 4000 models support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PR1, xDSL and other interfaces. For unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR provides extensive edge support for policy-enhanced session border control, telephony survivability, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.
The primary difference between Cisco's 4400 ISR and 4300 Series Routers is dual power supply support in the 4400 Series, providing a greater degree of availability. The 4321 Integrated Services Router comes in a 1 RU desktop package with two network interface modules (NIMs), provides as much as 100 Mbps performance, and allows up to 240 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 model comes in a 1 RU package with two NIMs, offers up to 300 Mbps throughput, and supports 360 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 ISR Router has a 2 RU form factor and includes three NIMs, provides up to 400 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The dual power supply 4431 router comes in a 2 RU form factor and includes three network interface modules, provides as much as 1 Gbps performance, and supports 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's redundant-power 4431 model comes in a 2 RU form factor and includes three network interface modules, provides as much as 2 Gbps performance, and can handle 1200 Digital Voice/Video Channels.
Cisco's Midrange WAN Aggregation Routers and Carrier-class Routers
Cisco's WAN edge and service provider routers offer enterprises with high-performance, protected headends to manage satellite office and remote user data packets and to provide carriers cost-optimized wide area network edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router portfolio includes the Cisco ASR 1000 product line and the 9000 ASR routers.
Progent's nationwide team of Cisco CCIE network experts have in-depth experience working with enterprises and service providers to design efficient deployments and seamless upgrades of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance consultants can provide objective, independent security vulnerability assessments, stealth penetration testing and advanced Security information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions to help companies that use Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to comply with business guidelines and statutory mandates for network information security and reporting. Progent also can provide expertise with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for threat assessment. NodeZero depends on AI technology to simplify the threat assessment cycle of discovering cybersecurity gaps in network perimeters and within the internal network, recommending remediation, mitigating weaknesses, and verifying successful repairs.
Cisco ASR 1000 WAN Edge Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge family of routers is designed to fill the center of Cisco's midrange products that focus on aggregating services at the wide area network edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers offer a small footprint, single-product solution for large businesses looking for branch office aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet performance. Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers incorporate an innovative architecture that mixes hardware acceleration with software flexibility to offer a rich set of simultaneous services without sacrificing consistent performance.
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers feature Cisco's proprietary QuantumFlow Processor made up of 40 custom Packet Processing Engines that together can support up to 160 concurrent threads. This parallel CPU architecture, in conjunction with on-board acceleration for all services, allows the top-of-the-line ASR 1006 Aggregation Services router to expand up to 000 hardware queues, 32,000 clients, 4K IPsec tunnels at 10K sessions per second, and 2 million Netflow records. This processing power permits ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers to support a variety of advanced services simultaneously in high volume while avoiding throughput degradation that could compromise compliance with service level agreements. Examples of these services include IOS Firewall, intrusion-detection services, Network Address Translation, Flexible Packet Matching, and deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic management for performing multiple levels of QoS to a data packet in one pass, improving the user experience for resource-intensive multimedia applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are designed as edge routers for carriers who need to deliver the highest quality HD multimedia services to home, business, and mobile users by providing always-on availability, high speed, and application-aware intelligence. All platforms in the Cisco ASR 9000 line of Aggregation Services Routers run Cisco's IOS XR, a distributed operating system designed for continuous uptime. Throughput of the Cisco ASR 9000 family of Aggregation Services Routers can scale up to 96 Tbps per system. the ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers can handle high-density Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 GE and have redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, and fan trays plus backup switch fabric.
The Cisco ASR 9001 platform is a provider-edge router in a 6 RU form factor that delivers 120 Gbps of nonblocking, full-duplex fabric performance. The Cisco ASR 9001 has two modular bays which can support adapters for 1 GE, 10 GE, and 40 GE. The base chassis includes four 10 GE enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) ports and ports for GPS Stratum 1 clocking, building integrated timing supply (BITS), and management. The ASR 9904 Router has a 6 RU chassis and provides line-rate 10 GE and 100 GE connectivity in space-constrained environments. The 4-slot ASR 9094 can support up to 4 Tbps of switching capacity in one box. The ASR 9912 Router has a 30 RU chassis and includes 12 slots slots that can support 550 Gbps of throughput. The ASR 9912 Router incorporates 2 route processors as well as 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.
Ways Progent Can Assist Your Company to Support Cisco Router Products
Progent's Cisco certified consultants can assist you to design, setup, and support an integrated business network that can simplify operations, reduce expenses, and accelerate the path to positive return on investment. By teaming Cisco routers with Cisco Catalyst switches expertise and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless integration, Progent can significantly increase the strategic value of your integrated network. Progent can provide in-person and off-site help and offers data center support throughout the U.S.
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