The current generation of routers ordinarily come with L2 switches, and many modern switches have some Layer 3 routing capability. Routers offered by Cisco, the supplier of 90% of the world's routers, have improved dramatically in function and speed and Cisco now makes a comprehensive portfolio that includes routers built to meet the needs of users ranging from individual telecommuters to the world's largest ISPs.
The latest Integrated Services Routers from Cisco offer the speed and integrated features to support data voice and video plus virtualization while also providing fault tolerance, web-based management, seamless extensibility, and enhanced protection. Cisco's ISR routers allow you to build a solid basis for an IT environment that can grow smoothly as you add new employees, establish extra offices, configure new capabilities, give access to your network to clients and partners, and build an an increasingly mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco certified CCIE network consultants offer immediate and affordable remote support to assist you to plan, configure, administer, upgrade, and support Cisco's most advanced routers and can assist you to maintain your legacy routers or move non-disruptively to Cisco's newer router solutions.
Cisco Routers for Home and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for small organizations and remote offices provide low-cost and dependable entry-level solutions that allow limited sets of workers to share secure connectivity to wide area networks. All these fixed-configuration desktop routers feature at minimum four 10/100 Ethernet switches with Wi-Fi options and built-in firewall for enhanced security. Designed for simple setup, management, and troubleshooting, Cisco's small business and home routers minimize ownership costs by lowering equipment and maintenance expenses. Progent's remote troubleshooting experts have in-depth experience delivering immediate and affordable IT help for small businesses to set up and support these routers, and Progent's CCIE-certified network consultants can assist your company to understand whether and how Cisco's entry-level routers can increase the strategic value of your information system.
ISR 900 Series Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series routers are small-footprint, fanless, fixed-configuration appliances designed for small to medium-sized businesses, branch offices, and home offices. These value-priced routers include four managed GE LAN ports and can support Metro Ethernet, LTE, and DSL WAN connections. The ISR 900 router family provides triple the IPsec performance of the ISR 800 Series routers. All ISR 900 Series routers offer Group Encrypted Transport VPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN (DMVPN), Cisco FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is as high as 250 Mbps. All router versions allow up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported automatic failover technology for high availability and business continuity include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), Hot Standby Router Protocol, and MHSRP. Provisioning and management can be performed with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS Software. ISR 900 Series routers do not work with Cisco SD-WAN.
The Cisco ISR 921 router features dual GE WAN, Category 4 LTE, and a built-in power supply. GE WAN VPN performance is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 routers use external power supplies and feature a single WAN port, LTE Cat 4, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+ high-speed broadband. VPN throughput for both devices is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line Cisco ISR 931 features dual GE WAN ports and includes an internal power supply. VPN throughput is 250 Mbps.
Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX portfolio of desktop routers provide software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and cloud-based unified threat management in one small-footprint appliance able to support 50 to 200 users. Each MX series appliance must be licensed to the Meraki cloud. For sites having multiple WAN network connections (e.g., MPLS, fiber optic, cellular), SD-WAN technology permits administrators to assign the WAN interface an application should use or to build performance-based algorithms to select the appropriate interface. MX fixed-configuration desktop security appliances share key features that include:
Cisco 1000 Family ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) using Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a selection of fanless routers intended to provide high-performance network service, wireless access, and multilayer cybersecurity for small and midsize businesses, enterprise branch offices, retail outlets, customer premises equipment (CPE), and machine-to-machine (M2M) venues. Parallel processing cores and compatibly with Cisco IOS XE enable these routers to offer capabilities consistent with Cisco's complete family of Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 Series ISR models are available with 4 or 8 LAN ports and provide GE packet forwarding. Available features include Power over Ethernet (PoE) and PoE+, auto provisioning, plus a selection of built-in or pluggable connections including LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, G.fast DSL, 4G LTE wireless, 802.11 Wi-Fi, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN services for seamless multi-cloud access, advanced security, and unified management across hybrid network models of any complexity.
Cisco's 1RU or desktop ISR 1100-4G router includes four built-in GE WAN/LAN ports, integrated 3G/4G LTE with two LTE SMA sockets, and one micro-SIM plug-in slot. Encryption performance is 200 Mbps. The Cisco ISR 1100-6G router also includes two 1G SFP ports and delivers encryption speed of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop-only 1101-4P ISR router includes four built-in GE interfaces, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 3G/4G LTE, and delivers encryption rates of 280 Mbps. The 1109-2P/4P ISR desktop routers include two or four built-in GE ports and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption performance is 200 Mbps.
Cisco's rackmount or desktop ISR 111x-4P/8P routers include four or eight integrated GE interfaces (two or four with PoE) and support VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE, and SFP Fiber. Encryption performance is 280 Mbps. Cisco's rackmount or desktop 1111X-8P ISR router comes with eight built-in GE connections (four with POE) and a port for 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing throughput is 340 Mbps. The 112x-8P ISR router features eight switched GE connections with Power over Ethernet and supports SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and SFP. Encryption speed is 340 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 1161X-8P router features eight integrated switched GE ports with PoE and provides 3G/4G LTE wireless and SFP Fiber. Encryption packet processing performance is 450 Mbps.
Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series routers are modular devices designed to work 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. All Catalyst 8000 routers are powered by Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide expandability, advanced cloud security, and 5G access. Throughput is optimized via custom hardware, a multicore architecture, high port density, and line-rate encryption. Cisco's subscription software services provide continual access to current SD-WAN technology and enable unified management with advanced security, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud integration.
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Catalyst 8200 Series routers are upgrades to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), offering higher IPsec performance and scale, accelerated crypto, plus greater built-in WAN interface density. These 1RU routers are built to bring Cisco's SASE, Software-Defined WAN (SD-WAN) and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branches and the enterprise access edge. The Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model features four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec throughput, and permits 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. Cisco's Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based apps. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T router features eight CPU cores, delivers 1Gb IPsec throughput, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and allows edge computing with in-place container architectures. Both appliances come with one Network Interface Module (NIM) slot, a Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN copper ports, and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN SFP interfaces. 4-port and 8-port 1G Ethernet switch NIM modules are available for both 8200 routers.
Catalyst 8300 Series Enterprise Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers are intended to replace Cisco's 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN architecture to mid-sized and large enterprise branches looking for high WAN IPSec performance combined with integrated SD-WAN services. Advanced capabilities include 5G wireless connectivity, integrated cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and DPI with application-aware optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers enable edge computing for an in-place container architecture for Cisco UCS-E modules offered on Cisco's 4000 Series ISR appliances. All versions in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 family support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and feature dual power supplies for improved uptime.
The Cisco Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router model is a 1RU appliance that features 8 CPU cores and delivers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates as high as 1.9Gbps. The router comes with a single SM plug-in slot, a Network Interface Module slot, and six built-in 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T appliance is a two-rack unit model that includes 8 CPU cores and offers 2G SD-WAN performance and IPsec data rates as high as 1.9Gbps. The model has two Service Module plug-in slots, two Network Interface Module slots, and six integrated 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst C8300-1N1S-4T2X router model 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 a single SM plug-in slot, one Network Interface Module slot, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces, and four built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports. The Cisco Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X router is a 2RU model that includes 12 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN performance and IPsec throughput up to 18Gbps. The device has two SM plug-in slots, two NIM slots, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four fixed 1G Ethernet WAN interfaces. LAN expansion modules available from Cisco range from a 4-port 1-Gigabit Ethernet switch Network Interface Module module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch Service Module.
Cisco Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Cisco Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, 1RU aggregation routers for SD-WAN and colocation deployments. Integrated features include route processor, embedded services processor (ESP), and aggregation hardware for various connection options. IPsec performance is double compared to Cisco's prior generation ASR1001-X router. Available connectivity alternatives include 1GE to 100 GE WAN interfaces. 8500 Series routers include redundant AC or DC power supplies for enhanced resilience. Software subscription packages allow continuing access to Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and enable centralized management of cybersecurity, application-aware policies, network segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.
The Cisco Catalyst C8500L-8S4X Aggregation Edge router is designed to offer the same basic functionality as Cisco's ASR 1000 appliance. The C8500L-8S4X comes with four 1/10GE WAN interfaces and offers as high as 20 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 19Gbps. The Cisco Catalyst C8500-12X router features 12 integrated 1/10GE WAN interfaces and supports up to 120 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC aggregation router includes four built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and eight 1-Gigabit interfaces and delivers up to 200 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 68 Gbps. Cisco's C8500-20X6C router includes 20 built-in 1/10GE ports and six x 40/100GE interfaces. The Catalyst C8500-20X6C delivers up to 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance.
Cisco Integrated Services Generation 2 Routers
Cisco's Integrated Services Generation 2 routers are intended to provide satellite offices of large businesses with advanced video and voice applications, virtual networking, security, and dependable connectivity. Integrated Services G2 routers feature a design that protects prior investments in modules for first-generation Integrated Services Routers and lowers down-the-line expenses by allowing field installation of additional modules as they are developed. In comparison to previous Integrated Services Routers, Cisco's ISR G2 routers offer 2-7 times more throughput, substantially greater expandability, and more affordable maintenance. All Integrated Services G2 routers support GE switching and incorporate multi-core processors and ultra-fast fabric for higher performance. Integrated Services Generation 2 routers also support smart power management for improved energy efficiency.
A notable innovation with ISR G2 routers is the IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the Cisco IOS technology sets so that you can quickly license and deploy new functions when required without having to acquire and copy a different IOS image over to yourrouter. Progent's group of Cisco-certified CCIE network engineers can provide world-class expertise to assist you to design, configure, and support multi-location deployments of Cisco Integrated Services Generation 2 routers that enhance satellite office efficiency and reduce the costs of expansion and maintenance.
Cisco's ISR 800 Series Routers
Cisco's 800 Series of ISR routers has been functionally replaced by the faster Cisco ISR 900 series but remains widely deployed. Cisco's extensive line of 800 Series ISR routers is made up of desktop, fanless devices designed and priced for small organizations, branch offices, retail shops, teleworkers, and customers of ISPs. Many devices in the 800 family of routers have been released with many options over the course of many years. Cisco's 881 line of ISR routers exemplifies the wide selection of options offered within Cisco's 800 line of routers. Various models in Cisco's 881 Series router catalog can enable converged media networks by providing IP voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in one integrated appliance. Advanced data protection can include encryption, VPN tunneling, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available options for Cisco 881 ISR routers include redundant WAN links or support for landline high-speed WAN connections such as DSL as well as multiple different 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all on a single desktop appliance.
The baseline Cisco 881 router has a 4-port fast Ethernet managed switch with up to 15 Mbps throughput, support for 20 users, 2-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. The Cisco 881W router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router includes four FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) failover with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST). With a Cisco CUBE license, the Cisco 881 ISR router allows SIP trunk connectivity as a replacement for outdated Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines or FXO voice connectivity to a PSTN carrier. SIP trunks also connect offsite agents in Cisco Call Center environments.
Cisco 4000 Series ISR Routers
The Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers are modular and expandable routers designed for businesses with multiple branch offices and offsite workers requiring direct communication with private data centers and public clouds across VPNs and the Internet. Cisco's 4000 series provides the throughput required for distributed enterprise sites to accommodate mobile workers, cloud services, and multimedia applications by using network optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management techniques. Devices in the ISR 4000 Series run Cisco's powerful IOS XE operating system, come in a 1-rack-unit (RU) or 2RU package, can handle Up to 2 Gbps of traffic, and can have up to 3 interface slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in Gigabit Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core integrated server modules. ISR 4000 models support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. To handle unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR provides comprehensive edge support for policy-enhanced session border control, telephony survivability, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.
The primary difference between Cisco's 4400 and 4300 Series Routers is redundant power supply support in the 4400 Series, providing a higher level of availability. Cisco's 4321 Integrated Services Router comes in a 1 RU desktop package and includes two network interface modules, offers up to 100 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4331 ISR Router has a 1 RU package and includes two NIMs, delivers as much as 300 Mbps throughput, and can handle 360 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The 4351 ISR Router has a 2 RU package and includes three network interface modules, delivers as much as 400 Mbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The dual power supply 4431 model has a 2 RU form factor with three network interface modules, offers as much as 1 Gbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. Cisco's redundant-power 4431 model comes in a 2 RU package and includes three NIMs, provides as much as 2 Gbps throughput, and allows up to 1200 Digital Voice and Video Channels.
Cisco's WAN Edge Routers and Service Provider Routers
Cisco's WAN edge and carrier routers can provide enterprises with high-performance, protected headends to aggregate satellite office and off-site data packets and to provide carriers cost-optimized WAN edge routing. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router portfolio features the ASR 1000 product line and the 9000 ASR routers.
Progent's national group of Cisco CCIE network experts have extensive backgrounds helping global businesses and service providers to design optimal installations and smooth expansion of Cisco's midrange and carrier-class routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance experts offer unbiased, independent security inventory assessments, stealth penetration testing and comprehensive SIEM solutions to help enterprises with Cisco's WAN aggregation routers to meet industry guidelines and statutory regulations for IT data protection and reporting. Progent also offers expertise with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for pentesting. NodeZero depends on AI technology to streamline the vulnerability evaluation cycle of finding security gaps in perimeters and within the internal network infrastructure, prioritizing repairs, mitigating weaknesses, and confirming successful repairs.
Cisco ASR 1000 Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services family of routers is positioned in the center of Cisco's midrange devices that concentrate on acting as headends at the WAN edge. ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers provide a small form factor, single-product solution for enterprises requiring satellite office service aggregation at multigigabit Ethernet performance. ASR 1000 routers incorporate a revolutionary design that combines hardware acceleration with software versatility in order to deliver a rich set of simultaneous services while preserving dependable responsiveness.
ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers feature Cisco's new QuantumFlow Processor made up of 40 purpose-built Packet Processing Engines that in combination can support as many as 160 simultaneous threads. This massive parallelism, in conjunction with hardware acceleration for every service, allows the high-end ASR 1006 router to expand up to 000 hardware queues, 32,000 clients, 4K IPsec VPN tunnels at 10,000 sessions/second, and 2 million Netflow records. This processing capability allows Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers to support a broad range of advanced services concurrently in massive volume while avoiding performance decay that could compromise compliance with SLAs. These services include IOS Firewall, intrusion-detection services, NAT, Flexible Packet Matching, and in-line deep packet inspection. The ASR 1000 also allows tiered traffic management for applying multiple levels of QoS to a data packet in one pass, improving the user experience for high-bandwidth IP voice and video applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 9000 Series Routers are intended as WAN-edge routers for carriers who are required to deliver world-class HD multimedia services to residential, business, and mobile users by offering always-on operation, high performance, and application-aware intelligence. All platforms in the Cisco ASR 9000 line of Routers are powered by the IOS XR operating system, a distributed operating system built for continuous availability. Throughput of Cisco's ASR 9000 family of Aggregation Services Routers can scale up to 96 Tbps per chassis. the ASR 9000 portfolio of Aggregation Services Routers support high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 GE and feature redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, and fan trays plus redundant control planes.
The Cisco ASR 9001 platform is a carrier-edge router in a 6 RU form factor 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 Gbit Ethernet SFP+ ports as well as ports for GPS clocking, BITS, and management. The Cisco ASR 9904 Router has a 6 RU form factor and provides dense 10 GE and 100 GE connectivity in space-limited environments. The 4-slot ASR 9094 can scale up to 4 Tbps of capacity in one box. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router comes in a 30 RU form factor and includes 10 line-card slots that can handle 550 Gbps of switching capacity. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router incorporates 2 route processors and 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.
How Progent Can Help Your Company to Support Cisco Routers
Progent's CCIE and CCNP certified engineers can assist your company to design, configure, and maintain an integrated network infrastructure that can automate operations, reduce expenses, and accelerate time to positive return on investment. By combining Cisco routers with Catalyst switches expertise and Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless expertise, Progent can dramatically enhance the business value of your connectivity environment. Progent can provide on-premises and remote troubleshooting and offers data center support throughout the U.S.
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