The current generation of routers ordinarily incorporate L2 switching capability, and many modern switches include L3 routing capability. Routers offered by Cisco, the producer of the vast majority of the industry's routers, have improved dramatically in function and performance and Cisco now makes an extensive product line that includes routers designed to meet the requirements of users from households to the world's largest ISPs.
The latest Integrated Services Routers released by Cisco have the speed and integrated functionality to support data voice and video as well as virtualization while also offering fault tolerance, remote management, seamless extensibility, and advanced security and compliance. Cisco's ISR routers enable your company to establish a firm foundation for an IT environment that can evolve seamlessly as you hire more workers, open new sites, configure additional functions, extend your system to customers and partners, and build an expanding mobile workforce. Progent's Cisco CCIE network engineers offer fast and affordable remote expertise to assist you to select, deploy, administer, upgrade, and troubleshoot Cisco's most advanced routers and can help you to support your older routers or move efficiently to Cisco's newer router products.
Cisco Routers Designed for Home and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for smaller businesses and branch offices provide affordable and reliable no-frills alternatives that allow small sets of workers to share safe access to wide area networks. All these fixed-configuration desktop devices include at minimum four switched Ethernet with wireless options and built-in firewall to provide enhanced protection. Designed for easy setup, management, and troubleshooting, Cisco's entry-level routers reduce ownership costs by cutting equipment and maintenance expenses. Progent's online support experts have in-depth backgrounds providing immediate and affordable IT help for small businesses to set up and support these routers, and Progent's CCIE-certified network consultants can help you to understand ways Cisco's small office routers can add to the business value of your IT network.
ISR 900 Series Routers
The Cisco ISR 900 Series routers are compact, quiet, fixed-configuration appliances intended for SMBs, branches, and home offices. These entry-level routers have four 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 routers. All ISR 900 Series routers offer GETVPN, dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN (DMVPN), FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN throughput is up to 250 Mbps. All versions support up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported dynamic failover protocols for high availability and business continuity include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol, Hot Standby Router Protocol, and Multigroup HSRP (MHSRP). Provisioning and management can be done with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. Cisco ISR 900 Series devices do not work with Cisco SD-WAN.
The Cisco ISR 921 router features dual GE WAN, LTE Cat 4, and a built-in power supply. VPN performance is 150 Mbps. The ISR 926 and ISR 927 routers use external power supplies and support a single WAN interface, Category 4 LTE, plus VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. VPN throughput for both routers is 150 Mbps. The high-performance Cisco ISR 931 router supports dual GE WAN and includes an internal power supply. GE WAN VPN performance is 250 Mbps.
Cisco Meraki MX Series SD-WAN Security Appliances
The Cisco Meraki MX family of desktop routers provide software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and cloud-based unified threat management in one compact appliance able to support 50 to 200 users. Each MX router needs to be licensed for the Meraki cloud. For sites having several WAN network options (e.g., MPLS, fiber optic, cellular), SD-WAN technology allows administrators to specify the WAN interface a given app should use or to build performance-based rules to select the preferred connection. Cisco Meraki MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share important capabilities including:
Cisco 1000 and 1100 Family ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) using Cisco IOS XE software are a selection of fanless appliances intended to deliver network connectivity, wireless access, and advanced security for small and midsize businesses, enterprise branches, retail outlets, kiosks, and machine-to-machine venues. Parallel CPU cores and the ability to run Cisco IOS XE enable these routers to deliver features consistent with Cisco's entire family of Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 Series ISR models are offered 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 range of integrated or pluggable connections such as LAN, WAN, WLAN, SHDSL, 3G/4G wireless, 802.11ac wireless, and SFP Fiber. Cisco 1000 and 1100 family ISR routers can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for seamless multiple-cloud connectivity, advanced security, and centralized monitoring and management across hybrid networks.
Cisco's rackmount or desktop 1100-4G ISR router comes with four integrated GE ports, integrated 3G/4G LTE with two LTE antenna SMA connectors, and one micro-SIM slot. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps. The ISR 1100-6G router adds two 1G SFP connections and features encryption speed of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop-only 1101-4P ISR router has four integrated switched GE connections, offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 3G/4G LTE, and delivers encryption rates of 280 Mbps. The ISR 1109-2P/4p desktop routers have two or four integrated GE ports and two pluggable 3G/4G LTE wireless ports. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps.
Cisco's 1RU or desktop 111x-4P/8P ISR routers have four or eight integrated switched GE ports (two or four with Power over Ethernet) and support VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac, 3G/4G LTE, and 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing speed is 280 Mbps. Cisco's rackmount or desktop ISR 1111X-8P router comes with eight switched GE connections (four with Power over Ethernet) and supports 1G SFP. Encryption packet processing performance is 340 Mbps. The ISR 112x-8P router features eight GE connections with PoE and supports SHDSL, VDSL2/ADSL2+, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 3G/4G LTE wireless, and SFP Fiber. Encryption packet processing rate is 340 Mbps. The Cisco ISR 1161X-8P router has eight built-in switched GE interfaces with Power over Ethernet and provides 3G/4G LTE wireless and SFP Fiber. Encryption rate is 450 Mbps.
Cisco Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 family of routers are modular devices intended to operate at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge to support hybrid networks that can incorporate multiple public and private clouds and SaaS applications. Catalyst 8000 routers use Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide scalability, advanced cybersecurity, and 5G access. Throughput is enhanced via custom hardware, a multicore architecture, high port density, and in-line encryption. Cisco's subscription software services offer continual access to current SD-WAN technology and enable unified management with advanced cybersecurity, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud integration.
Catalyst 8200 Series Enterprise Edge Routers
Catalyst 8200 routers are upgrades to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs), delivering higher IPsec performance and expandability, hardware-accelerated crypto, plus higher built-in WAN interface density. These one-rack unit appliances are built to provide Cisco's SASE, Software-Defined WAN and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branch offices and the enterprise access edge. Cisco's Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T router includes four CPU cores, enables 500 Mbps IPsec performance, and allows 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based applications. Cisco's Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model features eight CPU cores, provides 1Gb IPsec throughput, permits 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and enables edge computing with in-place container models. Both appliances include a NIM slot, one Pluggable Interface Module (PIM) slot, two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN copper ports, and two 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN Small-Form-Factor Pluggable ports. 4-port and 8-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are available for both 8200 models.
Catalyst 8300 Series Enterprise Edge Routers
Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are intended to replace Cisco's 4400 Series Integrated Services Routers, delivering Cisco's secure SD-WAN technology to medium-sized and large company branch offices seeking high WAN IPSec performance combined with cohesive SD-WAN services. Advanced capabilities include 5G wireless support, built-in cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection with application-aware optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 WAN Edge routers enable edge computing for an in-place container environment for Cisco UCS-E modules available on Cisco's 4000 Series ISR appliances. All models in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 family support 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and feature dual power supplies for high availability.
The Catalyst 8300-1N1S-6T router model is a one-rack unit device that includes 8 CPU cores and offers 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates as high as 1.9Gbps. The router includes one SM expansion slot, a NIM slot, and six built-in 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. The Catalyst 8300-2N2S-6T device is a 2RU model that features 8 CPU cores and supports 2G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec data rates of up to 1.9Gbps. The unit 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 one-rack unit appliance that includes 8 CPU cores and offers 5G SD-WAN data rates and IPsec data rates up to 15Gbps. The router includes one a single SM expansion slot, a NIM slot, two built-in 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four integrated 1G Ethernet WAN ports. The Catalyst C8300-2N2S-4T2X model is a two-rack unit router that features 12 CPU cores and supports 5G SD-WAN throughput and IPsec throughput as high as 18Gbps. The appliance has two Service Module plug-in slots, two NIM slots, two integrated 10-Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, and four fixed 1-Gigabit Ethernet WAN interfaces. LAN plug-in modules offered by Cisco range from a 4-port 1-Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM module to a 50-port Catalyst L2 switch Service Module.
Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed form factor, one-rack unit aggregation models for SD-WAN and colocation deployments. Built-in features include route processor, embedded services processor, and aggregation hardware for multiple 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 ports. These routers come with dual AC or DC power supplies for improved availability. Software subscription suites allow continuing use of Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and offer unified management of cybersecurity, application-aware policies, network segmentation, and cloud connectivity optimization.
The Catalyst C8500L-8S4X router is designed to provide the same basic functionality as Cisco's ASR 1000 appliance. The C8500L-8S4X comes with four 1/10GE WAN interfaces and can deliver up to 20 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 19Gbps. The Cisco Catalyst C8500-12X appliance features 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and delivers as high as 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate data rates. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC aggregation router comes with four built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1GE ports and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput can reach 68 Gbps. Cisco's C8500-20X6C high-density router includes 20 built-in SFP+ interfaces and six x QSFP+ ports. Cisco's C8500-20X6C delivers as much as 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate performance.
Cisco ISR G2 Routers
Cisco's ISR G2 routers are intended to offer satellite offices of large businesses with enhanced video and voice applications, virtual networking, security, and dependable connectivity. ISR G2 routers feature an architecture that preserves prior investments in modules for first-generation ISR routers and reduces future expenses by permitting field upgrades to additional modules when they become available. Compared to previous Integrated Services Routers, Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers offer 2-7 times more throughput, far more, and easier maintenance. All ISR Generation 2 routers support Gbit switching and incorporate multi-core processors and multigigabit fabric for higher throughput. ISR Generation 2 routers also support smart power management for better energy efficiency.
A key innovation with ISR G2 routers is the Cisco IOS Software Universal image which includes all of the Cisco IOS technology sets so that your company can rapidly license and activate new features when desired without needing to acquire and transfer a different IOS image over to yourrouter. Progent's team of Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants can provide world-class expertise to help you to plan, implement, and support multi-location installations of Cisco Integrated Services G2 routers that improve branch 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 higher performance Cisco ISR 900 line but remains widely deployed. Cisco's comprehensive line of 800 Series ISR routers is made up of desktop, fanless devices designed and priced for small businesses, branch offices, retail venues, teleworkers, and customers of broadband service providers. A wealth of devices in the 800 Series family of routers have been developed with various options over many years. Cisco's 881 line of ISR routers suggests the vast array of options offered within Cisco's 800 Series line of routers. Models in Cisco's 881 Series router catalog can support unified media environments by providing IP voice and video, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless and data in one integrated router and switch. Built-in data protection can include encryption, VPN, firewall, and URL filtering. For business continuity, available options for 881 ISR routers include redundant WAN connections or support for landline high-speed WAN connections like DSL plus multiple different cellular 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all built into a single desktop appliance.
The baseline Cisco 881 features a 4-port 10/100-Mbps managed switch with up to 15 Mbps throughput, the ability to handle up to 20 users, two-port integrated Power over Ethernet, and IPv6 support. The Cisco 881W router supports 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router includes four FXS ports and 1 FXO port for public-switched-telephone-network (PSTN) fallback with Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) license, Cisco's 881 ISR router allows SIP trunk connectivity as a replacement for legacy PRI lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN service provider. CUBE-based SIP trunks can also connect remote agents in Cisco Call Center deployments.
Cisco 4000 Series ISR Routers
The Cisco 4000 Series Integrated Services Routers are modular and expandable platforms designed for businesses with multiple branches and offsite workers who need direct access to in-house data centers as well as public clouds across VPN tunnels and the Internet. The 4000 series delivers the throughput needed for hybrid WAN environments to support mobile users, Cloud-based services, and HD multimedia applications by utilizing network optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management technology. Models in the 4000 product line are powered by Cisco's IOS XE software, come in a 1-rack-unit (RU) or 2RU form factor, can support Up to 2 Gbps of throughput, and can include up to 3 network interface slots, 2 service module slots, 4 built-in Gigabit Ethernet switches, and 8 CPU core integrated server modules. ISR 4000 models can support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. To manage unified communications, Cisco's 400o ISR provides extensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced SBC, telephony fault tolerance, and TDM gateways.
The major difference between the Cisco 4400 ISR and 4300 Series is the inclusion of dual power supply support in the 4400 Series, providing a greater degree of availability. The 4321 ISR Router has a 1 RU desktop form factor and includes two network interface modules, provides as much as 100 Mbps throughput, and can handle 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The 4331 Integrated Services Router has a 1 RU package and includes two NIMs, delivers up to 300 Mbps throughput, and can handle 360 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The 4351 ISR Router comes in a 2 RU form factor with three NIMs, provides as much as 400 Mbps performance, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's power-redundant 4431 model comes in a 2 RU package and includes three NIMs, provides up to 1 Gbps throughput, and allows up to 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The fault-tolerant 4431 Integrated Services Router features a 2 RU package with three NIMs, provides as much as 2 Gbps throughput, and supports 1200 Digital Voice and Video Channels.
Cisco's Midrange WAN Aggregation Routers and Carrier-class Routers
Cisco's WAN edge and service provider routers can provide enterprises with fast, secure distribution points to manage satellite office and off-site data packets and to offer carriers cost-effective wide area network edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and carrier router product line includes the ASR 1000 routers and the 9000 ASR family.
Progent's national group of Cisco CCIE certified network consultants have in-depth experience working with 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 can provide objective, third-party security vulnerability assessments, penetration testing services and advanced SIEM solutions to help enterprises that use Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to meet industry guidelines and government mandates for IT information protection and reporting. Progent also can provide expertise with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for penetration testing. NodeZero relies on AI technology to streamline the vulnerability evaluation cycle of finding cybersecurity gaps in network perimeters and inside the internal network infrastructure, recommending repairs, fixing weaknesses, and verifying successful repairs.
Cisco ASR 1000 Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services family of routers is designed to fill the middle of Cisco's midrange devices that focus on acting as headends at the wide area network edge. Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers offer a small form factor, single-product answer for large businesses requiring satellite office aggregation at supergigabit Ethernet performance. Cisco's ASR 1000 Aggregation Services routers incorporate an innovative design that combines on-board acceleration with programmable flexibility to deliver a rich set of simultaneous services without sacrificing dependable performance.
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers feature Cisco's proprietary QuantumFlow Processor incorporating 40 custom Packet Processing Engines that in combination can handle as many as 160 concurrent threads. This parallel CPU architecture, in conjunction with on-board acceleration for every service, enables the top-of-the-line ASR 1006 router to expand up to 128 queues, 32K clients, 4K IPsec tunnels at 10K sessions per second, and 2 million Netflow records. This processing power permits Cisco's ASR 1000 Series routers to support a wide variety of advanced services simultaneously in high volume without suffering performance decay that might violate adherence to SLAs. These services include IOS Firewall, intrusion-detection services, NAT, FPM, and in-line deep packet inspection. The ASR 1000 also allows tiered traffic control for performing numerous levels of QoS to a data packet in a single pass, improving responsiveness for resource-intensive voice, video, and conferencing applications.
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers are intended as WAN-edge routers for service providers who are required to deliver world-class data, voice and video services to residential, commercial, and mobile users by offering always-on operation, high performance, and application awareness. All models in Cisco's ASR 9000 Series of Routers are powered by the IOS XR operating system, a self-healing, distributed operating system designed for continuous uptime. Performance of the ASR 9000 Series of Aggregation Services Routers can scale to as high as 96 Tbps per chassis. the ASR 9000 line of Aggregation Services Routers support Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 GE and feature redundant fabric and power modules, power entry modules, plus redundant switch fabric.
The ASR 9001 platform is a provider-edge router that comes in a 6 RU form factor that delivers 120 Gbps of full-duplex fabric capacity. The ASR 9001 has two bays which can accept port adapters for 1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit, and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The chassis incorporates 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 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 form factor with 10 line-card slots able to provide 550 Gbps of throughput. The Cisco ASR 9912 has 2 route processors as well as 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.
How Progent's Consultants Can Assist You to Support Cisco Routers
Progent's CCIE and CCNP certified consultants can help your business to plan, configure, and manage a converged network infrastructure that can simplify operations, lower expenses, and accelerate the path to positive ROI. By combining Cisco integrated services routers with Catalyst switches support and Cisco Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless expertise, Progent can dramatically increase the strategic value of your integrated network. Progent can provide in-person and remote troubleshooting and offers data center support throughout the U.S.
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