Cisco Certified Network Consulting

The current generation of routers typically incorporate Layer 2 switches, and many modern switches include some Layer 3 routing functionality. Routers offered by Cisco, the supplier of the vast majority of the industry's routers, have improved dramatically in capability and speed and Cisco now offers an extensive product line that includes routers built to meet the needs of users ranging from individual telecommuters to the world's largest ISPs.

The latest ISR routers from Cisco have the performance and built-in features to manage IP voice and video as well as virtual environments while also offering fault tolerance, remote administration, easy expandability, and advanced security and compliance. Cisco's ISR routers enable your company to build a firm foundation for an information environment that can evolve seamlessly as you hire new workers, open extra sites, activate new services, extend your system to clients and partners, and support an expanding mobile user base. Progent's Cisco certified CCIE network consultants offer fast and affordable online expertise to assist your company to select, configure, manage, upgrade, and support Cisco's most advanced routers and can help you to maintain your legacy routers or move non-disruptively to Cisco's newer router products.

Cisco Routers for Home Offices and Small Offices and Branches
Cisco's routers for small businesses and branch offices offer low-cost and dependable entry-level alternatives that enable small groups of workers to have safe access to wide area networks. These fixed-configuration desktop routers include at minimum four 10/100 Ethernet switches with wireless options and integrated firewall to provide advanced protection. Designed for easy setup, management, and troubleshooting, Cisco's small business and home routers reduce TCO by lowering acquisition and operational investments. Progent's online support experts have in-depth experience providing fast and economical IT assistance for small businesses to set up and support these devices, and Progent's CCIE-certified network engineers can assist you to understand how Cisco's small office routers can increase the business value of your IT system.

ISR 900 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco's ISR 900 Series routers are small-footprint, quiet, set-configuration appliances designed for SMBs, branches, and home offices. These value-priced routers have four GE switch ports and can support 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 routers. All ISR 900 models offer Group Encrypted TransportVPN (GETVPN), dynamic multipoint virtual private network VPN, FlexVPN, and firewall. VPN performance is up to 250 Mbps. All router versions support up to 50 virtual LANs. Supported automatic failover technology for high availability include Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), Hot Standby Router Protocol, and Multigroup HSRP. Setup and management can be performed with Cisco Configuration Professional Express, Cisco DNA Center, and Cisco IOS. ISR 900 Series routers do not support Cisco SD-WAN.

The Cisco ISR 921 router comes with dual GE WAN ports, LTE Cat 4, and an internal power supply. VPN performance is 150 Mbps. Cisco's ISR 926 and ISR 927 routers include external power and feature a single WAN interface, Category 4 LTE, VDSL2 and ADSL2/2+. VPN performance for both routers is 150 Mbps. The top-of-the-line ISR 931 features 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 and cloud-hosted unified threat management in a single compact device able to handle 50 to 200 users. Every MX series appliance needs to be licensed for the Meraki cloud. For venues having multiple external network options (e.g., MPLS, broadband, cellular), SD-WAN technology permits administrators to specify the WAN interface an app should use or to build performance-based algorithms to determine the preferred interface. MX fixed-configuration desktop routers share important capabilities that include:

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

Cisco 1000 and 1100 Family ISR Branch Routers
Cisco 1000 and 1100 family Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) using Cisco IOS XE internetworking operating system are a line of fanless routers intended to deliver high-performance network service, wireless access, and multilayer security for SMBs, branch offices, retail stores, kiosks, and machine-to-machine venues. Parallel CPU cores and the ability to run Cisco IOS XE software enable these routers to offer features consistent with Cisco's complete line of Enterprise routers. 1000 and 1100 Series ISR routers are available with 4 or 8 LAN ports and provide Gigabit Ethernet packet forwarding. Various models include PoE and PoE+, auto provisioning, plus a range of built-in or pluggable connections such as LAN, WAN, wireless LAN, SHDSL, 4G LTE Advanced wireless, 802.11 Wi-Fi, and SFP. Cisco 1000 and 1100 Series ISR models can be used with Cisco's SD-WAN subscription services for transparent multi-cloud access, advanced cybersecurity, and cohesive monitoring and management across hybrid network models of any complexity.

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 a micro-SIM plug-in slot. Encryption packet processing performance is 200 Mbps. The 1100-6G ISR router also includes two 1G SFP ports and features encryption speed of 520 Mbps. Cisco's desktop 1101-4P ISR router comes with four built-in GE ports, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well as 3G/4G LTE, and features encryption speed of 280 Mbps. The 1109-2P/4P ISR desktop routers include two or four integrated switched GE ports and dual pluggable 3G/4G LTE ports. Encryption packet processing throughput is 200 Mbps.

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

Catalyst 8000 Series Branch and WAN Edge Platforms for SD-WAN and Routing
Cisco's Catalyst 8000 Series routers are modular appliances designed to work at the enterprise branche and the WAN edge in support of hybrid networks that can include a mix of public and private clouds and cloud-hosted applications. Catalyst 8000 devices are powered by Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN Software and provide scalability, intelligent cloud security, and 5G connectivity. Throughput is optimized via purpose-built hardware, a multicore design, high port capacity, and in-line encryption. Cisco's subscription software services provide continual access to the latest SD-WAN technology and allow centralized management with enhanced security, application-based policies, network segmentation, and cloud readiness.

Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series Enterprise Branch Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8200 Series routers are successors to Cisco's 4300 Series Integrated Services Routers, delivering higher IPsec performance and scale, accelerated crypto, plus greater integrated WAN port density. These one-rack unit routers are built to provide Cisco's Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Software-Defined WAN and 5G-connection technology to enterprise branch offices and the enterprise access edge. The Catalyst C8200L-1N-4T model includes four CPU cores, supports 500 Mbps IPsec traffic, and allows 1,500 SD-WAN tunnels. The Catalyst 8200L router does not support container-based apps. The Catalyst C8200-1N-4T model features eight CPU cores, delivers 1Gb IPsec throughput, supports 2,500 SD-WAN tunnels, and enables edge computing with existing container models. Both appliances come with a Network Interface Module slot, one PIM slot, two 1G Ethernet WAN copper interfaces, and two 1G Ethernet WAN SFP ports. 4-port and 8-port 1 Gigabit Ethernet switch NIM modules are supported by both 8200 models.

Catalyst 8300 Enterprise Edge Routers
Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series WAN Edge routers are designed to supersede Cisco's 4400 Series ISR Routers, providing Cisco's secure SD-WAN solution to mid-sized and large company branches seeking high WAN IPSec performance with unified SD-WAN services. Enhanced capabilities include 5G wireless support, built-in cybersecurity, WAN MACSec, integrated enhanced Layer 2 switching, and Deep Packet Inspection with application-aware optimization. Cisco Catalyst 8300 routers support edge computing for an in-place container environment for Cisco UCS-E modules available on Cisco's 4000 family of ISR appliances. All models in the Cisco Catalyst 8300 Series portfolio allow 4,000 SD-WAN tunnels and include backup power supplies for high uptime.

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

Cisco Catalyst 8500 Aggregation Edge Routers
The Catalyst 8500 Series Aggregation Edge routers are fixed, one-rack unit aggregation devices for SD-WAN and colocation environments. Integrated features include route processor, embedded services processor (ESP), and aggregation hardware for various interfaces and connectivity options. IPsec throughput is double compared to Cisco's earlier generation ASR1001-X router. Flexible connectivity alternatives include 1GE to 100 GE WAN interfaces. These routers include dual power supplies for enhanced availability. Software subscription suites allow continuing use of Cisco DNA Center Software for SD-WAN and routing and enable centralized management of cybersecurity, application-based policies, segmentation, and cloud support.

The Cisco Catalyst C8500L-8S4X router is intended to offer a similar key features as Cisco's ASR 1000 router. The C8500L-8S4X includes four 1/10GE WAN ports and supports as high as 20 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 19Gbps. The Cisco Catalyst C8500-12X router includes 12 built-in 1/10GE WAN interfaces and delivers up to 120 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate data rates. SD-WAN IPsec throughput is up to 51 Gbps. The C8500-12X4QC unit includes four built-in 1/10GE WAN ports and eight 1G interfaces and can support up to 200 Gbps aggregate performance. SD-WAN IPsec performance is up to 68 Gbps. The C8500-20X6C router includes 20 built-in SFP+ interfaces and 6 x 40/100GE interfaces. The C8500-20X6C supports as much as 500 Gbps Cisco Express Forwarding aggregate throughput.

Cisco ISR Generation 2 Routers
Cisco's ISR Generation 2 routers are intended to provide satellite offices of enterprises with enhanced collaboration, virtualization, protection, and reliable connectivity. ISR G2 routers feature a design that preserves prior investments in modules for first-generation Integrated Services Routers and lowers down-the-line expenses by permitting easy upgrades to additional modules as they become available. In comparison to older ISR routers, Cisco's Integrated Services G2 routers feature 2-7 times more performance, substantially more, and easier maintenance. All Cisco ISR Generation 2 routers support GE switching and incorporate multi-core processors and ultra-fast fabric for higher throughput. Integrated Services G2 routers also offer intelligent power control for better energy efficiency.

A major innovation with Integrated Services Generation 2 routers is the IOS Software Universal image which contains all of the IOS technology sets so that your company can rapidly license and activate extra functions as required without having to download and transfer a new IOS Software image over to yourrouter. Progent's team of CCIE network consultants can provide proven skills to help you to plan, configure, and maintain multi-site installations of Cisco Integrated Services G2 routers that improve satellite office productivity and cut the costs of upgrades and support.

Cisco's ISR 800 Line of Routers
The 800 Series of ISR routers has been functionally replaced by the higher performance Cisco ISR 900 family but is still widely deployed. Cisco's extensive portfolio of 800 Series ISR routers consists of desktop devices designed and priced for small organizations, branch locations, retail shops, teleworkers, and clients of broadband service providers. A wealth of devices in Cisco's 800 family of routers have been developed with many options over the course of many years. Cisco's 881 line of ISR routers suggests the wide array of options available within Cisco's 800 line of routers. Various models in Cisco's 881 Series router portfolio can support converged media environments by providing 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 survivability, available options for Cisco 881 routers include duplicate wide area network links or support for landline broadband WAN links such as DSL plus multiple 3G and 4G wireless WAN connections all built into a single appliance.

The basic 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, 2-port integrated PoE, and IPv6 compatibility. Cisco's 881W ISR router includes 802.11g/n Wi-Fi. Cisco's 881 SRST router features 4 FXS ports and 1 FXO port for PSTN failover with Cisco SRST. With a Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) license, the Cisco 881 ISR router allows SIP trunk connectivity as a replacement for legacy Primary Rate Interface (PRI) lines or foreign exchange-office (FXO) voice connectivity to a PSTN service provider. SIP trunks can also support offsite agents in Cisco Call Center environments.

Cisco 4000 Series ISR Routers
Cisco's 4000 Line of Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) are modular and expandable platforms designed for organizations with multiple branches and remote users requiring direct access to in-house data centers and public clouds via VPN tunnels and the Internet. The 4000 series delivers the throughput needed for hybrid WAN environments to support mobile users, cloud services, and HD multimedia applications by utilizing network optimization, deep packet inspection, and traffic-management technology. Models in the ISR 4000 family are powered by Cisco's IOS XE operating system, come in a 1-rack-unit (RU) or 2RU form factor, 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 server modules. ISR 4000 models support integrated Gigabit Ethernet, T1/E1, T3/E3, PRI and xDSL. To manage unified communications, the 400o ISR provides extensive edge support technology for policy-enhanced SBC, branch telephony fault tolerance, and Time Division Multiplexing gateways.

The major difference between the Cisco 4400 ISR and 4300 Series Routers is the inclusion of dual power supply support in the 4400 ISR Series, providing a higher level of availability. The 4321 ISR Router has a 1 RU desktop form factor and includes two network interface modules, offers as much as 100 Mbps throughput, and supports 240 Digital Voice/Video Channels. The 4331 ISR Router has a 1 RU form factor with two network interface modules, delivers up to 300 Mbps performance, and can handle 360 Digital Voice/Video Channels. Cisco's 4351 ISR Router has a 2 RU form factor with three network interface modules, delivers as much as 400 Mbps performance, and can handle 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The power-redundant 4431 router comes in a 2 RU package with three NIMs, offers up to 1 Gbps performance, and can handle 720 Digital Voice and Video Channels. The fault-tolerant 4431 model has a 2 RU package and includes three NIMs, provides as much as 2 Gbps throughput, and can handle 1200 Digital Voice and Video Channels.

Cisco's Midrange WAN Aggregation Routers and Carrier-class Routers
Cisco's midrange and carrier routers can provide larger businesses with fast, secure head ends to aggregate satellite office and remote user data packets and to offer service providers cost-optimized WAN edge solutions. Cisco's WAN aggregation and service provider router product line features the Cisco ASR 1000 product line and the 9000 ASR family.

Progent's nationwide team of Cisco CCIE certified network consultants have in-depth backgrounds working with global businesses and ISPs to plan efficient deployments and smooth expansion of Cisco's WAN edge routers. Progent's GIAC-certified information assurance consultants offer unbiased, independent security inventory assessments, stealth penetration testing and comprehensive Security information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions to help enterprises with Cisco's Aggregation Services Routers to comply with industry guidelines and statutory mandates for network data protection and reporting. Progent also offers help with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform for pentesting. NodeZero relies on AI technology to streamline the vulnerability assessment cycle of discovering cybersecurity gaps in perimeters and inside the internal network infrastructure, prioritizing remediation, mitigating weaknesses, and verifying fixes.

Cisco ASR 1000 WAN Edge Routers
Cisco's ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge family of routers is positioned in the middle of Cisco's midrange routers that focus on acting as headends at the wide area network edge. ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services routers provide a small footprint, multi-function answer for large businesses who need branch office service aggregation at supergigabit Ethernet speeds. ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers incorporate an innovative architecture that combines hardware acceleration with software flexibility in order to deliver a rich set of concurrent services without sacrificing consistent performance.

Cisco's ASR 1000 WAN Edge routers include Cisco's proprietary QuantumFlow Processor incorporating 40 purpose-built Packet Processing Engines that in combination can support as many as 160 simultaneous threads. This massive parallelism, combined with hardware acceleration for all services, allows the high-end ASR 1006 WAN Edge router to expand up to 128 queues, 32,000 clients, 4K IPsec tunnels at 10K sessions per second, and 2 million Netflow log records. This processing power allows ASR 1000 Series WAN Edge routers to support a wide variety of sophisticated services concurrently in high volume while avoiding throughput decay that might violate compliance with SLAs. These advanced services include Cisco IOS Firewall, IPS, Network Address Translation, Flexible Packet Matching, and in-line deep packet inspection. The Cisco ASR 1000 also permits sophisticated traffic control for applying multiple levels of QoS to a packet in a single pass, improving responsiveness for high-bandwidth voice, video, and conferencing applications.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers
Cisco's ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers are intended as WAN-edge routers for service providers who are required to support world-class HD multimedia services to home, commercial, and mobile customers by offering zero downtime operation, high performance, and application-aware intelligence. All platforms in the ASR 9000 family of Routers run the IOS XR, a distributed operating system built for non-stop availability. Performance of the Cisco ASR 9000 line of Routers can scale up to 96 Tbps per chassis. Cisco's ASR 9000 line of Aggregation Services Routers support high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 GE and feature redundant fabric and power supply, power entry modules, plus redundant control planes.

The Cisco ASR 9001 model is a carrier-edge router that comes in a 6 RU form factor that delivers 120 Gbps of full-duplex fabric capacity. The ASR 9001 has two modular bays which can support port adapters for 1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit, and 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The chassis includes four 10 GE SFP+ ports and ports for GPS clocking, building integrated timing supply (BITS), and management. The ASR 9904 Router has a 6 RU chassis and offers line-rate 10 GE and 100 GE connections in space-constrained environments. The 4-slot router can support up to 4 Tbps of capacity in one chassis. The Cisco ASR 9912 Router has a 30 RU form factor and includes 12 slots slots that can support 550 Gbps of throughput. The ASR 9912 incorporates 2 route processors and 6+1 Fabric Cards for N+1 redundancy.

Ways Progent's Consultants Can Help Your Business with Cisco Router Products
Progent's Cisco certified consultants can assist your company to design, setup, and support a converged business network that can automate operations, lower costs, and accelerate time to positive return on investment. By combining Cisco routers with Catalyst switches support and Catalyst and Meraki Wi-Fi wireless integration, Progent can dramatically enhance the business value of your network infrastructure. Progent can provide in-person and remote support and offers data center support throughout the U.S.

To find out additional details about Progent's consulting support for Cisco networking products, choose a topic:

• Introduction to Progent's Cisco Support
• Fast and Affordable Online Help from a CCIE Engineer
• Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewalls: Configuration and Management Support
• ASA 5500-X Series Firewall with Cisco Firepower Services: Consulting and Troubleshooting Expertise
• Cisco ASA 5500 Firewall Upgrade. Migration Services
• PIX 500 Series Firewall Upgrade. Migration Expertise
• Cisco Wireless Network Design Help
• Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points Deployment Services
• Cisco Small Business WiFi Access Points Consulting Expertise
• Catalyst Wi-Fi 6/6E APs Planning, Configuration and Debugging Support
• Cisco Wireless Controllers Consulting
• Cisco Meraki Wireless APs Design Support
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Consulting and Technical Support
• Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Expertise and Wireless VoIP Phone Solutions
• Cisco Jabber and Management Services
• Catalyst Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Nexus Switches Deployment Services
• Meraki Switches Configuration and Maintenance Expertise
• Cisco VPN Engineering Support
• SIP and CUBE Infrastructure Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and CUBE Integration Expertise
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication Services for Remote Workers
• Design Solutions for Cisco-powered Datacenters
• Network Optimization Services for Service Providers
• Unified Cloud-based and Hybrid Network Management Techniques for Cisco-powered Infrastructure