Tag: cisco

Cisco has released a new single-slot 16-port 10 Gb Ethernet card for ASR9000 edge router, typically used by service providers such as Deutsche Telekom and Verizon Wireless.

According to Cisco, a 10 Gbps per port for the new card line offers more than 100 Gbps 10GE in total, now users can install up to 320 10 Gb Ethernet ports per system. Cisco claimed the new card is an industry first, which is “faster than any other shipping” available to the module, and “is designed to provide large-scale, non-stop video experience and a reduced carbon footprint.”

The company claimed the new card: the ASR9000 “leads the industry in density and scalability,” because other manufacturers “are limited up to 50Gbps per slot today.”

Cisco ASR 9000 said its line cards “are synce-ready, which means that by nature the work with cell site routers to deliver mobile transfers smoothly.” The company said this eliminates the need for additional cards synchronization.

A key factor behind the demand for capabilities of the card is the growth of video traffic, especially for the Apple iPhone, mobile operators, vendors and analysts see as unlock mobile video demand, although the majority of traffic , according to one analyst firm, comes from laptops and USB devices.

As a result, service providers need to expand its mobile and fixed networks to meet demand video, IPTV and voice traffic, Cisco said.

The company said that “by 2013, the sum of all forms of video such as television, video on demand, Internet video and peer-to-peer will exceed 90 percent of global consumer traffic network … fixed and mobile combined data is expected to grow 66 times over the same period. “

With Cisco’s router lineup changing so often, it can be difficult to stay up to date. What are the current models of routers, and which router would you use for which situations?

What’s missing from the lineup?

For those of us who have been working with Cisco routers for some time, a number of the most well-known routers are missing from the current lineup. Cisco discontinued the 2600 and 3600 Series routers a while ago. For the remote branch office and SMB market, these routers were always the workhorse of the Cisco router lineup.

Continue reading “Find the best Cisco router for your needs”

The Cisco 2800 Series is the replacement for the 2600 Series. In my opinion, the biggest advantage to the Cisco 2800 Series is its versatility; you can use a 2800 Series router in a small, midsize, or large organization. For most network administrators, I think the determining factor is the number and types of interfaces and not necessarily the throughput of the router.

There are four models in the Cisco 2800 Series:

2801: 2 DSP, 2FE, 2HWIC, 2VWIC/VIC, 0NME (Network Module Enhanced), 1Rack unit (RU)
2811: 2 DSP, 2FE, 2HWIC, 4 HWIC, 1NME, 1RU
2821: 3 DSP, 2GE, 2HWIC, 4 HWIC, 1NME or 1NME-X, 2RU
2851: 3 DSP, 2GE, 2HWIC, 4 HWIC, 1NME or NMD/NME-X/NME-XD, 2RU
(Cisco Systems provides a 2800 model comparison on its site.)

The 2800 Series is the first router in the Cisco product line that supports network modules. This means that if there is a network module that you require for your topology or application, the 2800 Series is the least expensive Cisco router (that’s currently available) that you can install it into.

The 2800 Series supports a slew of Cisco interfaces and models. In a Cisco 2800 Series router, you can install a range of network modules, which include the following:

36 port Ethernet switch with PoE
32 port async
8 port voice/fax module
Content engine with hard drive
Cisco Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
Cisco Unity Express (voicemail)
Cisco Network Analysis Module (NAM)
3G cellular WAN interface card
Wireless LAN controller
IP VSAT module
802.11a/b/g WLAN module
8 port HWIC module (to add 8 more HWIC cards)
For example, in a 2821 router, I could install 2 x 32 port Cisco Ethernet switch modules with PoE and use this router as a 64 port switch.

The 2800 Series supports the Cisco IOS, which provides options security (like the integrated stateful firewall), the Cisco Security Device Manager (SDM), 1500 VPN tunnels, Gig Ethernet, and redundant power (except for the 2801 router).

Why we bought the Cisco 2800 Series

At my company, we still have a lot of Cisco 2600 and 3600 Series routers. While not all my sites needed the power of these routers, we needed to use a network module card, and these router models were the first in the Cisco product line that supported those network modules. Specifically, we use NM-16A & NM-32A asynchronous serial modules to support serial devices at each location. The Cisco 2600 Series routers don’t have the CPU and RAM to support the latest IOS and to handle the current network traffic load. (Note: The last date to receive service and support for a 2600 Series is April 28, 2008.)

In my case, the Cisco 2800 Series is the ideal replacement for almost all our routers. We have been purchasing 2811 Series routers, installing a HWIC T1 card for MPLS WAN connectivity, and replacing existing routers at remote sites. We added a NM-16A or NM-32A modules to support the needs of our async devices. I have seen cases where putting in a 2800 Series immediately improved the performance for that remote location.

While I might be able to use a smaller router like an 1800, I need the NM slot from the 2800 Series, and I like the flexibility and power that the 2800 Series offers. Like the 2600 and 3600 Series routers, the 2800 Series has been extremely reliable; so far, not one 2800 Series has failed.

A downside to the Cisco 2800 Series is that it is loud. When I turned it on to configure it in my office, I couldn’t hear my coworkers or my phone.

Conclusion

If you are in the market for a new router (perhaps you’re looking to replace your aging 2600 and 3600 Series routers), I recommend taking a look at the Cisco 2800 Series. Based on my personal use, the Cisco 2800 Series is another rock solid router from Cisco that, like the 2600 and 3600 Series, will serve network admins for years to come.

The real case for the Cisco 2800 Series is that it offers a completely improved package: better performance, solid reliability, versatility of use, and a plethora of WAN interfaces and network modules that you can use to expand it. Also, since the 2600 Series will no longer be supported, the time to replace those routers with the 2800 is now.

Cisco is reminding us that the heart and soul of its business is still the humble router. In this case, possibly a not-so-humble router.
On Tuesday the company announced the CRS-3, its next-generation Net router for the world’s largest Net service providers. Cisco may have overhyped the announcement a tad. After a two-week countdown to an announcement that it said would “forever change the Net,” the company unveiled what looks like an upgrade to its existing “core” router called the CRS-1.

While the hype machine may have failed to deliver something truly revolutionary, Cisco’s announcement is still significant. The new router offers 12 times the traffic capacity than its older-generation routers offer. It is one time faster than the older CRS-1, which was introduced in 2004. And it can handle 322 terabits of traffic per second, or simultaneous video calls for everyone in China, the company said.

The new router, which starts at $90,000, will be sold to the world’s largest Net service providers. These are not your run-of-the-mill ISPs selling 10 Mbps broadband service to consumers. These companies, such as AT&T, Verizon Communications, Level3, and Dash, are the Net service providers that aggregate and shuttle the bulk of the nation’s Net traffic across what is called “the Net backbone.”

When the new Cisco routers are installed, the average broadband consumer likely won’t notice anything new. But over time, they will see the benefits of the upgraded infrastructure. The Cisco CRS-3 will permit these Net backbone service providers to increase capacity so that new applications, video-based applications, like high-definition TV, video conferencing, and 3D TV, can be offered to the mass market.

Cisco CEO John Chambers said this new router will serve as the foundation of the next-generation Net that will see tremendous growth due to video.

“Video is the killer app,” they said. “Video brings the Net to life and most of the devices that will be coming on the network will evolve quickly in to video. ”

Chambers said taking a look at the devices and applications that were at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February are a nice indication of what is to come in the future. And they said all these products feed in to the Net, which will load the network with more traffic.

“Whether it was gambling or video or tablets or ESPN bringing 3D sports to TV, it is about video,” they said. Chambers added that this video traffic, along with other information intensive applications for things such as health care, will need more bandwidth than someone could have imagined a short time ago.

Indeed, the new router will play a significant role in enabling all kinds of new applications and services to be rolled out. And as the access broadband networks get faster, more capacity will be needed in the backbone of the Net to accommodate the traffic. Several broadband providers are already offering 50Mbps and 100Mbps broadband service to consumers.

Google also recently announced that it designs to build ultra-high speed broadband networks to check new services and applications that use 1Gigabit-per-second speeds. And if history has taught the industry anything, it is that when more bandwidth is made available, applications quickly come online to make use of it. Two times consumers start using high-capacity applications that necessitate these speeds, infrastructure equipment deep in the Net backbone will must be in place to support the floodwater of traffic.

While the scale and speed of the new CRS-3 is impressive and definitely takes the Net to a new level of capacity, will it “forever change the Net?” as Cisco billed the announcement.

The Cisco’s announcement is more of an incremental upgrade to the company’s existing product, the CRS-1. IP routing is Cisco’s bread and butter. It is not surprising that the company has developed yet another sizable router to keep up with growing Net traffic demand.

Zeus Kerravala, a senior vice president at the market research firm Yankee Group, agreed. But they said the announcement is still important to the growth of the Net and future innovation of new applications.

“There is no way that a routing announcement could live up to the hype that Cisco created,” they said. “But in the event you look down the road, when consumers require to watch multiple channels of high-definition video and 3D programming, and as more mobile apps come onto 4G wireless networks, companies like Cisco and its rival Juniper Networks require to push the envelope in terms of routing engineering.”

As for Cisco’s consumer strategy, which this announcement was rumored to be about, we are still waiting for a killer set-top box or some other revolutionary product that will truly change the Net as they know it.

This article was first published as a blog post on CNET News.