Case study for Cisco Routers: Choose your Cisco router accordingly

Thanks for my previous articles where i touched upon the various technology, differences and information about the products. I was trying to provide you the best knowledge from my side and want you to understand the information and product in details. 

I knew many of you are very much interested regarding the information of the Cisco routers and i had many of the queries from you guys on the design and deployment side, where i got so many questions like:

• I have 200 users on site, what bandwidth i can setup on my WAN side and what model of the router i can take it ?
• What will be the design for my LAN and WAN segment ?
• How much bandwidth Cisco 1900 series router backplane supports ?
• Where to use these ASR 1000 series routers ?
• Which model of ASR 1000 series i can use in my design for deployments ?
• If I am going to have the ethernet WAN link with 50 Mbps of speed, can i use 3900 series router there ?
• What are the various features of Cisco 2900 series routers ?
• What router model service provider uses in their MPLS core and edges ?

Fig 1.0- Cisco Routers design

These are some of the questions which was asked by some of you guys. I understand all these queries and want to tell you all these questions can simply answer if you know the stats and specifications of the routers. On the basis of the specifications you can choose your router wisely to address your proper requirements in the network.

If you have any queries after reading the below mentioned router specifications, please reach me out on the mail or post your comments so that i can address your query with the answer. 

Dont make the selections of the router on assumptions, like if you have the WAN bandwidth requirement of 20 Mbps, don't try to use Cisco 2900 and Cisco 3900 series router for this requirements as Cisco 1900 Series router ( Cisco 1941 router ) is sufficient for your requirements.

Similarly, if your requirements is for 2 Gbps of WAN speed for Datacenter connectivity, always go with the Cisco ASR 1000 ( Cisco ASR 1001-X with embedded license ) or if you requirement says  about the WAN bandwidth of 600 Mbps, which router you are going to choose, I will recommend Cisco 4451-X router which fulfil your requirements till 1 Gbps.

So let's start with all the routers one by one to understand the requirements, Meanwhile i will come up with the chart where i will going to mention the Wan Bandwidth and the suggested router in front of it to understand the more about the routers. I will also come up with the comparison of the Juniper, HP and Huawei routers with the same requirements. 

Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers

• Ideal for medium-sized to large enterprises and service providers
• Offers industry-leading performance, service capabilities, reliability, and efficiencies in a compact form factor supporting up to 100 Gbps
• Provides highly secure, high-performance and integrated hardware-based services without the need for additional hardware modules
• Extends network as a platform for cloud computing to help conserve resources and optimize performance
• Offers Cisco Unified Border Element support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking; lowers total communications costs; optimizes network interconnections; and enables rich collaboration applications

Fig 1.1- Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers

Cisco 3900 Series Integrated Services Router

• Ideal for high-end deployments requiring business continuity, WAN flexibility, WAN optimization, superior collaboration capabilities, and investment protection.
• The Cisco 3945 and 3925 are designed for Network Equipment Building Systems (NEBS) environments.
• Delivers scalable rich-media services including telepresence, support for medianet, highest density of service virtualization, and lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) with energy efficiency.
• The Cisco 3900 Series introduces an innovative MGF that allows for efficient module-to-module communication, enabling tighter services interactions across modules while reducing the overhead on the router processor
• Offers field-upgradable motherboard and circuit-speed WAN performance up to 350 Mbps with services such as security, mobility, WAN optimization, unified communications, video, and customised applications.
• Cisco WAAS Express is fully integrated in Cisco IOS Software, with no additional hardware requirement (the maximum DRAM is needed in the router). This integration allows significant savings in capital expenditures (CapEx) by enabling a small-footprint branch-office deployment.
• More than 3700 intrusion-prevention-system (IPS) signatures are supported in Cisco IOS Software, with the ability to load and enable selected IPS signatures. More than 4500 IPS signatures are available with the optional high-performance IPS network module.
• An optional DC power supply that extends possible deployment environments such as central offices and industrial environments will be available in the future
• An optional upgrade to the internal power supply provides inline power (802.3af-compliant PoE, Cisco ePoE, and Cisco Inline Power) to optional integrated switch modules
• Has 3-rack-unit (3RU) modular form factor
• It uniquely provides network transparency, improving deployment flexibility with on-demand service enablement, and integrating with native Cisco IOS Software services such as security, NetFlow, and quality of service (QoS). 
• When populated with dual integrated power supplies, the Cisco 3900 Series can operate in a configurable PoE boost mode in lieu of redundant power mode whereby the power capacity of the platform is increased to almost twice the normal power to support additional PoE ports.
• Advanced security with embedded IP Security with Secure Sockets Layer (IPSec/ SSL) VPN hardware acceleration.
  
  

  

  Fig 2.1- Cisco 3900 Series Comparison

  
  

Cisco 2900 Series Integrated Services Router

• Has 1-rack-unit (1RU) to 2RU modular form factor
• Ideal for midrange deployments requiring business agility, WAN flexibility, and secure collaboration
• Provides rich-media services including telepresence, support for medianet, service virtualization, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with energy efficiency
• Offers circuit-speed WAN performance up to 75 Mbps with services such as security, mobility, WAN optimization, unified communications, voice gateway, video, and customised applications

Cisco 1900 Series Integrated Services Router

• Ideal for small offices requiring modular flexibility for highly secure mobility and customizable applications
• Offers entry-level, highly secure solution for WAN deployments; offers service virtualization and low total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Offers circuit-speed performance up to 25 Mbps with concurrent services
• Offers factory-selectable dual radio 802.11n access point and doublewide high-speed WAN interface card (HWIC) support; has desktop form factor

Fig 3.1- Cisco 1900 Series routers

Cisco 800 Series Integrated Services Router

• Ideal for small offices and teleworkers, or for service providers to deploy as part of their managed network services
• Delivers data, security, wireless, third-generation wireless, Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST), and Cisco Unified Border Element (Cisco UBE)
• Provides for highly scalable true zero-touch deployments

Fig 4.1- Cisco 800 Series Routers

Cisco XR 12000 and 12000 Series Routers

• Ideal for large enterprises and service providers
• Cisco XR 12000 Series Routers: Extend highly secure virtualization, integral service delivery, continuous system operation, and multi-service scale
• Cisco 12000 Series Routers: Feature Cisco I-Flex, a portfolio of shared port adapters (SPAs) and SPA interface processors (SIPs)

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers

• Ideal for carriers offering residential and business services
• Delivers nonstop video and enhanced scalability in a reduced carbon footprint, along with industry-leading levels of carrier transport
• Provides carrier-class reliability for continuous service operation and high availability
• Scales up to 6.4 Tbps per system and delivers comprehensive system redundancy

Fig 6.1- Cisco 9000 series Routers

Thanks to be part this article. Please come up with your queries and let me know if you required any help in the design in your network.