Product Overview

The Cisco^® ASR 9000 Series modular line cards provide customers with a flexible solution supporting multiple combinations of Ethernet ports, all in a single slot of the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers. Modular line cards support a wide range of interfaces and densities offering the benefits of network scalability with lower initial costs and ease of upgrades. The Cisco ASR 9000 modular line cards and modular port adapter portfolio continues the Cisco focus on investment protection along with consistent feature support, broad interface availability, and the latest technology.

Using the modular line cards, the Cisco ASR 9000 Series can support customer applications including video-on-demand, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), point-to-point video, Internet video, and cloud-based computing. These line cards can also be used to deliver economical, scalable, highly available, line-rate Ethernet and IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) edge services. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series line cards and routers are designed to provide the fundamental infrastructure for scalable Carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS networks, supporting profitable business, residential, and mobile services (Figure 1).

Figure 1.  Cisco ASR 9000 Series Modular Line Cards

Features and Benefits

The Cisco ASR 9000 Series modular line cards are fully compatible with the Cisco ASR 9922, 9010, and 9006 systems, route switch processors (RSPs), and line cards. No hardware upgrade to the chassis or cooling system is required. Total bandwidth is dependent on the number and type of RSPs installed.

The new line cards deliver the ability to mix and match modular port adapters so that customers can customize each slot in the Cisco ASR 9000 to their specific port demands. As an example, a 4-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet modular port adapter can be matched with a 20-port 1-Gigabit Ethernet modular port adapter, all in a single slot.

Each Cisco ASR 9000 Series modular line card provides simultaneous support for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 services and features, helping operators to qualify and stock a single line card that can be deployed in any combination of Layer 2 and Layer 3 applications. These capabilities help to reduce capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx), as well as reduce the time required to develop and deploy new services. The Cisco modular line cards set a new standard for service density, allowing operators to offer predictable, managed transport services while optimizing the use of network assets.

The line cards, with their synchronization circuitry and dedicated backplane timing traces for accessing the RSP’s Stratum-3 subsystem, provide standards-based line-interface functions for delivering and deriving transport-class network timing, allowing support of network-synchronized services and applications such as mobile backhaul and time-division multiplexing (TDM) migration. Coupled with the Cisco RSP-440 route switch processor, the line cards can also be used for applications requiring IEEE 1588v2 synchronization services. Recognizing that real-time media dominate next-generation services, Cisco has integrated media-monitoring technology into the Cisco Modular line cards. This multimedia technology allows real-time monitoring and statistics collection of real-time video and voice flows, facilitating proactive maintenance and management of today’s interactive services.

Addressing the advantages of consolidating IP and dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) networking, G.709 with Advanced Forward Error Correction (FEC) is provided. G.709 provides visibility into the DWDM transmission system to permit rapid detection and recovery from transmission-layer and DWDM impairments. G.709 can also be configured for proactive protection if signal degradation is detected; it prevents traffic loss and link outage. Advanced FEC extends transmission-layer performance, delivering extended performance over an amplified system without the cost of regeneration or transponders.

Table 1 lists the features and benefits of the Cisco modular line cards. Specific feature and scale support is hardware and software dependent.

Table 1. Features and Benefits of Cisco ASR 9000 Series Modular Line Cards

Line Card Types

The Cisco ASR 9000 Series modular line cards are available in Service Edge Optimized and Packet Transport Optimized variants.

• Service Edge Optimized line cards are designed for customer deployments requiring enhanced quality of service (QoS).
• Packet Transport Optimized line cards are designed for network deployments where basic QoS is required.

Different line card types may be mixed within the same system.

Feature licenses are also available to turn on advanced features on the line cards, as described in the «Software Licensing» section later in this document.

Product Specifications

Table 2 provides product specifications for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series modular line cards.

Table 2. Product Specifications

Weights and Dimensions

Table 3 shows the different physical dimensions and associated weight of the ASR 9000s modular line cards and modular port adapters.

Table 3. Physical Dimensions