The Cisco Aggregation Services Router (ASR) series of routers are modular routers produced by

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

. The highest end of the lineup, the ASR 9000 series, is intended for

service provider A service provider (SP) is an organization that provides services, such as consulting, legal, real estate, communications, storage, and processing services, to other organizations. Although a service provider can be a sub-unit of the organization t ...

(SP) core networks.

History

Networking equipment was traditionally categorized by functionality as being either a

switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

or a router. Switches bridged (transmitted) L2/

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1 ...

traffic, and a router forwarded (transmitted and routed) L3/ IP traffic. As products became more sophisticated, the distinction between a switch and a router became blurred as high-end switches began to route traffic in addition to bridging, and likewise routers began to perform L2 switching. At the same time, the enterprise market was diverging from the service provider market. Though still maintaining the terms switch and router in their product names, Cisco divided their high-end networking products by market. However, many enterprise customers chose equipment Cisco categorized under the banner of being intended for service providers, and vice versa. Prior to the ASR 9000 series, Cisco's high-end SP product portfolio consisted of the CRS-1, the GSR, and the 7600 (and the 6500). The ASR 9000 series devices are the successor to both the GSR and the 7600. When the CRS-1 is deployed in a large network at the core, the ASR 9000 complements it on the edge; both run IOS-XR. In 2011, Cisco announced capacity upgrades and support of network Virtualization (nV) capabilities for the ASR 9000. In 2011, the ASR 9000 was awarded "Best Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Product" at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress.

Models

ASR 900 series

The ASR 900 series is a chassis-based modular router that runs the

Cisco IOS XE IOS XE is a release train of Cisco Systems' widely deployed Internetworking Operating System (IOS), introduced with the ASR 1000 series. It is built on Linux and provides a distributed software architecture that moves many operating system re ...

Linux-based operating system.

ASR 920 series

The ASR 920 series is a chassis-based modular router running Cisco IOS XE.

ASR 1000 series

The ASR 1000 series is chassis-based modular router running Cisco IOS XE.

ASR 9000 series

Cisco ASR 9000 series routers are routers designed for the service provider market. It runs the IOS XR Linux-based operating system. Its major characteristics are: * IOS XR uses a less verbose configuration syntax compared to

Cisco IOS The Internetworking Operating System (IOS) is a family of proprietary network operating systems used on several router and network switch models manufactured by Cisco Systems. The system is a package of routing, switching, internetworking, and ...

and

* Designed for

Metro Ethernet A metropolitan-area Ethernet, Ethernet MAN, or metro Ethernet network is a metropolitan area network (MAN) that is based on Ethernet standards. It is commonly used to connect subscribers to a larger service network or the Internet. Businesses c ...

networks * Designed for video and other high bandwidth applications * Supports a variety of interface types, those commonly used by Service Providers

IOS XR release support

References

{{Cisco Systems Routers (computing) Cisco products