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.