ASR 9000 series Hardware Evolution & Compatibility

The Cisco ASR 9000 product portfolio can seem a little overwhelming
at first. The router names are simple, but some are similar, e.g., ASR
9006 & ASR 9906.
What makes one different from the other? The difference in their
functional capabilities is not apparent from their names.

Also, there are different generations of each hardware module & it is

not immediately obvious if you need to upgrade the whole ASR 9000
system with components of the same generation. I can answer this
right now - You don't need to.

Backward compatibility is a key tenet of the ASR 9000 system

design.

However, some hardware modules, due to the nature of evolution,

may not interoperate - at their optimal best - with older versions of
other components. There’s also the matter of software.
All ASR 9000 series routers run Cisco’s IOS XR. When we improved
the hardware components, we also evolved the operating system
software to take full advantage of the faster, more mighty
hardware. We added in advanced administration control & deeper
visibility into your network.

For us, hardware & software are two sides of the ASR 9000
evolution coin, together they make the ASR 9000 routers better &
more powerful.

This document aims to address this evolution & help clarify any questions you may have on these matters. After you dig in, you'll realize why each generation of hardware exists + what they are &
which components are compatible across versions. This big picture view will help you understand how to pick the right ASR 9000 product with the perfect mix of hardware components to use in
your own networks.
But what I really want to show you is how the ASR 9000 hardware + software improvements through generations are designed to empower you to take control of your modern network.

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 The Big 6: Hardware components of the ASR 9000 system
There are two generations of ASR 9000 chassis.
1. CHASSIS The difference between the two chassis versions is the throughput capacity or bandwidth available per line card ASR 90XX ASR 99XX
slot. First generation chassis supports up to 2 Tbps per LC slot & the second generation chassis supports up to 4
Tbps per LC slot.

There are four generations of route-switch-processors (RSP) built for the ASR 9000 system.
Every version is built with a faster CPU & more cores among other improvements. There are two slots on any RSP RSP440 RSP880
2.1 RSP RSP5
ASR 9000 router for redundant or dual RSPs. RSPs also have the switch fabric integrated on the RP board, this
A99-RSP
switch fabric’s bandwidth was improved on each iteration.

There are three generations of route-processors (RP) built for the ASR 9000 system.

2.2 RP Every version is built with a faster CPU & more cores among other improvements. There are two slots on any
RP2 RP3
ASR 9000 router for redundant or dual RPs.
RP
RPs do not have switch fabric on the board, instead they inter-operate with dedicated switch fabrics.
There are three generations of switch fabric cards (SFC) built for the ASR 9000 system.
The switching capacity roughly doubles in every version. There are seven slots for SFCs on the back of the ASR 9000
chassis, except on the hybrid ASR 9906 & ASR 9910 which have only five dedicated SFC slots.
3. SFC SFC SFC2 SFC3
The other two SFCs are integrated on the RSPs, for a total of seven switch fabrics. ASR 9000 router that supports
SFCs can operate in two modes: 5-fabric & 7-fabric modes.

There are five generations of line cards (LC) built for the ASR 9000 system.
Every version of LCs increases the port density & the speed of the ports. There are also a variety of options like 1 ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH
4. LINE CARD breakout modes, multi-rate ports & fixed or modular type line cards.
GEN GEN GEN GEN GEN
ASR 9000 LCs support 1 GE, 10 GE, 25 GE, 40 GE, 100 GE, 200 GE & 400 GE port speed options.

5. POWER There are three generations of power supply modules built for ASR 9000 systems.
V1 V2 V3
Both AC & DC power supply types are available for all models.

6. FAN There are varying number of versions of fan trays depending on the ASR 9000 model.
TRAY V1 V2 V3
New fan tray versions were developed on a per-router basis when improved cooling was needed.

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ASR 9000 router name decoding Active/Active Switching on Active/Standby RSPs
The chassis name is an indication of the number of LC slots available on that model. Combining that RSPs or route-switch-processors have switch fabric integrated on the same board as the route processor
number with the throughput per LC slot, you can easily calculate the total switching capacity of any components. When dual RSPs are used on a single chassis, the route processing & admin functionalities
ASR 9000 router. Here’s how. of RSP require redundancy, so they behave in Active/Standby fashion.

The last two digits in the number following ASR is the total I/O slots available on the front of the But the switch fabric ASIC on the RSP is always active, whether it is on the active RSP card or the standby
chassis. It does not include the number of SFC slots at the back of the chassis as they may or may RSP card. This Active/Active fabric design helps double the switching capacity of the router.
not be present. i.e., there are ASR 9000 routers without dedicated SFC slots.
RSP440 is so named because each switch fabric provides 220 Gbps of switching capacity per LC slot. With
dual RSPs, both switching fabrics are active, so the total switching capacity of the chassis becomes 440
Gbps per LC slot. If only a single RSP440 is used in an ASR 9000 chassis, then the total switching capacity
Next, every ASR 9000 router supports RSP & RP redundancy, so two of the I/O slots are always for
of the system is reduced by half, i.e., 220 Gbps.
the RSP or RP cards. Then it follows that # of I/O slots – 2 = # of LC slots. Let’s see some examples.

Two additional versions of RSPs are available that are not mentioned in the previous page - RSP440-LT
ASR 9010 is a first-generation chassis, it has 2 RSP slots & 8 LC slots. It supports 2 Tbps per LC slot, & RSP880-LT.
so the total throughput capacity of ASR 9010 is 2 Tbps * 8 = 16 Tbps.
RSP440-LT provides a cost-effective migration path away from RSP2 towards RSP440. RSP880-LT
provides a cost-effective migration path away from RSP440 towards RSP880.
ASR 9922 has 2 RSP slots & 20 LC slots and supports up to 80 Tbps.
RSP880-LT can also be used on the hybrid ASR 9906 & ASR 9910 offering equal functionality as the A99-
ASR 9910 has 2 RSP slots & 8 LC slots; the chassis supports up to 32 Tbps. RSP, whereas RSP880 is not supported on ASR 9906 or ASR 9910 models.

Note that the first generation RSP & RP versions are end-of-sale.

Switching modes: 5-fabric & 7-fabric

Switch Fabric Cards operate in two modes on ASR 9000 routers that support dedicated SFCs. The default mode is 5-fabric, for this to work SFCs should be inserted in slots 0, 2 & 4. The other mode is the 7-fabric
mode. To support larger throughput capacity, 3rd Generation line cards onwards use all 7 fabrics (if available) when configured in 7-fabric mode. To easily identify these line cards, look out for the A99 or A9K
key in the line card PID. Line card names that begin with A99 support both 5-fabric & 7-fabric modes, but line cards that begin with A9K only support 5-fabric mode, they cannot run in 7-fabric mode.
This has some bandwidth implications when mixing 5-fabric & 7-fabric mode line cards on the same chassis, discussed in more detail in a separate document in the Resources section.
SFCs 5-fabric mode offers 4+1 redundancy, and 7-fabric mode uses 6+1 redundancy.

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 ASR 9000 Hardware Compatibility

ASR 9000 product portfolio has both fixed chassis & modular chassis designs. Fixed chassis routers have built-in RSP & line cards, although ASR 9001 does allow modular port adapters, so there is flexibility even
with a fixed chassis. The modular routers in the ASR 9000 series can further be categorized as having:

Integrated switch fabric (RSP based) Separated switch fabric (RP + SFC based) Hybrid switch fabric (RSP + SFC based)

Here’s a quick look at all the routers in the ASR 9000 product portfolio.

SWITCH FABRIC CHASSIS LINE CARD RSP RP SFC

ASR 9000 MODEL CHASSIS TYPE DESIGN RACK UNIT THROUGHPUT SLOTS SLOTS SLOTS SLOTS

ASR 9001 HYBRID BUILT-IN FABRIC 2 120 Gbps 1 1 0 0

FIXED FIXED

ASR 9901 FIXED BUILT-IN FABRIC 2 456 Gbps 1 1 0 0

FIXED FIXED

1
ASR 9903 HYBRID BUILT-IN FABRIC 3 3.6 Tbps FIXED + (OPTIONAL)
PORT EXPANSION
0 2 0
CARD [PEC]

ASR 9904 MODULAR INTEGRATED FABRIC 6 8 Tbps 2 2 0 0

ASR 9006 MODULAR INTEGRATED FABRIC 10 8 Tbps 4 2 0 0
ASR 9906 MODULAR HYBRID FABRIC 14 16 Tbps 4 2 0 5
ASR 9010 MODULAR INTEGRATED FABRIC 21 16 Tbps 8 2 0 0
ASR 9910 MODULAR HYBRID FABRIC 21 32 Tbps 8 2 0 5
ASR 9912 MODULAR SEPARATED FABRIC 30 40 Tbps 10 0 2 7
ASR 9922 MODULAR SEPARATED FABRIC 44 80 Tbps 20 0 2 7
Version compatibility of different hardware components becomes important to understand for modular routers. So, let’s look at the interoperability between different generations of
hardware components for the modular ASR 9000 routers.

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 Separated switch fabric (RP + SFC based)

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 Integrated switch fabric (RSP based)

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ASR 9904 uses integrated RSP just like ASR 9006 & ASR 9010 but is built using the second generation of ASR chassis, 99XX. So, it supports a few more line card options, specifically
7-fabric mode A99 line cards. We’ll look at ASR 9904 RSP & line card compatibility now.

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 Hybrid switch fabric (RSP + SFC based)

RSP is now end-of-sale & end-of-life.

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 Power Supply & Fan Tray Compatibility

Power supply version 1 is now end-of-sale & end-of-life.

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A word about software: IOS XR 32 Bit & IOS XR 64 Bit RESOURCES

Click here to read the ASR 9000 series data sheet.

Appendix following this page contains PID names of

all the 6 hardware modules grouped together by
generations.

You can reach out to the MIG PLM & TME team with your
questions at the Cisco Community Board for ASR 9000.

Talk to your sales/accounts team for more ideas about how

ASR 9000 products can serve your network.

LOOKING FORWARD

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 APPENDIX: ASR 9000 Commons (RSP/RP, SFC, PS, FAN)

The above table shows the PID names of ASR 9000 Commons, power supply modules & fan trays across different generations. They are not version compatibility or interoperability charts.

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 APPENDIX: ASR 9000 Line Cards

The above table shows the PID names of ASR 9000 line cards across different generations (-CM variants are not listed). They are not version compatibility or interoperability charts.
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