The Cisco ASR 9922 is a high-performance 20 line card slot chassis in the ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers, designed for wireline, data center interconnect (DCI), and Radio Access Network (RAN) aggregation. It accommodates the Cisco ASR 9900 Route Processor, the first generation of system processors optimized for convergence of Layer 2 and Layer 3 services required by service providers.
The Cisco ASR 9900 Route Processor integrates robust carrier-class capabilities of Cisco IOS XR Software, featuring true software process modularity. Each process runs in separate protected memory, supporting multiple instances of control, data, and management planes, along with distributed route processing. This architecture delivers high scalability, performance, and fast convergence for video, cloud, and mobile services.
Switch Fabric and Architecture
- Distributed switch fabric architecture with Cisco ASR 9900 Fabric Cards
- Control of up to seven Cisco ASR 9900 Switch Fabric Cards for scalability and high availability on ASR 9922 chassis
- Multistage low-latency non-blocking architecture
- Service intelligence and traffic prioritization
- Highly scalable fabric designed to support high 1/10/100-Gbps port densities with built-in scalability for investment protection
- Offers traffic load balancing simultaneously across up to seven fabrics
- Distributed forwarding plane architecture allowing line cards to support independent forwarding for enhanced performance and scale
- Control plane extension ports combining redundant pair of chassis into a single logical entity for management, scalability, and high availability advantages
- Memoryless switch fabric providing transparent nonblocking low-latency packet forwarding
- Virtual output queuing and arbitration offering service intelligence with prioritization of traffic (unicast and multicast), efficient congestion management, and avoidance of head-of-line blocking
- Centralized arbiter using efficient credit mechanism to ensure transparent switchover with zero packet loss
Superior Network Timing Capabilities
- Centralized Building Integrated Timing Supply (BITS) and DOCSIS Timing Interface (DTI) timing reference systems
- Precision Time Protocol (PTP), or IEEE 1588-2008, through dedicated 10/100-Mbps Ethernet port
- Bidirectional time of day (ToD) with 10MHz and 1-pps interfaces
- IEEE 1588 support delivering timing services over the packet network efficiently and reliably
- Two independent clock source connections: BITS and Synchronization Supply Unit (SSU) DTI offering redundant, centralized network synchronization support
- Standard compliant PTPv2, GPS, DTI, and BITS connections on the route processor, SyncE support natively on line cards
- Centralized clocking functions throughout the system for consolidated timing distribution and recovery to and from line cards
Route Processor Types and Hardware
The Cisco ASR 9900 Route Processor is available in service-edge-optimized (higher memory for large-scale services) and packet-transport-optimized models. Both support service-optimized and transport-optimized line cards, allowing mixing on the same chassis for design flexibility.
- Two 16-GB solid state drives (SSDs) for storing core dumps and reducing system mean time to repair (MTTR)
- Embedded Universal Series Bus (eUSB) memory port for access to onboard USB flash memory devices for software image storing and upgrades
- Front-panel external Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 port for access to USB flash memory devices for quick software image loading and recovery
- Front-panel LEDs providing visual indication of route processor status (active or standby), power management, and activity on compact flash and hard disk drive (HDD)
- Management ports providing easy access to system console
Cisco IOS XR Software powers the ASR 9000 Series with self-healing, distributed operation, software maintenance updates (SMU) for bug fixes and features without service interruption, and Field Programmable Device (FPD) upgrades for FPGAs, ROMmon, etc., while systems run.
Supported Services and Applications
Cisco ASR 9000 Series supports Carrier Ethernet applications including business services such as Layer 2 VPN (L2VPN) and Layer 3 VPN (L3VPN), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), and mobile backhaul transport networks. Features include Ethernet Services, L2VPN, IPv4, IPv6, and L3VPN, Layer 2 and Layer 3 Multicast, IP over dense wavelength-division multiplexing (IPoDWDM), SyncE, EOAM and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) OAM, Layer 2 and Layer 3 access control lists (ACLs), H-QoS, MPLS Traffic Engineering Fast Reroute (MPLS TE-FRR), Multichassis Link Aggregation (MC-LAG), Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB), Cisco Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) and Nonstop Routing (NSR), Point-to-Multipoint Traffic Engineering (P2MP-TE), Lawful Intercept, Smart Call Home (SCH), and Multi Gigabit Service Control (MGSCP).
Multiservice Edge (MSE) and Ethernet MSE (E-MSE) capabilities enable powerful business VPN services with strong SLA enforcement, supporting scale in VRF interfaces, IPv4/IPv6 routes, BFD sessions, BGP NSR instances. High-scale configurations require service-edge optimized A9K-RP-SE model.