Table Of Contents
Cisco 10000 Series Router Technology
Cisco 10000 Series Router Description
Cisco 10000 Series Router Features
Cisco 10000 Series Router Block Diagram
Performance Routing Engine Description
Cisco 10000 Series Router Technology
This chapter describes some aspects of the advanced technology in the Cisco 10000 series router that makes it a highly available, scalable aggregation router that delivers high throughput and high-touch software services.
Cisco 10000 Series Router Description
The Cisco 10000 series router meets stringent Internet Service Provider (ISP) requirements for reliability, cost, and configuration. The following sections describe the features of the Cisco 10000 series router.
Cisco 10000 Series Router Features
The features of the Cisco 10000 series router include:
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Dual -48 VDC or 100 to 240 VAC redundant power entry modules (PEMs), which can be hot-swapped
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All line cards and modules can be hot-swapped. Blower modules can be replaced without interrupting service, within certain time limits.
The Cisco 10000 series ESR supports the following components and cards:
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Additional line cards are under development.
Cisco 10008 Router Features
In addition to the Cisco 10000 series router features, Cisco 10008 router features include:
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Cisco 10005 Router Features
In addition to the Cisco 10000 series router features, Cisco 10005 router features include:
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Chassis Descriptions
The Cisco 10008 and 10005 chassis can be mounted in 19-inch or (optional) 23-inch equipment racks. They contain the following components:
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Slot Allocation
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All cards support hot-swapping and redundancy.
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Figure 2-1 shows a fully loaded Cisco 10008 chassis with redundant PREs, PEMs, and various line cards.
Figure 2-1 Cisco 10008 Router Chassis—Front View
Figure 2-2 shows a fully loaded Cisco 10005 chassis with redundant PREs, PEMs, and various line cards.
Figure 2-2 Cisco 10005 Router Chassis—Front View
Cisco 10000 Series Router Block Diagram
The Cisco 10000 series router is partitioned internally into two major blocks:
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Line cards are linked to the PRE across the Cisco 10000 series router backplane by means of a unique point-to-point interconnect system. Figure 2-3 shows the internal arrangement of components in the Cisco 10000 series router.
Figure 2-3 Cisco 10000 series router Block Diagram
Backplane Expansion
A superior backplane in the Cisco 10000 series router ensures a long life span for the router and protects your investment. The backplane interconnects circuit boards in the chassis using point-to-point links between each line card and the PRE.
The Cisco backplane design improves on communications devices that are based on a shared system bus. Systems based on PCI or similar bus standards are relatively straightforward to design with off-the-shelf components. However, the shared-bus approach has several limitations for the leased line aggregation application:
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Instead of a shared bus, the Cisco 10000 series router uses a Cisco-developed line card interconnect that employs point-to-point links between each line card and the PRE. Each line card has its own private path to the PRE, and no backplane resources relating to packet forwarding are shared between line cards.
This design avoids the difficulties of the shared-bus approach as follows:
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The Cisco 10000 series router backplane supports full PRE redundancy by providing links from each line card to each of the two possible PREs ( Figure 2-4). With these point-to-point links duplicated, failures of backplane interface circuitry cannot disable another line card or the other PRE.
Figure 2-4 Cisco 10000 series router Packet-Forwarding Backplane Wiring Connectivity
The point-to-point backplane technology also provides scalable bandwidth. Bus modes are defined that allow lower-cost implementations with as little as 800 Mbps in each direction between a line card and a PRE. Line cards that take advantage of all backplane connectivity with current silicon technology can achieve 3.2 Gbps in each direction across the backplane. Future improvements in silicon technology will allow Cisco to take advantage of the clean electrical environment to boost backplane throughput even more.
Line Card Description
Line cards link the PRE to the outside world over various kinds of copper or fiber physical interfaces. All of the line cards used in the Cisco 10000 series router follow the same pattern, providing these basic services:
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Figure 2-5 shows a block diagram of a channelized line card.
Figure 2-5 Cisco 10000 series router Optical Interface Line Card
Within the Cisco 10000 series router, the PRE executes most of the intensive packet processing tasks. This design frees the line cards for other tasks—providing the highest possible interface density, supplying the unique circuitry required for each physical interface type, and handling interface-specific functions that require low-latency response such as alarms, FDL, and SONET APS.
Performance Routing Engine Description
The performance routing engine (PRE) is responsible for all of the Cisco 10000 series router Layer 3 functionality. The PRE consists of two elements ( Figure 2-6):
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Figure 2-6 Performance Routing Engine
The two PRE elements employ complementary functions:
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Allocating these two classes of functions to separate processing paths yields the best possible balance between packet throughput and feature set flexibility.
Technology Summary
The Cisco 10000 series router contains many elements of new technology, each one focused on meeting a specific challenge being posed by the rapid development of the Internet. Table 2-1 summarizes some of the technology developed for the Cisco 10000 series router and relates these technology developments to specific issues of concern to growing ISPs.
