Data Sheet

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Ethernet Line Cards

Product Overview
®
The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Ethernet Line Cards are the latest generation of service-provider-focused Carrier
Ethernet line cards from Cisco. These line cards deliver economical, scalable, highly available, line-rate Ethernet
and IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) edge services. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Line Cards together with
the Cisco ASR 9000 Series platforms are designed to provide the fundamental infrastructure for scalable Carrier
Ethernet and IP/MPLS networks, enabling profitable business, residential, and mobile services (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Cisco ASR 9000 Series Ethernet Line Cards: 40-Port Gigabit Ethernet, 4-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 8-Port 10 Gigabit
Ethernet, 20-Port Gigabit Ethernet+2-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet and the 16-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet

© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 1 of 9
 Data Sheet

Features and Benefits

Each Cisco ASR 9000 Series Ethernet Line Card provides hierarchical QoS and simultaneous support for both Layer
2 and Layer 3 services and features, enabling operators to qualify and stock a single line card that can be deployed
in any combination of Layer 2 and Layer 3 applications, thereby reducing capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating
expenses (OpEx), as well as reducing the time required to develop and deploy new services. With capability of up to
512K queues, 32,000 interfaces, 1+ million routes, 1 million MAC addresses, and 36,000 VPNs, the Cisco ASR 9000
Series Ethernet Line Cards set a new standard for service density, allowing operators to offer predictable, managed
transport services while optimizing the use of network assets. With its synchronization circuitry and dedicated
backplane timing traces for accessing the route switch processor’s (RSP’s) Stratum-3 subsystem, the Cisco ASR
9000 Series Ethernet Line Cards provide standards-based line-interface functions for delivering and deriving
transport-class network timing, enabling support of network-synchronized services and applications such as mobile
backhaul and time-division multiplexing (TDM) migration. Recognizing that real-time media dominate next-generation
services, Cisco has integrated media-monitoring technology into the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Ethernet Line Cards.
This multimedia technology enables real-time, standards-based monitoring and statistics collection of real-time video
and voice flows, enabling proactive maintenance and management of today’s media-rich services.

Addressing the advantages of consolidating IP and DWDM networking, G.709 with Advanced Forward Error
Correction (FEC) is provided. G.709 provides visibility into the DWDM transmission system to enable rapid detection
and recovery from transmission-layer and DWDM impairments. Before traffic is lost and a link outage occurs, G.709
can also be configured for proactive protection if signal degradation is detected. The Advanced FEC extends
transmission-layer performance, delivering extended performance over an amplified system without the cost of
regeneration or transponders.

Table 1 lists the features and benefits of the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Line Cards.

Table 1. Features and Benefitsi of Cisco ASR 9000 Series Line Cards

Feature Benefit

Portfolio

40-port Gigabit Ethernet 40-port 10/100/1000 Mbps, Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP)-based line card

4-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet 4-port 10 Gbps, XFP-based line card

8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet 8-port 10 Gbps, oversubscribed XFP-based line card

2-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet + 20-port 2-port 10 Gbps, XFP-based and 20-port 100/1000 Mbps, SFP-based line card
Gigabit Ethernet

8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet 8-port 10 Gbps, XFP-based line card

16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet 16-port 10 Gbps, oversubscribed SFP+-based line card

Interface Support

Mixed fiber and electrical Short reach (SR), intermediate reach (IR), long reach (LR), coarse wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM),
dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM), and 10/100/1000BASE-T
2
G.709 and Advanced FEC Standard G.709 providing transmission-layer OA&M. G.709 Standard FEC and Advanced FEC enhanced
transmission system performance

SFP, XFP and SFP+ interfaces SFPs, XFPs and SFPs provide mix/match interface types (of the same kind) across a single line card,
including copper 10/100/1000; optical SX, LX, ZX, and GE SFP interfaces; 100-Mbps FX SFP interfaces; and
DWDM and CWDM GE SFP interfaces, as well as support for LR, ER, and ZR and ITU-T DWDM XFP
interfaces. For a complete list of supported interfaces, please see the Cisco ASR 9000 Transceiver Modules
data sheet.

Scalable and Integrated Multiservice Support

Layer 2 and Layer 3 services Combined IP, MPLS, Ethernet, Layer 2 VPN (L2VPN), and Layer 3 VPN (L3VPN) services

Service density Up to 32,000 Layer 2 and Layer 3 services interfaces and 512,000 queues

Routes and MACs 1+ million IPv4 routes and up to 1 million IEEE MAC addresses

VPNs Up to 32,000 L2VPNs and 4000 L3VPNs

© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 2 of 9
 Data Sheet

Feature Benefit

(R)Evolutionary Monitoring

Carrier-class operations, NetFlow, 802.1ag, 802.3ah, Y.1731 Fault Management and Performance Monitoring, IP service-level
administration, and maintenance agreement (IP SLA), Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD), BGP Prefix Independent Convergence (PIC)
(OA&M) & Reliability Core and Edge, virtual circuit connectivity verification (VCCV), ping, and traceroute

Video Monitoring Video Monitoring (VidMon) provides real-time monitoring of video flows, including the issuance of alarm upon
degradation.

Carrier-Grade OS
®
Cisco IOS XR Software Modular, patchable, restartable, scalable, highly available, carrier-core and edge proven operating system

T-Class Synchronization

Synchronization Derive and provide synchronization from and to Ethernet interfaces, Cisco ASR 9000 Route Switch
Processor (RSP), and network synchronization interfaces

1. Specific feature and scale support is software dependent.

2. Available on A9K-2T20GE-B/E 10GE line card ports.

Line Cards Types

The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Line Cards are available in three variations: Low Queue, Medium Queue, and High
Queue. Each line card type provides the same features and performance. Line card types may be mixed within the
same system. Table 2 illustrates the key differences between the line card types.

Table 2. Line Card Typesii

Feature Low Queue Medium Queue High Queue

Total queues 8 per port 96,000 – 192,000 376,000 - 512,000

Policers 8000 64,000 – 128,000 256,000 – 512,000

EFPs 4000 16,000 32,000

Line Card Feature Licenses

In addition to the three scale types of line cards, there are optional feature licenses that can be used with the line
cards. These include optional licenses for enabling Layer 3 VPNs, G.709/FEC, higher L3 scale and Video
Monitoring.

The L3-VPN Line Card License provides access to system VPN Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instances on a line
card basis. Table 3 shows the VRF scale and line card compatibility of the three Layer 3 VPN licenses.

Table 3. Feature Licenses

L3-VPN License Feature Low Queue Line Card Medium Queue Line Card High Queue Line Card

A9K-IVRF-LIC Up to 8 VRF instances X X X

A9K-AIP-LIC-B Full-scale VRF instances X X Not applicable

A9K-AIP-LIC-E Full-scale VRF instances Not applicable Not applicable X

The Advanced Optical Line Card (A9K-ADV-OPTIC-LIC) License enables G.709 and FEC on a per-line-card basis.
This license may be used on the A9K-2T20GE-B, A9K-2T20GE-E, A9K-8T-B, A9K-8T-E and A9K-16T/8-B line cards.

The L3 scale (A9K-L3XL-LIC) and Video Monitoring (A9K-ADV-VIDEO-LIC) Licenses are system licenses. The L3
scale license is only required if your routing scaling requirement is more than 1 million routes per system and you
have a –B or a –L line cards in the configuration. It enables scaling of other routing parameters as well so please
contact your Cisco account representative for more details and to determine if your specific application requires the
use of A9K-L3XL-LIC license. The L3 scale license is not required if your system only used the –E and SIP-700 line
cards as that scalability is pre-built into those line cards. The video monitoring license enables inline video-flow
monitoring on all of the Ethernet line cards within the system.

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Product Specifications
Table 4 provides product specifications.

Table 4. Product Specificationsiii

Description Specification

Cisco IOS XR Software support ● Modular software design: Cisco IOS XR Software demonstrates Cisco networking leadership in helping
customers realize the power of their networks and the Internet. The software provides exceptional routing-
system scalability, high availability, service isolation, and manageability to meet the mission-critical
requirements of next-generation networks.
● Operating system infrastructure protection: Cisco IOS XR Software provides a microkernel architecture
that forces all but the most critical functions, such as memory management and thread distribution, outside
of the kernel. This setup prevents failures in applications, file systems, and even device drivers from causing
widespread service disruption.
● Process and thread protection: Each process – even individual process threads – are executed in its own
protected memory space, and communications between processes are accomplished through well-defined,
secure, and version-controlled application programming interfaces (APIs). This setup significantly minimizes
the effect that any process failure can have on other processes.
● Process restart: The line cards offer the ability to restart critical control-plane processes both manually and
automatically in response to a process failure, rather than restarting the entire OS. This feature helps to
support the Cisco IOS XR Software goal of continuous system availability and allows for quick recovery from
process or protocol failures with minimal disruption to customers or traffic.
● State checkpointing: The line cards offer the capability to maintain a memory and critical operating state
across process restarts so that routing adjacencies and signaling state can be maintained during an RSP
switchover.

Flexible Ethernet services ● Ethernet virtual connections (EVCs): Ethernet services are supported using individual EVCs to carry traffic
belonging to a specific service type or end user through the network. EVC-based services can be used in
conjunction with MPLS-based L2VPNs and native Ethernet switching deployments.
● Flexible VLAN classification: VLAN classification into Ethernet flow points (EFPs) includes single-tagged
VLANs, double-tagged VLANs (QinQ and 802.1ad), contiguous VLAN ranges, and noncontiguous VLAN
lists.
● IEEE bridging: The line cards support native bridging based on IEEE 802.1Q, IEEE 802.1ad, 802.1ah, and
QinQ VLAN encapsulation mechanisms.
● IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree (MST): MST extends the 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
(MSTP) to multiple spanning trees, providing rapid convergence and load balancing.
● MST Access Gateway: The MST Access Gateway provides a resilient, fast-convergence mechanism for
aggregating and connecting to Ethernet-based access rings.

L2VPN services ● Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS): These services are included in a class of VPN that supports the
connection of multiple sites in a single bridged domain over a managed IP/MPLS network. VPLS presents
an Ethernet interface to customers, simplifying the LAN and WAN boundary for service providers and
customers, and enabling rapid and flexible service provisioning, because the service bandwidth is not tied to
the physical interface. All services in a VPLS appear to be on the same LAN, regardless of location.
● Hierarchical VPLS (H-VPLS): H-VPLS provides a level of hierarchy at the edge of the VPLS network for
increased scale. Two options of H-VPLS are supported: QinQ access and Ethernet over MPLS (pseudowire)
access.
● Virtual Private Wire Service (VPWS) with Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS): EoMPLS transports Ethernet
frames across an MPLS core using pseudowires. Individual EFPs or traffic from an entire port can be
transported over the MPLS backbone using pseudowires to an egress interface or subinterface.
● Pseudowire redundancy: Pseudowire redundancy supports the definition of a backup pseudowire to
protect a primary pseudowire that fails.
● Multisegment pseudowire stitching: Multisegment pseudowire stitching is a method for interworking two
pseudowires together to form a cross-connect relationship.

Multicast ● IPv4 Multicast: The line cards support Internet Group Management Protocol Versions 2 and 3 (IGMPv2 and
v3), Protocol Independent Multicast Source Specific Multicast (PIM-SSM), PIM sparse mode (PIM-SM), PIM
SSM Mapping, Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP), Multicast VPN, and Anycast rendezvous point
(RP).
● IGMP v2 and v3 snooping: This Layer 2 mechanism efficiently tracks multicast membership on an L2VPN
network. Individual IGMP joins are snooped at the VLAN level or pseudowire level and then results are
summarized into a single upstream join message. In residential broadband deployments, this scenario
enables the network to send only channels that are being watched to the downstream users.

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Description Specification

OA&M ● Ethernet OA&M (IEEE 802.3ah): Ethernet link layer OA&M is a vital component of EOA&M that provides
physical-link OA&M to monitor link health and assist in fault isolation. Along with 802.1ag, Ethernet link layer
OA&M can be used to assist in rapid link-failure detection and signaling to remote end nodes of a local
failure.
● Ethernet OA&M (IEEE 802.1ag): Ethernet Connectivity Fault Management (E-CFM) is a subset of EOA&M
that provides numerous protocols and procedures that allow discovery and verification of the path through
802.1 bridges and LANs.
● Ethernet OA&M (ITU Y.1731): Y.1731 provides two separate feature sets: Fault Management (FM) and
Performance Monitoring (PM). Fault Management builds on 802.1ag message types to allow verification of
the Ethernet network and provide a toolset for troubleshooting any found faults. Performance Monitoring
allows service providers to provide service-level agreements (SLAs) to their end customers by measuring
the delay, latency, and loss across an Ethernet network.
● MPLS OA&M: The line cards support label switched path (LSP) ping, LSP traceroute, and VCCV.

Layer 3 routing ● IPv4 routing: Cisco IOS XR Software supports a wide range of IPv4 services and routing protocols,
including Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), Open
Shortest Path First (OSPF), Routing Information Protocol (RIP), static, IPv4 Multicast, Routing Policy
Language (RPL), and Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP)/Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)
features.
● IPv6 routing: Cisco IOS XR Software supports IPv6 services, including OSPFv3, IS-IS, and static routing.
● BGP Prefix Independent Convergence (PIC): BGP PIC provides the ability to converge BGP routes using
the fast-convergence innovation that is unique to Cisco IOS XR Software.

MPLS L3VPN ● MPLS L3VPN: The IP VPN feature for MPLS allows a Cisco IOS Software or Cisco IOS XR Software
network to deploy scalable IPv4 Layer 3 VPN backbone services. An IP VPN is the foundation that
companies use for deploying or administering value-added services, including applications and data-hosting
network commerce, and telephony services to business customers.
● Carrier supporting carrier (CSC): CSC allows an MPLS VPN service provider to connect geographically
isolated sites using another backbone service provider and still maintain a private address space for its
customer VPNs. CSC is implemented as defined by IETF RFC 4364.
● 6PE/6VPE: 6PE and 6VPE allow for introduction of IPv6 from the edge, in a scalable way, without any IPv6
addressing restrictions and without putting a well-controlled IPv4 backbone in jeopardy. This provides a
solution that has minimal risk and operational cost with no impact on either the existing IPv4/MPLS
backbone or edge/customer IPv6 networks.

MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) ● MPLS Traffic Engineering: Cisco IOS XR Software supports MPLS protocols, such as Traffic
Engineering/Fast Reroute (Traffic Engineering-FRR), Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), Label
Distribution Protocol (LDP), and Targeted Label Distribution Protocol (T-LDP).
● MPLS Traffic Engineering Preferred Path: Preferred tunnel path functions let you map pseudowires to
specific traffic engineering tunnels. Attachment circuits are cross-connected to specific MPLS Traffic
Engineering tunnel interfaces instead of remote provider-edge router IP addresses (reachable using Interior
Gateway Protocol [IGP] or LDP).
● MPLS Traffic Engineering Auto-Bandwidth: MPLS Traffic engineering automatic bandwidth adjustment
provides the means to automatically adjust the bandwidth allocation for traffic engineering tunnels based on
their measured traffic load.

High availability ● MPLS Traffic Engineering -FRR: MPLS Traffic Engineering-FRR delivers Layer 3 protection switching for
networks currently configured with MPLS LSP. MPLS Traffic Engineering-FRR -FRR provides temporary
rerouting around a failed link, node, or path.
● Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD): BFD is a detection protocol that is designed to provide fast-
forwarding path-failure detection times for all media types, encapsulations, topologies, and routing protocols.
● 802.3ad Link Aggregation Bundles: The line cards support a bundle of multiple links to provide added
resiliency and the ability to load balance traffic over multiple member links.
● Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation Group (MC-LAG): MC-LAG provides a standards-based 802.3ad bundle
for a connecting device to reach a pair of Cisco ASR 9000 Series routers that appear as a single router to
the connecting device. Rapid restoration times are possible even if there is a link or node failure, which
improves the operational environment for the connecting device. MC-LAG can work with a long list of
solutions on the Cisco ASR 9000 Series routers, such as business L2VPN and L3VPN, residential service
backhaul, mobile aggregation, and service provider edge.

Manageability Cisco IOS XR Software manageability: This feature provides industry-standard management interfaces,
including modular command-line interface (CLI), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and native
XML interfaces.
Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA): Cisco ANA is a flexible, vendor-neutral management framework for
a multitechnology, multiservice network environment. Operating between the network and the operations-
support-system (OSS) layer, Cisco ANA aggregates virtual network elements (VNEs) into a software-based
virtual network, much as real network elements create the real-world network. Cisco ANA dynamically discovers
network components and tracks the status of network elements in near real time.
Cisco ANA offers service providers:
● Simplified integration of OSS applications with network information
● A flexible common infrastructure for managing network resources
● Consistent procedures and interfaces for all network elements

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Description Specification

Security Cisco IOS XR Software: Cisco IOS XR Software provides comprehensive network security features, including
access control lists (ACLs); control-plane protection; routing authentications; authentication, authorization, and
accounting (AAA) and TACACS+; Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol; SNMPv3; and leading Routing Policy Language
(RPL) support.
Layer 2 ACLs: You can use this security feature to filter packets under an EVC based on MAC addresses.
Layer 3 ACLs: This feature provides ACL matching by IPv4 packet attributes.
Security: Many critical security features are supported:
● 802.1ad Layer 2 Control Protocol (L2CP) and bridge-protocol-data-unit (BPDU) filtering
● MAC limiting per EFP or bridge domain
● Unicast, multicast, and broadcast storm-control blocking on any interface or port
● Unknown Unicast Flood Blocking (UUFB)
● Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) snooping
● Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (URPF)
● Control-plane security
● Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI)
● IP Source Guard (IPSG)

Connectivity 10-Mbps, 100-Mbps, 1-Gbps, and 10-Gbps 802.3 Ethernet

Memory 4 GB DRAM

Options Each line card available as either a base or extended line card; the extended line card provides typically twice
the service scale of the base line card

Reliability and availability 110,000 mean time between failure (MTBF)

MIBs Support for a large number of hardware and product-specific as well as software feature MIBs; following is a
partial list of MIBs supported; Cisco has further documentation available on any restrictions related to these
MIBs as part of the “Cisco ASR 9000 MIB Guide”; the SNMP implementation and related details are also
provided in the “System Manageability White Paper”:
● IP-MIB (RFC4293) ● CISCO-SYSLOG-MIB
● CISCO-BULK-FILE-MIB ● EVENT-MIB
● CISCO-CONFIG-COPY-MIB ● IF-MIB as well as RFC1213-MIB
● CISCO-CONFIG-MAN-MIB ● SNMP-COMMUNITY-MIB
● CISCO-ENHANCED-IMAGE-MIB ● SNMP-FRAMEWORK-MIB
● CISCO-ENHANCED-MEMORY-POOL-MIB ● SNMP-NOTIFICATION-MIB
● CISCO-ENTITY-FRU-CONTROL-MIB ● SNMP-TARGET-MIB
● CISCO-ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB ● IPv6-MIB
● ENTITY-MIB ● BRIDGE-MIB
● CISCO-ENTITY-ASSET-MIB ● DOT3-OAM-MIB
● ENTITY-STATE-MIB ● CISCO-IETF-PW-MIB
● ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB ● CISCO-CLASS-BASED-QOS-MIB
● CISCO-ENTITY-ALARM-MIB ● ETHERLIKE-MIB
● CISCO-FLASH-MIB ● BGP4-MIB Including Cisco extensions.
● CISCO-IF-EXTENSION-MIB ● MPLS TE STD MIB
● CISCO-MEMORY-POOL-MIB ● TE-FRR-MIB
● CISCO-RF-MIB (1:1 RP Card) ● CISCO-IETF-IPMROUTE-MIB

Physical dimensions (H x W x D); 14 x 1.72 x 20.5 in.; 14 – 19 lb

weight

Power Maximum 350W – 630W (depending on the card type); typical 310W – 565W (depending on the card type)

Operating temperature (nominal) 41 to 104ºF (5 to 40ºC)

Operating temperature 23 to 131ºF (–5 to 55ºC)

(short-term)

Operating humidity (nominal) 10 to 85%

(relative humidity)

Storage temperature –40 to 158ºF (–40 to 70ºC)

Storage (relative humidity) 5 to 95%

Note: Not to exceed 0.024 kg water or kg of dry air

Operating altitude –60 to 4000m (up to 2000m conforms to IEC, EN, UL, and CSA 60950 requirements)

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 Data Sheet

Description Specification

Network Equipment Building Cisco ASR 9000 Series is designed to meet:

Standards (NEBS) ● SR-3580: NEBS Criteria Levels (Level 3)
● GR-1089-CORE: NEBS EMC and Safety
● GR-63-CORE: NEBS Physical Protection
● VZ.TPR.9205: Verizon TEEER

ETSI standards Cisco ASR 9000 Series is designed to meet (qualification in progress):
● EN300 386: Telecommunications Network Equipment (EMC)
● ETSI 300 019 Storage Class 1.1
● ETSI 300 019 Transportation Class 2.3
● ETSI 300 019 Stationary Use Class 3.1
● EN55022: Information Technology Equipment (Emissions)
● EN55024: Information Technology Equipment (Immunity)
● EN50082-1/EN-61000-6-1: Generic Immunity Standard

EMC standards Cisco ASR 9000 Series is designed to meet:

● FCC Class A
● ICES 003 Class A
● AS/NZS 3548 Class A
● CISPR 22 (EN55022) Class A
● VCCI Class A
● BSMI Class A
● IEC/EN 61000-3-2: Power Line Harmonics
● IEC/EN 61000-3-3: Voltage Fluctuations and Flicker
● EN 50121-4: Railway EMC

Immunity Cisco ASR 9000 Series is designed to meet:

● IEC/EN-61000-4-2: Electrostatic Discharge Immunity (8kV Contact, 15kV Air)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-3: Radiated Immunity (10V/m)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-4: Electrical Fast Transient Immunity (2kV Power, 1kV Signal)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-5: Surge AC Port (4kV CM, 2kV DM)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-5: Signal Ports (1kV)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-5: Surge DC Port (1kV)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-6: Immunity to Conducted Disturbances (10Vrms)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-8: Power Frequency Magnetic Field Immunity (30A/m)
● IEC/EN-61000-4-11: Voltage DIPS, Short Interruptions, and Voltage Variations
● EN 50121-4: Railway EMC

Safety Cisco ASR 9000 Series is designed to meet:

● UL/CSA/IEC/EN 60950-1
● IEC/EN 60825 Laser Safety
● ACA TS001
● AS/NZS 60950
● FDA – Code of Federal Regulations Laser Safety

Pluggable Interfaces
The Cisco ASR 9000 Ethernet Line Cards support a wide range of pluggable interfaces. Please see the Cisco ASR
9000 Transceiver Module data sheet for a complete list.

System Requirements
The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Line Cards may be deployed in both the 10-slot and 6-slot chassis. The Cisco ASR
9000 Series delivers superior scale, service flexibility, and high availability into access and aggregation networks. It
is powered by Cisco IOS XR Software – an innovative self-healing, distributed operating system designed for always-
on operation while scaling system capacity up into the Tbps.

Cisco ASR 9000 Series Carrier Ethernet applications include Business services such as Layer 2 VPN (L2VPN) and
L3VPN, IPTV, Content Delivey Networks (CDNs), and Mobile Backhaul transport networks. Features supported
include Ethernet Services; L2VPN; IPv4, IPv6, and L3VPN; Layer 2 and Layer 3 Multicast; IPoDWDM, Synchronous

© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 7 of 9
 Data Sheet

Ethernet (SyncE), Ethernet OA&M/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) OA&M, Layer 2 and Layer 3 access control
lists (ACLs), H-QoS, MPLS Traffic Engineering Fast Reroute (MPLS TE-FRR), Multi-chassis LAG (MC-LAG),
Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB) and Nonstop Forwarding/Nonstop Routing (NSF/NSR).

Cisco IOS XR Software Releases 4.0.0 and 4.0.1 introduce the support for a comprehensive portfolio of shared port
adaptors (SPAs) to facilitate the multiservice edge (MSE) and Ethernet MSE (E-MSE) capability on the Cisco ASR
9000 Series. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series MSE and E-MSE capabilities allow enterprises to offer powerful business
VPN services with strong SLA (service-level agreement) enforcement. This complements the high-queue (-E) class
of Ethernet Line-cards that are designed for high-touch high-scale business-VPN E-MSE services. Such services
typically require simultaneous scale increases across multiple dimensions, for example, the number of Virtual Route
Forwarding (VRF) interfaces, IPv4 and IPv6 route scaling, Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) sessions and
instances of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) Non-Stop Routing (NSR) interfaces, and so on. A Cisco ASR 9000
Series system configuration requiring high multiple dimensional scale requires the A9K-RSP-8G to support the
increased system scale.

Table 5 shows the minimum software releases required.

Table 5. Minimum Software Release Requirements

Line Card Software Compatibility Low Queue (-L) Medium Queue (-B) High Queue (-E)

A9K-40GE 3.9 3.7.2 3.7.2

A9K-4T 3.9 3.7.2 3.7.2

A9K-8T/4 3.9 3.7.2 3.7.2

A9K-2T20GE 3.9.1 3.9 3.9

A9K-8T 3.9 3.9.1 3.9

A9K-16T/8 N/A 3.9.1 N/A

Ordering Information
Table 6 provides ordering information for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Line Cards.

Table 6. Ordering Information

Product Description Part Number

40-Port GE Low Queue Line Card, Requires SFPs A9K-40GE-L

40-Port GE Medium Queue Line Card, Requires SFPs A9K-40GE-B

40-Port GE High Queue Line Card, Requires SFPs A9K-40GE-E

4-Port 10GE Low Queue Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-4T-L

4-Port 10GE Medium Queue Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-4T-B

4-Port 10GE Extended Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-4T-E

8-Port 10GE Low Queue Oversubscribed Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-8T/4-L

8-Port 10GE Medium Queue Oversubscribed Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-8T/4-B

8-Port 10GE Oversubscribed Extended Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-8T/4-E

2-Port 10GE, 20-Port GE Low Queue Combo Line Card, Requires XFPs for 10GE, SFPs for GE A9K-2T20GE-L

2-Port 10GE, 20-Port GE Medium Queue Combo Line Card, Requires XFPs for 10GE, SFPs for GE A9K-2T20GE-B

2-Port 10GE, 20-Port GE High Queue Combo Line Card, Requires XFPs for 10GE, SFPs for GE A9K-2T20GE-E

8-Port 10GE Low Queue Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-8T-L

8-Port 10GE Medium Queue Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-8T-B

8-Port 10GE High Queue Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-8T-E

16-Port 10GE Medium Queue Oversubscribed Line Card, Requires XFPs A9K-16/8T-B

L3VPN Service Line Card License – For use with -B Line Cards A9K-AIP-LIC-B

© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 8 of 9
 Data Sheet

Product Description Part Number

L3VPN Service Line Card License – For use with -E Line Cards A9K-AIP-LIC-E

Infrastructure VRF Line Card License A9K-IVRF-LIC

Advanced Optical Line Card License A9K-ADV-OPTIC-LIC

L3 Scale System License A9K-L3XL-LIC

Advanced Video Monitoring System License A9K-VIDMON-LIC

To Download the Software

Visit the Cisco Software Center to download Cisco IOS Software.

Cisco Services for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series

Through a lifecycle services approach, Cisco delivers comprehensive support to service providers to help them
successfully deploy, operate, and optimize their IP Next-Generation Networks (IP NGNs). Cisco Services for the
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers provide the services and proven methodologies that help
assure service deployment with substantial return on investment, operational excellence, optimal performance, and
high availability. These services are delivered using leading practices, tools, processes, and lab environments
developed specifically for Cisco ASR 9000 Series deployments and post-implementation support. The Cisco
Services team addresses your specific requirements, mitigates risk to existing revenue-generating services, and
helps accelerate time to market for new network services.

For more information about Cisco Services, contact your local Cisco account representative or visit
http://www.cisco.com/go/spservices.

i
Specific feature and scale support is software and hardware dependent.
ii
Specific scale support is hardware and software dependent.
iii
Specific feature and scale support is software and hardware dependent.

Printed in USA C78-501338-05 1/11

© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 9 of 9