2020 put network infrastructures to the test.

Work from home and streaming video pushed network traffic loads into the stratosphere. More and more endpoints connected to the network, as enterprises pushed hard to digitize their service offerings, and the rate of cyber-security threats, which continue to present a significant business risk, skyrocketed.

While communication service providers juggle these short-term challenges, they are also engaged in a long-term network transformation to speed up service delivery through a simplified network blueprint, curb operational expenses with modernized network operations, and most importantly, support new services like 5G, IoT, AR/VR, and connected cars.

To help our customers in this journey, we recently announced major updates to our Converged SDN Transport architecture, including our Routed Optical Networking solution, a new cloud native BNG solution, and many more product updates.

Included in the updates, is a cornerstone of the Cisco Converged SDN Transport architecture, the Cisco ASR 9000 Series. Who would have imagined that 13 years after its first release, the Cisco 9000 series is still evolving to meet the 2021+ requirements of our customers' networks? Today, we are taking the platform to the next level with new systems and line cards.

New Systems and Line Cards

ASR 9903

Launched in late 2020, the compact, high performing ASR 9903 router delivers up to 3.6 Tbps network bandwidth. The baseline version comes with a set of fixed interfaces providing either 16x100GbE ports or 15x100GbE + 10x10GbE or 14x100GbE + 20x10GbE.

A fully redundant, multi-purpose platform, the ASR 9903 router can support a wide range of customer's use-cases including business provider edge, metro aggregation, cloud edge, Internet peering, data center interconnect (DCI), and others.
The ASR 9903 also has a modular slot that can be populated with two types of port expansion cards:

• The A9903-20HG-PEC is a 2Tbps expansion card with 5 multi-rate ports, starting at 100GbE up to 400GbE, and 20x100GbE ports. The 5 ports, when migrated to 400GbE through a license, support QSFP-DD optics.
• The A9903-8HG-PEC is a 800Gbps expansion card with 32