The Cisco^® ASR 9900 Series 8-Port 100 Gigabit Ethernet Line Cards with support for 7- fabric connectors deliver industry-leading high density, with line-rate 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, to any slot of a Cisco ASR 9900 Series Aggregation Services Router. These high-capacity line cards are designed to remove bandwidth bottlenecks in the network that are caused by a large increase in video on demand (VoD), IPTV, point-to-point video, Internet video, and cloud services traffic. A single 100 Gigabit Ethernet port can now replace large 10 Gigabit Ethernet link aggregation bundles to simplify network operations. Based on Cisco CPAK^® technology, these line cards have flexible interfaces that support 100 Gigabit Ethernet, 40 Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet modes, giving customers the flexibility to mix and match interface types on the same line card.

For example, with the help of Cisco CPAK 10x10G-LR optics, a single 100 Gigabit Ethernet port can be divided into ten 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports using breakout cables or patch panels for unprecedented density and scale. These different interface modes can be configured easily through the command-line interface (CLI) without resetting or restarting the line card. Using a “green” design, these line cards also let customers put an unused slice in power-saving mode to reduce power consumption. With these capabilities, the ASR 9900 Series line cards (Figure 1) and routers provide the fundamental infrastructure for scalable Carrier Ethernet and IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) networks, promoting profitable business, residential, and mobile services.

Figure 1.      Cisco ASR 9900 Series 8-Port 100 Gigabit Ethernet Line Card

The ASR 9900 Series 8-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet line cards are fully compatible with the Cisco ASR 9904, ASR 9910, ASR 9912, and ASR 9922 Routers. They are not compatible with the Cisco ASR 9006 and ASR 9010 Routers.

The line cards set a new standard for Layer 2 and Layer 3 service density and scale, allowing operators to offer highly predictable, managed transport services while optimizing the use of network assets. The 10x10G Cisco CPAK breakout option further increases the capability of each line card to support large-scale aggregation, data center interconnect (DCI), and the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Satellite Network Virtualization (nV) System mode on the ASR 9900 Series router. These versatile capabilities help operators qualify and stock one type of line card that can be deployed in any combination of Layer 2, Layer 3, DCI, or aggregation applications, thereby reducing capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx), as well as reducing the time required to develop and deploy new services.

The ASR 9900 Series can extend 100 Gigabit Ethernet transport over an IP-over-dense-wave-division-multiplexing (IPoDWDM) network when used with the Cisco ONS 15454 DWDM transponder solution. Distances of up to 3000 kilometers can be achieved while using the optical protection capabilities of the DWDM network.

Table 1 lists the features and benefits of the Cisco ASR 9900 Series line cards. Specific feature and scale support is hardware and software dependent.

Table 1.       Features and Benefits

Line Card Types

The ASR 9900 Series 8-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet line cards are available in service-edge-optimized and packet-transport-optimized variants.

• The service-edge-optimized line cards are designed for customer deployments requiring enhanced quality of service (QoS).
• The packet-transport-optimized line cards are designed for network deployments where basic QoS is required.

Different line card types can be used in the same system.

Feature licenses are also available to turn on advanced features on the line cards, as described in the “Software Licensing” section later in this document.

Product Specifications

Table 2 provides product specifications for the ASR 9900 Series 8-Port 100 Gigabit Ethernet Line Cards.

Table 2.       Product Specifications

Pluggable Interfaces

The ASR 9900 Series 8-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet line cards support the Cisco CPAK pluggable interfaces listed in Table 3. See the Cisco ASR 9900 Transceiver Modules: Line Card Support data sheet for a complete list of supported pluggable interfaces.

Table 3.       Cisco CPAK Interfaces Supported by the Cisco ASR 9900 Series 8-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet Line Cards

Software Licensing

Line Card Feature Licenses

Both optimized versions of the ASR 9900 Series 8-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet line cards support optional per-line-card feature licenses to turn on advanced features. Layer 3 VPN licenses provide access to VPN routing and forwarding (VRF) instances on a per-line-card basis. They include the Infrastructure VRF license to support up to eight VRF instances and Advanced IP licenses to support up to full-scale VRF instances. Table 4 lists the line card feature licenses.

Table 4.       Feature Licenses for Cisco ASR 9900 Series 8-Port 100 Gigabit Ethernet Line Cards

Table 5 provides ordering information for the ASR 9900 Series 8-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet line cards.

Table 5.       Ordering Information

ASR 9900 32-port 100GE QSFP TR line card # A99-32X100GE-TR