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Cisco 4000 Series Performance Licence

Hi there,

We supply 4000 series routers and I have a query on the different performance levels of each model with/without a performance licence.

If I have a customer looking hardware to support a 100mb circuit, it will need a 4000 series router with an Aggregate Throughput of at least 200mb/s so I'd naturally select a Cisco 4351 with no perf licence, but this model is much more expensive than the 4321 with a booster licence included. Is there any performance limitations on the 4321 with booster (apart from throughput), that would make this a poor choice over the 4351? I understand the concept of the "pay-as-you-grow" model but I can't identify if there are other limitations I would need to consider.

 

 

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Giuseppe Larosa
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Hello Steven,

the booster license applies only to traffic that is processed by CEF. This should be the note about the boost license.

 

see

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/routers/4000-series-integrated-services-routers-isr/models-comparison.html

 

To be honest almost all modern features require CEF to work.

Only exception traffic like IP packets with IP options in header requires to be process switched.

We could say that the C4351 should be more robust when dealing with a DoS attack.

 

Edit:

I would say the main difference is about encrypted traffic performance the boost license does not increase this.

 

 

Hope to help

Giuseppe

 

View solution in original post

3 Replies 3

Giuseppe Larosa
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Hello Steven,

the booster license applies only to traffic that is processed by CEF. This should be the note about the boost license.

 

see

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/routers/4000-series-integrated-services-routers-isr/models-comparison.html

 

To be honest almost all modern features require CEF to work.

Only exception traffic like IP packets with IP options in header requires to be process switched.

We could say that the C4351 should be more robust when dealing with a DoS attack.

 

Edit:

I would say the main difference is about encrypted traffic performance the boost license does not increase this.

 

 

Hope to help

Giuseppe

 

Perfect, thanks Giuseppe! :)

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

One other consideration, the "faster" ISR 4Ks are often physically larger thereby offering more ports and/or module slots. I.e. besides being "faster" they can usually support more or "better" (e.g. PoE) connections, either as options, or built-in.

BTW, Giuseppe makes a couple of comments which might require a bit more explanation. He notes that encryption is not affected by the performance license. Although I don't know for sure, I suspect the quoted data sheet performance might be what the encryption hardware is capable of. For example (also assuming you're not limited by the crypto license), can a 4331 with a base performance license do 500 Mbps of encrypted traffic while limited to 100 Mbps of non-encrypted traffic, since the encrypted packets are also still forwarded as IP packets too? In other words, I suspect you could only obtain the 500 Mbps of encrypted performance on a 4331 with a boost license, but conversely you won't obtain 2+ Gbps of throughput, as the endpoint for encrypted traffic with a boost license.

Giuseppe also mentions IP packets, with options, that would need to be process switched, or DoS attacks would be better served by a 4351 rather than a 4321. Of that, I'm not so sure as both those routers note their "boost" performance as 2+ Gbps, which possibly reflects their actual/native processing performance. If fact, if both don't have the "boost" license, the 4321 might have more reserve performance than a 4351.

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