ISR Router Recommendation

[Ex-Engineer1968]

Hello. I need a simple 1G ISR for a small branch environment. Nothing fancy. Nothing crazy. No SD-WAN. Just plain old Cisco router IOS with integrated firewall and IDS/IPS services. Preferably 6 or 8 1G ports. I remember years back I used to deploy the Cisco 1800 series. Or something like that. 

What should I use now? Cisco has like 10,000 router types and its good - but obnoxious. Can someone please help?

[liviu.gheorghe]

Hello @Ex-Engineer1968 ,

check out the Cisco 8200 series https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/catalyst-8200-series-edge-platforms/nb-06-cat8200-series-edge-plat-ds-cte-en.html

It comes default with 4 gigabit ethernet interfaces and you can add more interfaces using a NIM of 4 port switch (NIM-ES2-4) or C-NIM-2T for 2 port Layer 3 gigabit interfaces.

Hope this helps.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@Ex-Engineer1968 wrote:
Preferably 6 or 8 1G ports.

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None available with this much port density natively. 

The minimum number of ports are two (in and out).  Some higher end routers will have three or four.  

Exactly how big is the WAN link now and how big is the WAN link going to be in the next three to five years?

[Ex-Engineer1968]

Hi, Leo.

From Cisco web site:

ISR 1111X

• Cisco IOS XE Software
• Catalyst SD-WAN security
• 8 GE WAN/LAN ports
• PoE

[Leo Laohoo]

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@Ex-Engineer1968 wrote:

• 8 GE WAN/LAN ports

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We have a fleet of these and those LAN ports are just that.  They are not WAN ports.  

[Ex-Engineer1968]

I did not say I needed 8 wan ports. 8 lan, 1 wan thx

[Joseph W. Doherty]

I see your OP has the ISR 1000 label, which would be the current low-end ISR model.

Possibly the 900 ISR series would be another candidate too.

Both series would be light on ports, which you perhaps could address with a small external L2 switch.

The 900 series, also might not have the routing performance you need.

Big difference in having gig ports and having multi-gig L3 throughput on a small ISR.  Possibly the on-board LAN gig ports would support LAN multi-gig L2, but what were your expectation for WAN/L3 thoughput?

[Ex-Engineer1968]

Joseph, can you just make a simple recommendation from the 1100 or 1100X series? I am overwhelmed by all the model series numbers... 1000, 1100, 1100X, 4000, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8500... geez! I need someone knowledgeable to make a simple recommendation given the specs I gave. Someone suggested the 8200, but that seems like too much maybe... 

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Since you asked specifically for 6 to 8 gig ports, again I would want to confirm how much throughput performance you need; possibly broken down by LAN vs. WAN and/or non-encrypted vs. encrypted.  Otherwise you might be much disappointed.

[M02@rt37 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Ex-Engineer1968 

If you need a straightforward and cost-effective solution, the Cisco ISR 921-4P or ISR 931-2P would be ideal.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/routers/940-integrated-services-router/model.html#~tab-documents

For slightly higher performance and more advanced security features, the Cisco ISR 1101 or ISR 1111-8P would be suitable.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/1000-series-integrated-services-routers-isr/datasheet-c78-739512.html

[Ex-Engineer1968]

Bingo! Thank you! I was eyeing the 1111-8p after I posted my question.