Provider managed mpls router

[siscon00b]

Hi,

Trying to determine which router for my private WAN edge, the provider will manage the mpls network just need a router at the main office, i'm thinking the isr 4331 for the branches, there are about 4 branches with 40 staff per branch, looking at 50Mbps at the branches and 100Mbps at the main office with around 100 staff.

Would the ASR-1000's typically be used in this situation?

Thanks.

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

"Would the ASR-1000's typically be used in this situation?"

No. You generally only need to consider ASR 1K when you exceed the capacity of the 4K ISR series (which is good for a gig or so).

The ISR 4 K data specs list their maximum bandwidth throughput. As they are logically capped at that, it's usually easy to match that against your link capacity.

[siscon00b]

Ok, thank you. I see the ISR's have various "Performance" differences, i was assuming this was the WAN throughput, it was a little unclear.

Looks like the ISR 4k's max out at 2G which is heaps for me. Might just go with the 4k's all round, make it a bit easier. The ISR's seem to be packed full of features.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

The bandwidth listed, for the ISR 4Ks, is the aggregate allowance for all traffic passing through the router. If you only use the router for LAN to WAN routing, the WAN link is usually your bottleneck and you can size for that. (BTW, don't forget to allow for duplex bandwidth. For example, if your branch has a 50 Mbps full duplex link, you want an ISR 4K that can provide 100 Mbps.)

When it comes to selecting an ISR 4K, you can select one whose base performance meets your needs or one with a performance upgrade (with that license) that meets your needs. The latter is probably less expensive.

You'll also need to decide whether you want a router with capacity beyond your immediate needs, or one with excess capacity for later growth.

Lastly, the ISR 4Ks may not meet their full capacity spec if doing encryption.

[siscon00b]

I'm aiming to use them for a provider managed MPLS VPN network, the main office and the branches would be using the ISR's for the WAN connectivity.

I was looking at an ISR model that meets the requirements now but also can be upgraded later if they need, seems to be a good fit. The only other thing to mention would be that i want to run the FirePower sensors, not sure if that will degrade the performance somewhat or not. 

Thanks for the information.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

I'm unfamiliar with "FirePower sensors", so unable to comment on their impact, if any.