What is an Integrated Daughter Card?

[matthew.carrington]

Hi,

I was doing some research on the Cisco ASR1001 model Router and within the description on the official Cisco page it mentions having various models that come with an "Integrated Daughter Card" or "IDC". I was curious as to what the IDC is exactly, considering there is an ASR1001 model without it. I've tried to do some Googling on this but wasn't able to find anything relevant.

Thank you for your feedback!

Matt

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi Matt,

The integrated daughter card is not necessarily a SPA; it could be any  I/O, such as a harddrive or USB. When the daughter card is not a SPA,  then SPA Bay 2 will be left blank and not present in the system.

The built-in GE ports are logically SPA bay 0 and will be addressed as  GE 0/0/x. The half-height SPA slot is logically SPA bay 1 and ports will  be addressed as 0/1/x. Ports on the integrated daughter card are  logically in SPA bay 2 and will be addressed as 0/2/x.

More info here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/routers/asr1000/install/guide/asr1routers/asr1001.html#wp1266563

HTH

[matthew.carrington]

Hi Reza Sharifi,

Thanks for your reply! This makes better sense now, but I do have another question. Cisco mentions in the product description that the ASR1001 IDCs are not field upgradable. Does this mean that you cannot, let's say for example, remove the current IDC and replace it with a new/different IDC? And if not, why is that? I thought that was a primary function of a SPA bay.

From how I look at it, I would think that one function and benefit of an IDC is that it does not take the place of a SPA bay, but rather has been physically "integrated" into the device and is why it is not field-upgradable.

It's also possible I'm just not understanding what "field-upgradable" actually means.

Thank you for your feedback.

Matt

Message was edited by: Matthew Carrington