What is Cisco ASR?

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Cisco ASR stands for Aggregation Services Router, a family of high-performance, carrier-grade routers designed by Cisco Systems. These routers are typically used by service providers and large enterprises to deliver scalable, high-throughput, and secure network services.

Main Models:

  • Cisco ASR 1000 Series – For enterprises and service providers needing robust routing and WAN aggregation.
  • Cisco ASR 9000 Series – High-end service provider edge routers, built for massive scalability and cloud infrastructure.
  • Cisco ASR 920 Series – Optimized for mobile backhaul, business services, and carrier Ethernet.

Key Features & Capabilities:

  • High Performance – Supports multi-gigabit traffic, up to terabits per second (in ASR 9000).
  • WAN Aggregation – Aggregates multiple WAN links with high availability.
  • MPLS & VPN Services – Built-in support for MPLS, L3VPNs, L2VPNs.
  • Security – Integrated firewall, IPSec VPN, and DDoS protection.
  • QoS (Quality of Service) – Advanced traffic shaping and prioritization.
  • High Availability – Redundant hardware and in-service software upgrades.

Common Use Cases:

  • Core routing for ISPs and telecom providers.
  • Cloud edge and data center interconnection.
  • Aggregating thousands of enterprise branch networks.
  • Supporting 5G, IoT, and Metro Ethernet infrastructure.

You Should Know:

1. Basic Cisco ASR Configuration Commands

To set up a Cisco ASR router, you need to access the Cisco IOS XE or IOS XR CLI. Here are some essential commands:

enable 
configure terminal 
hostname ASR-Router 
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0 
ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0 
no shutdown 
exit

2. Enabling MPLS on Cisco ASR

To configure MPLS for traffic engineering:

mpls ip 
mpls label protocol ldp 
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0 
mpls ip

3. Setting Up IPSec VPN

For secure site-to-site VPN:

crypto ikev2 proposal IKE-PROPOSAL 
encryption aes-cbc-256 
integrity sha512 
group 19 
crypto ikev2 policy IKE-POLICY 
proposal IKE-PROPOSAL

4. QoS Configuration

To prioritize VoIP traffic:

class-map match-any VOICE 
match dscp ef 
policy-map QOS-POLICY 
class VOICE 
priority percent 30 
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0 
service-policy output QOS-POLICY

5. High Availability (SSO/NSF)

For Stateful Switchover (SSO) and Non-Stop Forwarding (NSF):

redundancy 
mode sso

6. Monitoring & Troubleshooting

Check interface status:

show interfaces GigabitEthernet0/0/0

Verify BGP/OSPF neighbors:

show bgp summary 
show ospf neighbor

What Undercode Say:

Cisco ASR routers are critical for high-speed, secure, and scalable networking in enterprise and ISP environments. Mastering their CLI commands for MPLS, VPN, QoS, and redundancy ensures optimal performance.

For cybersecurity hardening, always:

  • Disable unused services (no ip http server).
  • Enable logging (logging host 10.0.0.1).
  • Use ACLs (access-list 101 permit tcp any any eq 22).

For Linux admins, similar concepts apply:

  • Use iptables/nftables for firewall rules.
  • MPLS handling via `tc` (Traffic Control).
  • VPN setup with `strongSwan` or OpenVPN.

Expected Output:

A fully configured Cisco ASR router with:

✔ MPLS & VPN enabled.

✔ QoS policies for traffic prioritization.

✔ High Availability (SSO/NSF) for failover.

✔ Secure access controls (ACLs, logging).

For further learning, check Cisco’s official docs:

References:

Reported By: Ahmed Bawkar – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅

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