Cisco AS5850, AS5400, AS5350 and AS5300
AS5350/AS5350XM
Product Evaluation and Review. The AS5350/AS5350XM is a 1U universal
port access server with 3 expansion slots supporting 2 to 8 T1s or 7 E1s, and
typically with single AC or DC power (Click
here for a list of available AS5350 and AS5350XM power supplies). The
original AS5350 has dual 10/100 ethernet and a 250MHZ CPU. DRAM configurations
range from 128MB to 512BM, and Flash is normally 32MB or 64MB. The AS5350XM version
has dual 10/100/1000 ethernet and 750MHZ processor speed, with 512MB DRAM and
128MB Flash, plus the ability to perform as a softswitch (IP-to-IP voice switching). It
also support Cisco's new PVDM2-based hardware (discussed in more detail below).
Both the AS5350 and AS5350XM can be provisioned with one or two 2, 4, or 8PRI trunk cards, or CT3 card, and one or two 60NP or 108NP DSP cards - the main limitation being that only three expansion slots are available. These cards are identical to those used in the AS5400. The AS5350 shown here is configured with 8PRIs and 216 ports, can could be either the AS535-8T1-192-V or AS535-7E1-210-V. The AS5350XM supports Cisco's new high-complexity PVDM2-64 DSP modules (click PVDM2 tab selection above for details on this hardware), adding G.728 and Adaptive Multirate AMR-NB codec support to the AS5350, and increasing the AS5350's capacity to a full CT3. Since the AS5350/AS5350XM has only 3 expansion slots, the processor-based limitations of the AS5400 series doesn't apply. A summary of AS5350/AS5350XM bundles is listed below. Models configured with 60NP and 108NP cards are listed first, followed by those with PVDM2 hardware.
or dual DC power.
All three models can be provisioned with one or more 2, 4, or 8PRI trunk cards
or CT3/DS3 card, and either one or more 60NP or 108NP DSP cards, or Cisco's
newer AS5X-FC with PVDM2-64 hardware (for the XM model only). These cards are identical to
those used in the AS5350, and are interchangeable. Pictured right is an AS5400 with 16E1s
and 480 ports. Using the traditional 60NP and 108NP cards, the maximum number of
ports in any of the models is 648 - due to expansion slot limitations. All
models are universal access servers, supporting voice, data, and fax, plus
routing and transcoding in addition to origination and termination capabilities.
The standard AS5400's 250MHZ CPU limits
the
maximum number of functional VOIP ports to about 350 (and less for higher
complexity codecs and SIP traffic, although it can handle
648 dialup ports without a problem) and the HPX's limit is about 480 ports,
although these limits vary on the type of traffic. Those wanting to use the full 648 ports
for VOIP, or to use the full 672 ports in a DS3 circuit, can
use a stacked configuration to handle a full DS3 circuit using AS5400 chassis
(click
here for more details) or move up to the XM versions of the AS5400.
The AS5400XM and AS5350XM are able to support Cisco's newest hardware (described below) and are able to function both as IP-IP softswitch-type gateways and transcoding gateways (for example in converting G711 to G729).
Although the AS5400, AS5400HPX, and AS5400XM are
virtually identical in terms of physical capabilities and specifications, their
capabilities differ depending on CPU speed, plus the XM model line's ability to
use the PVDM2-based DSP hardware. The table below provides an overview of each
model's practical capabilities.
Model Comparison - AS5400,
AS5400HPX, and AS5400XM
Maximum Useable Voice Ports
CPU Speed
Features
AS5400
380 (depending on use),
672 with stacked configuration.
250 MHZ
2 FE, for use above 300 ports
consider stacking
AS5400HPX
480 (depending on use),
672 with stacked configuration.
397 MHZ
2FE, for use above 450 ports
consider stacking
AS5400XM
672 (with PVDM2 hardware)
650 MHZ
2GE, supports softswitch
capabilities. With PVDM2 hardware, the XM supports narrowband (GSM) Codecs,
and enhanced transcoding.
The AS5400, AS5400HPX, and AS5400XM come in
similar bundles - the main distinction being the different base chassis model.
The only exception is the AS5400XM, for which a special CT3 card is used, and
which also has PVDM2 hardware bundles.
AS5400 Components - Product Description:
The AS5400 series is highly modular, and nearly
all the components - chassis, power supplies, E1/T1/CT3 trunk cards, and NP or
PVDM2 DSP cards can be replaced, or bought for backups or to expand the gateway.
Except for the PVDM2 related hardware, which is only for the XM models, all the
components are interchangeable among the models.
AS5400 Stacking:
It is known that the base AS5400 can support up to about 384 ports
of voice traffic before running out of processor resources. Even the faster HPX
can only handle about 480 ports maximum. The AS5400XM was developed by Cisco to
address this limitation. However, even with the AS5400XM, the traditional DSP
hardware only allowed a maximum of 648 ports - not the 672 ports in a full DS3
circuit. So Cisco also developed newer PVDM2 hardware that enabled the AS5400XM
to handle a full 672 ports of traffic. The street price of this solution, when
configured to support G729 and lower Codecs, is above $50,000. Here an
affordable alternative is possible. It consists of two stacked, DRAM-maxed
AS5400s, one with
2 CT3 cards and 324 ports, the second with 1 CT3 port and 384 ports. It works
like this - for origination work the first unit brings in the external DS3
ciruit on its first CT3 card. Part of the traffic is processed on its 324 universal
DSPs,
and the rest is sent out on its second CT3 into the 2nd AS5400s only CT3 card.
The 2nd AS5400 then processes the remainder of the calls. Each unit sends the
voip traffic out via its fast ethernet ports. For termination work, the process
is similar but in reverse. This configuration provides great performance and
redundancy by spreading the traffic over two complete units - although not
comparatively tested, it could even better than the AS5400XM, at a fraction of
the cost. AS5400 Stacking for Reverse Mux Operations: Other stacking
configurations could include a second unit that routes out multiple E1/T1 PRIs. Contact us for details and a price quote.
complexity, medium complexity,
and low complexity/high density). They use a new carrier card, the AS5X-FC and the new PVDM2-64
DSPs. This DSP is capable of supporting high complexity codes, and in
particular two that are not supported on the 60np and 108np cards - G.728 and Adaptive
Multirate AMR-NB narrowband for wireless phone-type applications. The number of simultaneous voice ports varies, depending
on the complexity of the CODEC, because higher complexity codecs consume more
voice resources on the PVDM2-64. With the lowest (LC) complexity codec (G711),
which Cisco also refers to as high density (HD), each PVDM2-64 supports 64 voices. Medium complexity (MC) codecs support 32
voices, and high complexity (HC) codecs supports 24. So, for example, if your
environment is one using 100% G729 traffic (medium complexity) and you have 8T1s
of traffic, then you would need 8 x 24 or 192 total ports, and 192 x 2 (2
because medium complexity codecs cut the PVDM2-64's resources in half), or 384
total PVDM2-64 resources. Since each PVDM2 has 64 base channels, 384/64=6 - you
would need 6 PVDM2-64 modules to support the 8T1 G729 gateway. More
information from Cisco on PVDM2 capabilities is here. Up to six PVDM2 DSPs can be loaded on
the AS5X-FC carrier card, and this increased density also gives the AS5400XM and
AS5350XM the ability
to handle - for the first time - a full 672 ports in a DS3 circuit, and up to
24 E1s or T1s, in a single unit. The combination of the AS5400XM or AS5350XM along with this
new PVDM2 hardware is an excellent combination for advanced transcoding,
softswitch operations, and high-end origination/termination work. From a cost
perspective, certain AS5350XM and AS5400XM configurations may be more economical
than by using the traditional 108np/60np hardware - particularly in a G711-only
environment, and for the AS5350XM 4E1 120 configuration. Contact us for a more
detailed explanation.
The AS5850 (left) is the highest density of the AS5X line, and supporting up to 4 DS3s, 96 T1s or
86 E1s of data (these cards can also be mixed), STM1 circuits, and supports a
wide range of CODECS for
voice, fax, and mobile wireless calls on any port at any time. Physically, the AS5850 is much larger and heavier than the AS5400 and AS5350,
but uses the same trunk and voice/DSP cards, although in an innovative way. The
slots on an AS5850 are much larger and are vertical. The two middle slots can be
occupied by one or two enhanced route switch controllers (eRSC cards) - and thus
can have two CPUs and four gibabit ethernet ports handling the workload. The CPU
is a 650MHZ processor. The eRSC also has
2 10/100 and 2 10/100/1000 GBIC ethernet ports, as well as a compact flash slot.
Rather than installing individual trunk and DSP card, Cisco bundles the individual
DFC cards in groups of three on a larger carrier card that in turn fits into one
of the AS5850 slots. The most commonly used cards are the AS58-324-UPC (a bundle
of 3 108NP cards), AS53-CT3/324UPC (1 CT3 and 2 108NP cards), AS58-24CE1, and
AS58-24CT1. Combinations of these can be installed to meet the user's
configuration requirements. ISPTrader recommends that your AS5850 be provisioned with an enhanced 650MHZ CPU
RSC (eRSC) and new-style backplane cards. The original version of the AS5850 has
a much slower "RSC" CPU card, and its other cards had backplanes that
created problems due to high-heat generation. Cisco made these end-of-life items
several years ago and replaced them with newer versions. Avoid the end-of-life older
backplanes with black heat-sinks - these are common on the resale market
and prone to failure. The unit pictured left is provisi with 2 CT3/216UPCs,
3 324UPCs, and 1 eRSC. Click the image for a
full-size view.
Click
here for our AS5850 price list.
support both. The AS5300 can be configured with single or dual/redundant AC or
DC power supplies, and typically is configured with 128MB DRAM (maximum
possible) and 16MB Flash (32MB possible). There are two ethernet ports - one 10,
and one 10/100. While supporting the same protocols and codecs as its newer
brothers above, the AS5300 uses different component cards. The three slot
chassis can accept a 4PRI or 8PRI trunk card in the lowest slot, and this trunk
card can come with-or-without a bank of four fast serial ports. Trunk cards with
fast serial ports are designated with a '+' sign in the part number, and
gateways with such cards in them are denoted as "A" units. The
fast serial ports are sometimes used to backhaul voice traffic directly from the
AS5300 to a router (for example a 7206), thereby bypassing the ethernet port.
The top two slots can each be configured with a voice carrier card (AS53-CC-VOX)
and from 1 to 5 low density (6 port C542 AS53-VOX) or high density (12
port C549 AS53-VOXD) DSP voice modules. These DSP modules cannot be mixed in an
AS5300. It is common to configure a T1 unit with 24, 48, or 96 voice ports, or
an E1 unit with 30, 60, or 120 voice ports. Note that official Cisco support for
the AS5300 has come to an end, and software releases end with version 12.3.x.
However, the AS5300 is so widely used that a huge base of repair equipment and
3rd party technical support should be available into the foreseeable future. For
dedicated voice settings with up to 4 PRIs, the AS5300 represents an excellent
value. The AS5300 pictured above has a 4PRI card (E1 or T1 in the bottom slot
with the block of 4 fast serial ports at the right end of the gateway (so the
PRI card is the '+' type and the "A" VOIP vareity), and above that has
two voice carrier cards, that could contain up to 120 voice channels.
Like the AS5400 and AS5350, the AS5300 is an exceptionally modular router that is well-built and quite easy to repair. Virtually any part can be individually replaced should it fail.
| AS53-240-RPS-CH | AS5300 (AS53-240-RPS-CH) Remote Access Server |
| AS53-48-CH | AS5300 (AS53-48-CH) Remote Access Server |
| AS53-48DMM-CH | AS5300 (AS53-48DMM-CH) Remote Access Server |
| AS53-96DMM-RPS-CH | AS5300 (AS53-96DMM-RPS-CH) Remote Access Server |
| AS53-96-RPS-CH | AS5300 (AS53-96-RPS-CH) Remote Access Server |
| AS53-96-CH | AS53-96 (AS53-96-CH=) Remote Access Server |
| Cisco AS53-96-RPS-CH | AS5300, 96 Modems, Quad T1/PRI, Redundan... |
| AS5300 Dial Shelf |
| Cisco AS5300-120VOIP-A | AS5300 VoIP Gateway-120 Voice Channels/serial ports |
| Cisco AS5300-48VOIP-A | AS5300: VoIP Gateway-48 Voice Channels/serial ports |
| Cisco AS5300-60VOIP-A | AS5300 VoIP Gateway- 60 Voice Channels/serial ports |
| Cisco AS5300-96VOIP-A | AS5300 VoIP Gateway-96 Voice Channels/serial ports |
| Cisco AS5300-120VOIP | AS5300 VoIP Gateway-120 Voice Channels |
| Cisco AS5300-48VOIP | AS5300: VoIP Gateway-48 Voice Channels |
| Cisco AS5300-60VOIP | AS5300 VoIP Gateway- 60 Voice Channels |
| Cisco AS5300-96VOIP | AS5300 VoIP Gateway-96 Voice Channels... |
| Cisco AS53-108-CC2 | MICA CC2 Carrier Card w/ (9) MICA 12-Ports |
| Cisco AS53-108-CH | AS5301 Chassis, 108 Modems, Quad T1/PRI |
| Cisco AS53-120-CC2 | MICA CC2 Carrier Card , 10 MICA 12-Port... |
| Cisco AS53-48-C | MICA Carrier Card w/ (8) MICA 6-Port Modem |
| Cisco AS53-48-CC2 | MICA CC2 w / (4) MICA 12-Port Modem |
| Cisco AS53-60-CC2 | MICA CC2 and 5 MICA 12-Port Modem Module |
| Cisco AS53-6VOX | AS5300 Voice/FAX DSP Mod., 6 DSPs per modems |
| Cisco AS53-96-CC2 | MICA CC2 Carrier Card, MICA 12-Port DMM |
| Cisco AS53-CC-24VOX | AS5300: High Density Voice Feature Card |
| Cisco AS53-CC-30VOX | AS5300: High Density Voice Feature Card |
| Cisco AS53-CC-48VOXD | 48-Port High Density Voice Card |
| Cisco AS53-CC-60V0XD | AS5350: High Density Voice Card, 60 Channels |
| Cisco AS53-CC-60VOXD | 60-Port High Density Voice Card |
| Cisco AS53-CC-DM | MICA Carrier Card |
| Cisco AS53-CC-VOX | AS5300 Voice Carrier for (1-5) DSP Modules |
| Cisco AS53-E1-30VOX | 30 VOX DSPs, 1 VOX Carrier Card, and 5 C542 DSPs |
| Cisco AS53-E1-60DM | 60 MICA Modems, 1 MICA CC and 1 Quad E1/4 serial |
| Cisco AS53-E1-60DM+ | 60 MICA HMM Modems, 1 MICA CC2 and 1 Quad E1 |
| Cisco AS53-E1-60VOX | 60 C542 DSPs, 2 VOX Carrier Cards, DSPs, Quad E1 |
| Cisco AS53-E1-60VOXD | 60 C549 Voice Channels & Quad E1+ Card |
| Cisco AS53-E1-60VOXD60DM | 60 Voice Channels, and 60 MICA modems |
| Cisco AS53-MICA-6MOD | AS5300: 6-Port Digital Modem Module |
| Cisco AS53-MICA-CC | AS5300 MICA Carrier Card |
| Cisco AS53-VOXD | AS5300 High Density Voice Fax DSP Module |
| Cisco MEM-128M-AS53 | 128mb DRAM |
| Cisco MEM-32F-AS53 | 32MB Flash SIMM |
| Cisco MEM-64M-AS53 | 64mb DRAM |
| Cisco AS53-4CE1 | Quad E1/PRI Module |
| Cisco AS53-4CT1 | Quad CT1/PRI Module |
| Cisco AS53-4CT1+ | Quad T1/PRI Plus High Speed Serial |
| Cisco AS53-8CE1+ | AS5300 Octal E1/PRI plus High Speed Serial |
| Cisco AS53-8CT1+ | Octal T1/PRI Plus High Speed Serial |
| Cisco AS53-AC-PWR | Single AC power supply |
| Cisco AS53-AC-RPS | Dual AC Power Supply, AS5300 |
| Cisco AS53-DC-PWR | AS5300, DC Power Supply (350W) |
| Cisco AS53-DC-RPS | Dual DC Power Supply, AS5300 |
|
Cisco Support and documentation - is freely available on cisco.com's product support area. Documentation for the AS5300 can be found here, AS5350 and AS5400 documentation is here, and information on the PVDM2-64 DSP modules for the AS5350XM and AS5400XM can be found here. AS5850 documentation is here. |
|
VOIP Product Comparison - AS5300, AS5350, AS5400, AS5400HPX, AS5400XM, AS5850 |
||||||||
| Feature | AS5300 | AS5350 | AS5350XM | AS5400 | Dual Stacked AS5400 | AS5400HPX | AS5400XM | AS5850 |
| CPU Speed | NA | 250 | 750 | 250 | 2x250 | 397 | 750 | 1 or 2 eRSC (Fastest) |
| Power Supply | Single/Dual AC/DC | Single/Dual AC/DC | Single/Dual AC/DC | Dual AC/DC | 2 x Dual AC/DC | Dual AC/DC | Dual AC/DC | Dual DC |
| MB DRAM | 128 | 128-512 | 512-1024 | 256-512 | 2x512 | 256-512 | 512-1024 | 1024 |
| Physical Voice Port Capacity | 120 | 216 | 216 with NP, 672 with PVDM2 - Also softswitch & transcoding | 648 | 672 | 648 | 648 with NP, 672 with PVDM2 - Also softswitch & transcoding | 2592 or more |
| Physical Trunk Capacity | 4T1/4E1 Voice, 8T1/8E1 Data | 8T1/7E1 | 8T1/7E1,or 672 G711 with PVDM2 HW. | 16T1/16E1 or CT3 | CT3 | 16T1/16E1 or CT3 | 16T1/16E1 or CT3, 20T1/20E1 w PVDM2 HW. | 48 E1/T1, 4 CT3, STM1 |
| Practical Port Capacity: These vary based on the type of traffic. | Good through 96. Acceptable to 120. | Good through 216 with NP cards. | Good through 216 with NP cards. Good through 672 with PVDM2 cards. | Good through 324 voice. Acceptable to 384. Marginal to 480 for some types of traffic. | Good through 672 | Good through 384, Acceptable to 480. Marginal to 600. | Good through 672. | Good through 2592 |
| Approx. price per port at practical capacity | $30 per port at 120 ports. | $46 per port at 216 ports. | $66 per port at 216 ports. $37 per port at 672 G711 ports using PVDM2s. | $57 per port at $384 ports | $30 per port at 672 ports. | About $52 per port | About $77 per port | $31 per port at 2592 ports. |
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