ISP Trader - Cisco Modular 2600, 3600 & 3700 Routers for VOIP, Dialup, ISP and Networks

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Cisco 2600, 3600, and 3700 series modular routers

2600/2600XM/3600/3700 Expansion Cards:
As mentioned above, all these Cisco modular routers can be fitted with a variety of expansion cards, although some of the more advanced types of cards can only be installed in the more recent types of routers (HWIC and enhanced NM cards, in particular, can only be used in 3700 or ISR lines). WIC-Type (wide are interface cards) are small single-function cards that can either fit in a WIC slot in a router chassis, or may also be installed in NM cards that have "2W" (that is - 2 WIC slot) designations. An example of a WIC card is a WIC-1ENET, which has 1 10-base ethernet port. There are two varieties of voice WICS (VWICs and VICs), and also high-speed WICs (HWICs). In addition, most modular routers have at least 1 network module slot (NM slot). This is a much larger slot for an often more sophisticated expansion module. An NM card may also have slots for WIC or VWIC cards that are used in conjunction with the NM card. For example, the NM-HDV card is a network module that can support up to 60 VOIP ports. It also has a slot in it for installation of a 1 or 2 E1 or T1 PRI VWIC card. Installation of the complete assembly (for example an NM-HDV-2E1-60) in a router would provide a full voice gateway. More recent routers may also have internal advanced integration modules (AIM) slots - basically attaches to the mainboard inside the router to either add features such as voice, voicemail, VPN, security, and compression. Finally, some of these routers have removable PCMCIA or compact flash storage modules.

VOIP Configurations: Cisco modular routers can be configured for VOIP several way. First, an NM-HDV (voice NM card) can be

installed with 12 port voice DSPs (PVDM-12) and either a T1 or E1 VWIC card. This makes the router into the equivalent of a VOIP gateway - and each NM-HDV card combination set will provide up to 2 PRIs of voice capabilities. So a 2600XM series router can provide 2 PRIs or voice, a 3640 can provide 4, and the 3662 can provide 8. Second, some routers have internal AIM card slots. If a T1/E1 VWIC card is installed in a WIC slot and an AIM voice module is installed in the AIM slot, the router can support 1 E1/T1 of voice traffic. In this way, even the 1751-V (a small office/home office router) can support VOIP traffic. Third, some routers have built-in PVDM (voice chip) sockets, and PVDM FXS/FXO cards can be installed - click here for more information on using 2600, 3600, or 3700 modular routers as an FXO/FXO VOIP gateway.

Basic capabilities and performance of the routers in the 2600, 3600, and 3700 lines are described in the table below.

Cisco Modular Router Comparison (Features and Performance) 2600/3600/3700 Lines
Platform	Size	Power Supplies	Maximum DRAM (See notes)	Removable Storage	Maximum Throughput (packets/second)	WIC Slots (See Notes)	Built-In Ethernet (See Notes)	NM Slots (See Notes)	AIM Slots	Most Recent IOS
2610-12	1U	1	64/128	None	15K pps	2	1-2 Ethernet	1	0	12.3
2620/21	1U	1	64/128	None	25K pps	2	1-2 Fast Ethernet	1	0	12.3
2650/51	1U	1	64/128	None	37K pps	2	1-2 Fast Ethernet	1	0	12.3
2610/11XM	1U	1	128/256	None	20K pps	2	1-2 Fast Ethernet	1	1	12.4
2620/21XM	1U	1	128/256	None	30K pps	2	1-2 Fast Ethernet	1	1	12.4
2650/51XM	1U	1	128/256	None	40K pps	2	1-2 Fast Ethernet	1	1	12.4
3620	1U	1	64MB	PCMCIA	30K pps	0	None	2	0	12.3
3640	2U	1	128MB	PCMCIA	50K pps	0	None	3	0	12.3
3660	5U	1-2	256MB	PCMCIA	100K pps	0	1-2 Fast Ethernet	6	2	12.3
3725	2U	1	256MB	CF	100K pps	3 (+HWIC)	2 Fast Ethernet	2	2	12.4
3745	3U	1-2	512MB	CF	225K pps	3 (+HWIC)	2 Fast Ethernet	4	2	12.4
Note 1: 2600 series routers ending in a “0” have 1 E/FE port, while those ending in a “1” have 2 E/FE ports. Note 2: In addition to WIC/VWIC and NM cards supported in the 2600/3600 series, the 3700 series routers also support the newer HWIC cards as well as enhanced NM type cards. Note 3: Routers with dual-maximum DRAM listed - 2nd maximum requires installation of an additional, upgraded bootflash module. © ISPTrader - this table may not be reproduced without written consent of ISPTrader.

Special Note On Intepreting Performance. Performance is measured above in packets per second principally because this is the basis for router resource usage (although large, fragmented packets can also add to the load). Other limitations may still apply - for example networks with large average packet sizes will 'use up' available bandwidth and trunk line capacity flowing through a router and router card more quickly, even though more router resources are not consumed, per se. To compute the MBPS performance, you need only multiply average packet size times the PPS measures above. Internet studies have shown that average packet sizes can vary from as little as 128 bytes to nearly 1000 bytes. As a rule of thumb, you may wish to use an average packet size of 500 for quick computations - however your own internal network monitoring results are recommended if you are approaching trunk line limits.

Introduction: The 2600/2600XM/3600/3700 modular router lines are designed for flexibility and modularity, and are capable of network Rear view of Cisco 3662 (3600/3660 series) with dual power supplies

Rear view of Cisco 3662 (3600/3660 series) with dual power supplies

routing, trunk line traffic processing (OCX, DS3, E1, T1, and fractional lines, plus ISDN, Cable, and modem - among others), security services (including VPN, encryption, and firewall), and content services (like VOIP, data/dialup, media-over-ip, and voicemail) and a variety of other services. A table below presents their various features, capabilities, and performance. The 2600 series of routers all include built-in WIC slots ('wide area interface cards' - small, simple interface card slots) as well as one or two ethernet or fast ethernet ports, while the 3600 series offers even more flexible and modular but is initially configured with no built-in ethernet or WIC slots. The 3700 series combines the best features of the 2600 and 3600 series (plus more speed and capabilities).