Q&A
Q. What are the components of the new Cisco® 2800 and 3800 series integrated services router WAN optimization bundles?
A. There are two new WAN optimization bundles. The basic WAN optimization bundles are composed of a Cisco 2821 or 2851 or Cisco 3825 or 3845 integrated services router with hardware-based compression Advanced Integration Module (product number AIM-COMPR4) for high-performance compression, as well as the integrated Content Engine network module (product number NM-CE-BP-80G-K9) for optimization of rich media and Web traffic. The secure WAN optimization bundles are composed of a Cisco 2821 or 2851 or Cisco 3825 or 3845 integrated services router with hardware-based encryption Advanced Integration Module (product number AIM-VPN-II+) for high-performance encryption and compression, as well as the Cisco integrated Content Engine network module (product number NM-CE-BP-80G-K9) for optimization of rich media and Web traffic (Table 1).
Table 1. Cisco Integrated Services Router WAN Optimization Bundles and Components
Q. When will these new WAN optimization bundles be available?
A. The WAN optimization bundles were available to order on September 19, 2005.
Q. What are the new WAN optimization product part numbers and feature sets and releases provided in the bundle?
A. The new WAN optimization product IDs, feature sets, and releases are listed in Table 2.
Table 2. Cisco 2800 and 3800 WAN Optimization Bundles
Q. Does any additional memory come with these new WAN optimization bundles?
A. No, the WAN optimization bundles come with 64 MB compact flash memory and 256 MB DRAM. Increased compact flash memory and DRAM upgrades up to 256 MB compact flash memory and 1 GB DRAM are available from the factory.
Q. What WAN optimization solutions does Cisco Systems® offer?
A. WAN optimization is the ability to improve the performance of business applications over WANs and includes monitoring and diagnostics, traffic management, compression, and caching. Cisco has the broadest range of technologies and products to address both generic and application-specific WAN optimization challenges.
The Cisco WAN optimization solutions offer the industry's most integrated, yet flexible and cost-effective bandwidth management solutions. An integrated services solution in the branch router is the logical point of consolidation for WAN optimization technologies, such as compression, caching, wide-area application services, quality of service (QoS), and access control, because it sits at the WAN/LAN interface where bottlenecks can efficiently be mitigated and critical network services (voice over IP [VoIP], security, QoS, and Multiprotocol Label Switching [MPLS]) need to be deployed. Cisco Layer 2 integrated compression, combined with a content engine object and sequence caching module, provide WAN bandwidth management that improves application response time on congested links by reducing the amount of data sent across the WAN. Layer 2 compression provides many benefits over standalone compression appliances by providing a tightly integrated solution that interoperates with critical Cisco IOS Software features and services such as QoS, policy-based routing (PBR), network-based application recognition (NBAR), Network Address Translation (NAT), and access control lists (ACLs).
Q. What are the key benefits of the WAN optimization bundles?
A. The new WAN optimization bundles provide a comprehensive bandwidth management solution for improving application response time over low-speed and congested WAN links. The WAN optimization bundles provide bandwidth optimization, reducing the amount of bandwidth required over low-speed links, latency reduction, and application acceleration of Web-based traffic to the branch office at an attractive price.
The Cisco WAN optimization solution presents many benefits over external, standalone appliances, including superior integration with security, voice, and QoS technologies, as well as integrated management and maintenance. Other key benefits include:
• Layer 2 and Layer 3 payload compression and hardware acceleration
• HTTP, FTP, Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), common Internet file system (CIFS), and Network File System (NFS) caching and TCP/IP optimization
• QoS, NBAR application-level traffic classification, and bandwidth estimation
• URL and traffic filtering
• VoIP compression techniques (codec compression, Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) header compression, and voice activity detection)
• Remote Monitoring (RMON-II) and diagnostic capabilities
• Multilink route optimization such as Cisco Optimized Edge Routing (OER) and PBR
Q. When should I deploy an integrated services router WAN optimization bundle?
A. WAN optimization bundles should be deployed when the effective data throughput over the WAN needs to be increased by 20 to 50 percent. WAN optimization bundles should be deployed in situations where numerous low-speed serial links (T1/E1 or below) are running at or near full capacity, end users complain of very slow application response times, and obtaining additional bandwidth from the service provider is either cost-prohibitive or impossible. Also, when a reasonable percentage of data transversing the WAN is Web-based HTTP traffic, the content engine object caching feature could provide significant bandwidth savings.
Q. How do you position the Cisco 2800 and 3800 integrated services router WAN optimization bundles in the branch office?
A. The Cisco 2800 integrated services router WAN optimization bundles should be positioned at medium-sized and larger branch offices of 20 to 50 end users with bandwidth requirements up to 4 Mbps (2 T1/E1). The Cisco 3800 integrated services router WAN optimization bundles should be positioned at large branch offices and small regional aggregation sites with 50 to 150 end users and bandwidth requirements up to 16 Mbps (8 T1/E1).
Q. What are the key benefits of the Layer 2 data compression AIMs?
A. Key benefits of hardware-accelerated data compression AIMs are listed in Table 3.
Table 3. Data Compression AIM Feature and Benefits Comparison
Q. What are some of the other Cisco WAN optimization and application acceleration solutions available today for the branch and headquarters?
A. Figure 1 shows the Cisco WAN optimization components available today for the branch and data center.
Figure 1. Cisco WAN Optimization Components
Q. How long will these WAN optimization bundles be available?
A. There is no specific time limit to availability of these WAN optimization bundles for the Cisco 2800 and 3800 series integrated services routers. A minimum of 6 months' end-of-sale notification will be provided prior to the end-of-sale date.