Cisco® 3900 Series Integrated Services Routers build on 25 years of Cisco innovation and product leadership. The new Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) platforms are architected to enable the next phase of branch-office evolution, providing rich-media collaboration and virtualization to the branch office while maximizing operational cost savings. The new routers support new high-capacity digital signal processors (DSPs) for future enhanced video capabilities, high-powered service modules with improved availability, multicore CPUs, Gigabit Ethernet switching with Cisco Enhanced Power over Ethernet (ePoE), and new energy visibility and control capabilities while enhancing overall system performance. Additionally, a new Cisco IOS® Software Universal image and Cisco Services Ready Engine (SRE) module enable you to decouple the deployment of hardware and software, providing a flexible technology foundation that can quickly adapt to evolving network requirements. Overall, the Cisco 3900 Series offers exceptional total cost of ownership (TCO) savings and network agility through the intelligent integration of market-leading security, unified communications, wireless, and application services.

The Cisco 3900 Series builds on the best-in-class offering of the existing Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers by now offering four platforms (Figure 1): the Cisco 3945E, Cisco 3925E, Cisco 3945, and Cisco 3925 Integrated Services Routers.

The Cisco 3900 Series offers embedded hardware encryption acceleration, voice- and video-capable DSP slots, optional firewall, intrusion prevention, call processing, voicemail, and application services. In addition, the platforms support the industry’s widest range of wired and wireless connectivity options such as T1/E1, T3/E3, xDSL, copper, and fiber Gigabit Ethernet.

The Cisco 3900 Series offers superior performance and flexibility for flexible network deployments from small business offices to large enterprise offices - all while providing industry-leading investment protection.

Modularity Features and Benefits

The Cisco 3900 Series provides significantly enhanced modular capabilities (refer to Table 3) while maintaining investment protection for customers. Most of the modules available on previous generations of Cisco routers, such as the Cisco 3800 Series Integrated Services Routers, are supported on the Cisco 3900 Series. Additionally, modules used on the Cisco 3900 Series can easily be supported on other routers in the Cisco Integrated Services Router portfolio to provide maximum investment protection. Taking advantage of common interface cards across a network greatly reduces the complexity of managing inventory requirements, implementing large network rollouts, and maintaining configurations across a variety of branch-office sizes.

Cisco IOS Software

Cisco 3900 Series Integrated Services Routers deliver innovative technologies running on industry-leading Cisco IOS Software. Developed for wide deployment in the world’s most demanding enterprise, access, and service provider networks, Cisco IOS Software Releases 15M and T support a comprehensive portfolio of Cisco technologies, including the functions and features delivered in Releases 12.4 and 12.4T. New innovations in Release 15.0(1)M span multiple technology areas, including security, voice, high availability, IP Routing and Multicast, quality of service (QoS), IP Mobility, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), VPNs, and embedded management. Available immediately for the Cisco 3900 Integrated Services Routers, Release 15.0(1)M will be an extended support release.

Key Branch-Office Services

The industry-leading Cisco Integrated Services Routers offer unprecedented levels of services integration. Designed to meet the requirements of the branch office, these platforms provide a complete solution with voice, video, security, mobility, and application services. Businesses enjoy the benefits by deploying a single device that meets all their needs, reducing CapEx and OpEx.

Unified Communications, Collaboration, and Voice-Gateway Services

The Cisco 3900 Integrated Services Router is the foundation for collaboration in branch offices of any size and is a critical component of Cisco’s video architecture (Medianet) and enterprise Unified Communications solution. With embedded voice services and a wide range of telephony interfaces supported, the Cisco 3900 Series delivers maximum deployment flexibility for the distributed enterprise. Unified communications is enabled through a rich signaling and media-processing infrastructure, including a variety of protocols, media interworking, signal and media security, transcoding, conferencing, and QoS. Cisco Integrated Services Routers feature a wide range of voice-gateway interfaces, supporting a broad array of signaling and physical network interfaces. The performance improvements introduced with the Cisco 3900 Series help ensure that branch-office employees benefit from the same productivity advantages and wide breadth of services and applications as those enjoyed by the headquarters-based employees.

The Cisco 3900 Series enables a full range of existing and emerging video services, with scaling improvement to support Cisco TelePresence® conferencing, security, and session control. Cisco Unified Border Element extends these capabilities for business-to-business TelePresence communications.

The Cisco 3900 Series adds support for the new Cisco High-Density Packet Voice Digital Signal Processor Module (PVDM3), which has been optimized for concurrent voice and video support. The PVDM3 modules support all voice-gateway functions of earlier generations of PVDMs, and add higher density and more processing power to support emerging rich-media applications. The Cisco 3900 Series can support up to 4 onboard PVDM3 slots, able to scale up to 768 G.729a channels.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express and Survivable Remote Site Telephony

The Cisco Integrated Services Routers inherently provide optional unified communications services within the Cisco IOS Software, delivering the advantage of server hardware reduction and lower energy costs at the branch office. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express (CME) provides the broad range of IP private-branch-exchange (PBX) and key-system features integrated into the router for branch offices. Cisco Survivable Remote Site Telephony (SRST), also inherently available in Cisco IOS Software and an option on the Cisco 3900 Series, helps ensure that branch-office employees have uninterrupted telephony services and features, even if the connection to a centralized Cisco Unified Communications Manager is disrupted. Coupled with Cisco Unity® Express, the integrated solution for voicemail, Automated Attendant, and interactive voice response (IVR), the Cisco 3900 Series offers the branch office a complete range of unified communications services while delivering industry-leading security within a single platform.

Cisco Unified Border Element

The Cisco Unified Border Element capabilities supported on the Cisco 3900 address the emerging requirements in an IP-centric interconnect for branch-office unified communications between enterprises and service provider networks. Cisco Unified Border Element provides intelligent border-element functions such as physical and logical ingress and egress demarcation points, signaling and media control, and consolidated security and management features. The Cisco 3900 Series supports higher scale than previously provided on the Cisco 3800 Series, with up to 2.5 times the number of sessions.

VoiceXML Application Services

The Cisco 3900 Series inherently provides standards-certified VoiceXML browser services. VoiceXML is an open-standard markup language used to create voice-enabled web browsers and IVR applications. Just as HTML enables you to retrieve data with a PC, VoiceXML enables you to retrieve data using voice or dual-tone-multifrequency (DTMF) telephony input. The Cisco 3900 Series can deliver a much higher range of concurrent voice-gateway services combined with VoiceXML browser services, for more than 300 sessions on the Cisco 3945.

Integrated Network Security for Data, Voice, Video, and Mobility

Security is essential to protect a business’ intellectual property while also ensuring business continuity and providing the ability to extend the corporate workplace to employees who need anytime, anywhere access to company resources. As part of the Cisco Self-Defending Network (SDN) - an architectural framework that allows organizations to identify, prevent, and adapt to network security threats - the Cisco 3900 Series Integrated Services Routers facilitate secure data transactions and secure collaboration.

The Cisco IOS Software Security technology package for the Cisco 3900 Series offers a wide array of common security features such as advanced application inspection and control, threat protection, and encryption architectures for enabling more scalable and manageable VPN networks. The Cisco 3900 Series offers onboard hardware-based encryption acceleration to provide greater IPSec throughput with less overhead for the route processor when compared with software-based encryption solutions. Cisco Integrated Services Routers offer a comprehensive and adaptable security solution for branch offices that includes features such as:

- Secure connectivity: Secure collaborative communications with Group Encrypted Transport VPN, Dynamic Multipoint VPN (DMVPN), or Enhanced Easy VPN
- Integrated threat control: Responding to sophisticated network attacks and threats using Cisco IOS Firewall, Cisco IOS Zone-Based Firewall, Cisco IOS IPS, Cisco IOS Content Filtering, and Flexible Packet Matching (FPM)
- Identity management: Intelligently protecting endpoints using technologies such as authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) and public key infrastructure (PKI)