Choosing Remote Connection Cisco Products

Jun 22,2009 by alperen

Choosing Remote Connection
Cisco Products
Cisco offers a wide range of router products available for use in remote access solutions. Most of
these fall into one of two general categories: fixed interface or modular interface. Fixed-interface
solutions are fairly common in remote deployments, whereas modular interfaces are found in central
locations. This placement also relates well to their characteristics: Fixed-interface solutions
are very limited and lack upgradeability. Modular routers are expandable and usually provide better
performance.
In addition to the interface types, different software options are available in the Cisco product
line. Many products take advantage of the Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS),
which simplifies administration and training expenses because administrators need to learn
only one operating system. Routers based on this software also support more features under
most circumstances. Other Cisco routers make use of the Cisco Broadband Operating System
(CBOS), which can be found on the 600 series products. The CBOS software is limited in functionality,
and many of its commands differ from their IOS counterparts. However, the 600 series
routers can reduce acquisition costs by more than half compared to an IOS-based platform—a
substantial cost difference when magnified against the hundreds of routers that might be acquired
in a large-scale remote access deployment.