Routers & Gateways

Building on the success of the Cisco® Network Convergence System 5501 (NCS-5501), the Cisco Network Convergence System 55A1-24Q6H-S (NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S) and 55A1-24Q6H-SS (NCS-55A1-24Q6H-SS) offer improvements designed to meet the challenges of the zettabyte era. The NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S and NCS55A1-24Q6H-SS provide dense 1G/10G/25G/40G/100G functionality in a 1-rack-unit package with line-rate MACsec at 10G/25G/40G/100G speeds and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE)/1588 Class B timing. With ultralow per-bit power consumption, deep packet buffering, and optimized forwarding architecture, the NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S and NCS-55A1-24Q6H-SS have the flexibility to be deployed across various network roles, including 5G Mobile Backhaul, Top of Rack (ToR), spine-and-leaf, and Converged Interconnect Network (CIN). Built to take full advantage of the advanced capabilities you have come to expect from Cisco IOS® XR, the NCS-55A1 fixed-chassis models boast advanced packet classification, segment routing, ultrawide Equal-Cost Multipathing (ECMP), programmable network management, and telemetry to make your network smarter, faster, and more agile.

Building on the success of the Cisco^® Network Convergence System 5501 (NCS-5501), the Cisco Network Convergence System 55A1-24Q6H-S (NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S) offers improvements designed to meet the challenges of the zettabyte era. The NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S provides dense 1GE/10GE/25GE/100GE functionality in a 1-rack-unit package with line-rate MACsec, and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE)/1588 Class B timing. With its ultra-low per-bit power consumption, deep packet buffering, and optimized forwarding architecture the NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S has the flexibility to be deployed across various network roles, including 5G Mobile Backhaul, Top of Rack (ToR), spine-and-leaf, and Converged Interconnect Network (CIN). Built to take full advantage of the advanced capabilities you have come to expect from Cisco IOS^® XR, the NCS-55A1 fixed chassis models boast advanced packet classification, segment routing, ultra-wide Equal-Cost Multipathing (ECMP), programmable network management, and telemetry to make your network smarter, faster, and more agile.

Building on the success of the Cisco^® Network Convergence System 5501 (NCS-5501), the Cisco Network Convergence System 55A1-24Q6H-S (NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S) offers improvements designed to meet the challenges of the zettabyte era. The NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S provides dense 1GE/10GE/25GE/100GE functionality in a 1-rack-unit package with line-rate MACsec, and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE)/1588 Class B timing. With its ultra-low per-bit power consumption, deep packet buffering, and optimized forwarding architecture the NCS-55A1-24Q6H-S has the flexibility to be deployed across various network roles, including 5G Mobile Backhaul, Top of Rack (ToR), spine-and-leaf, and Converged Interconnect Network (CIN). Built to take full advantage of the advanced capabilities you have come to expect from Cisco IOS^® XR, the NCS-55A1 fixed chassis models boast advanced packet classification, segment routing, ultra-wide Equal-Cost Multipathing (ECMP), programmable network management, and telemetry to make your network smarter, faster, and more agile.

According to Cisco's 2019 VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, mobile data traffic is expected to grow at a 46 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2017 to 2022, two times faster than the growth of global IP fixed traffic during the same period. To help network providers meet these = challenges, the Cisco® Network Convergence System 5500 Series is built with features such as high port densities, deep packet buffering, and forwarding hardware optimized for these types of deployments.

The Cisco NCS 55A1 are the second generation of fixed chassis available for the Cisco NCS 5500 Series. That new series offers three fixed configuration chassis, the NCS 55A1-36H-S, NCS 55A1-36H-SE-S and NCS 55A1-24H. These systems provide functionality vital to both the Top of Rack (ToR) and spine or leaf roles common to modern spine-and-leaf architectures. Capabilities such as advanced packet classification, segment routing, ultra-wide ECMP, programmable network management and telemetry are added to the robust and mature features already present in Cisco IOS® XR Software Release 6.3.1.

The Cisco NCS 55A1-36H-S and NCS 55A1-36H-S provide 36 ports of 100 Gigabit Ethernet with full line rate MACsec capability. All the ports can support 100GE and 40GE optics as well as 25GE to 10GE breakout. They use QSFP28/QSFP+ form factor transceivers. They are designed for base and high scale configuration needs and are supported starting with Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.3.1.

According to Cisco's 2019 VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, mobile data traffic is expected to grow at a 46 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2017 to 2022, two times faster than the growth of global IP fixed traffic during the same period. To meet this growth economically, one of the architecture option available today is Centralized RAN (C-RAN). In this architecture, the base station is separated into two parts, the Baseband Unit (BBU) and the Remote Radio Head (RRH). The baseband processing functions are centralized at the aggregation site resulting in more efficient use of resources. However, to interconnect the BBU and RRH higher speed interfaces are needed.

The Cisco^®Network Convergence System (NCS) 5500 Series offers a new fixed configuration chassis, NCS-55A1-48Q6H (Figure 1) designed to support high density of interfaces up to 25GE. These systems can provide a cost-effective solution by supporting WAN connectivity to RRH and LAN connectivity to BBU on a single platform.

The Cisco NCS-55A1-48Q6H systems provide dense 1GE/10GE/25GE functionality needed for modern spine-leaf architectures and Top-of-Rack (ToR) roles. Capabilities such as advanced packet classification, segment routing, ultra-wide ECMP, programmable network management, and telemetry are added to the robust and mature features already present in Cisco IOS^®XR Software Release 6.6.25.