CHAPTER
 
3-1
Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers Hardware Installation Guide
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Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers Embedded 
Services Processors
The Cisco ASR 1000 Series embedded services processors are based on the Cisco QuantumFlow 
Processor (QFP) for next-generation forwarding and queuing. The Cisco ASR1000-ESP5, Cisco 
ASR1000-ESP10, Cisco ASR1000-ESP10-N, Cisco ASR1000-ESP20, Cisco ASR1000-ESP40, Cisco 
ASR1000-ESP100, and Cisco ASR 1000-ESP200 provide centralized forwarding-engine options for the 
Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers. 
Additionally, the Cisco ASR 1002 Fixed Router includes a nonmodular, fixed embedded services 
processor with a throughput of 2.5 Gbps and the Cisco ASR 1001 Router has a nonmodular, fixed 
embedded services processor with a throughput of 2.5 Gbps, which is upgradable with a software 
activated performance upgrade license to 5 Gbps.
The Cisco  ASR 1000 Series embedded service processors:
• Provide the centralized embedded forwarding services responsible for the bulk of the data plane 
processing tasks. All network traffic through the Cisco ASR 1000 Series system flows through the 
Cisco ASR 1000 Series Embedded Services Processors. 
• Are responsible for the data-plane processing tasks and all network traffic flows through them. 
• Support Forwarding Engine Control Processor which provide hardware abstraction layer between 
the QFP-based forwarding engine and other system components, allowing datapath and management 
functions to be independent.
• Support Cisco QuantumFlow Processor (QFP) forwarding engines.
• Support QFP provisioned with two TCAM4 devices for ACL lookup and other software features.
• Perform all baseline packet routing operations, including MAC classification, Layer 2 and Layer 3 
forwarding, quality-of-service (QoS) classification, policing and shaping, security access control 
lists (ACLs), VPNs, load balancing, NetFlow. 
• Are responsible for features such as firewalls, intrusion prevention, Network Based Application 
Recognition (NBAR), Network Address Translation (NAT), and flexible pattern matching.
• Incorporates a security encryption coprocessor to assist encryption processing common to all 
embedded services processors. The security processor operates in coprocessor mode and only 
processes packets sent to it by the Cisco QFP. 
• Provide hardware abstraction layer between the packet processing-based forwarding engine and 
other system components.
The Cisco ASR1000-ESP5, Cisco ASR1000-ESP10, Cisco ASR1000-ESP10-N, Cisco 
ASR1000-ESP20, Cisco ASR1000-ESP40, Cisco ASR1000-ESP100, and Cisco ASR1000-ESP200 
provide centralized forwarding-engine options for the Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services