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Cisco IOS XR Getting Started Guide for the Cisco XR 12000 Series Router
OL-24755-01
Chapter 1 Introduction to Cisco IOS XR Software
Cisco XR 12000 Series Router Overview
• Cisco In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU)—Cisco IOS XR Software modularity sustains system
availability during installation of a software upgrade. ISSUs or hitless software upgrades (HSUs)
allow you to upgrade most Cisco router software features without affecting deployed services. You
can target particular system components for upgrades based on software packages or composites that
group selected features. Cisco preconfigures and tests these packages and composites to help ensure
system compatibility.
• Process restart—You can restart critical control-plane processes both manually and automatically in
response to a process failure versus restarting the entire operating system. This feature supports the
Cisco IOS XR Software goal of continuous system availability and allows for quick recovery from
process or protocol failures with minimal disruption to customers or traffic.
• State checkpoint—You can maintain a memory and critical operating state across process restarts to
sustain routing adjacencies and signaling state during a Route Switch Processor (RSP) switchover.
• Ethernet virtual connections (EVCs)—Ethernet services are supported using individual EVCs to
carry traffic belonging to a specific service type or end user through the network. You can use
EVC-based services in conjunction with MPLS-based L2VPNs and native IEEE bridging
deployments.
• Flexible VLAN classification—VLAN classification into Ethernet flow points (EFPs) includes
single-tagged VLANs, double-tagged VLANs (QinQ and IEEE 802.1ad), contiguous VLAN ranges,
and noncontiguous VLAN lists.
• IEEE Bridging—Software supports native bridging based on IEEE 802.1Q, IEEE 802.1ad, IEEE
802.1ah provider backbone bridges (PBB) and QinQ VLAN encapsulation mechanisms on the
router.
• IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree (MST)—MST extends the IEEE 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree
Protocol (MSTP) to multiple spanning trees, providing rapid convergence and load balancing.
• MST Access Gateway—This feature provides a resilient, fast-convergence mechanism for
aggregating and connecting to Ethernet-based access rings.
• Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS)—VPLS is a class of VPN that supports the connection of
multiple sites in a single, bridged domain over a managed IP/MPLS network. It presents an Ethernet
interface to customers, simplifying the LAN and WAN boundary for service providers and
customers, and enabling rapid and flexible service provisioning because the service bandwidth is
not tied to the physical interface. All services in a VPLS appear to be on the same LAN, regardless
of location.
• Hierarchical VPLS (H-VPLS)—H-VPLS provides a level of hierarchy at the edge of the VPLS
network for increased scale. QinQ access and H-VPLS pseudowire access options are supported.
• Virtual Private WAN Services/Ethernet over MPLS (VPWS/EoMPLS)—EoMPLS transports
Ethernet frames across an MPLS core using pseudowires. Individual EFPs or an entire port can be
transported over the MPLS backbone using pseudowires to an egress interface or subinterface.
• Pseudowire redundancy—Pseudowire redundancy supports the definition of a backup pseudowire to
protect a primary pseudowire that fails.
• Multisegment pseudowire stitching—Multisegment pseudowire stitching is a method for
interworking two pseudowires together to form a cross-connect relationship.
• IPv4 Multicast—IPv4 Multicast supports Internet Group Management Protocol Versions 2 and 3
(IGMPv2/v3), Protocol Independent Multicast Source Specific Multicast (SSM) and Sparse Mode
(SM), Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP), and Anycast Rendezvous Point (RP).