The Cisco 8000 series routers utilize Cisco's Silicon One ASIC to deliver full routing functionality at higher capacities and a lower environmental footprint than any other routing silicon available. The Silicon One architecture supports large forwarding tables, deep buffers, flexible packet operations, and enhanced programmability.

The 8000 series are highly scalable, deep-bufferred, 100G/400G/800G optimized routers. They are also available with additional on-chip High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to support additional resource scale. The Cisco 8000 series routers support both ZR and ZR+ modules.

The Network Convergence System (NCS) 5500 platform offers high port density, high-performance forwarding, low jitter, and low power consumption.

The QDD-400G-ZR-S and QDD-400G-ZRP-S optical modules offload wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) functionality to the router. The QDD-400G-ZR-S and QDD-400G-ZRP-S optical modules are DWDM C-band (196.1 to 191.3 THz with 100-MHz spacing) tunable optical modules. These optical modules enable high-bandwidth 400G links and support 400G Ethernet rate.

This table lists some specifications of the ZR/ZR+ pluggable modules.

The ZR/ZR+ pluggable optical modules are based on the QSFP-DD form factor. This form factor is a universal standard and ensures interoperability with other vendors.

For more information on Cisco 400G Digital Coherent Optics QSFP-DD Optical Modules, see the Cisco 400G Digital Coherent Optics QSFP-DD Optical Modules Data Sheet.

The Cisco Network Convergence System 2000 Series delivers agility, programmability, and massive scale across ultra-long haul, metro, and enterprise optical networks. Using the Cisco NCS 2000 Series, you can deploy a simple, yet intelligent dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) network that scales with operational ease. The NCS 2000 devices are managed by Shelf Virtualization Orchestrator (SVO).

The Cisco WAN Automation Engine (WAE) platform is an open, programmable framework that interconnects software modules, communicates with the network, and provides APIs to interface with external applications.

Cisco WAE provides the tools to create and maintain a model of the current network through the continual monitoring and analysis of the network and the traffic demands that are placed on it. At a given time, this network model contains all relevant information about a network, including topology, configuration, and traffic information. You can use this information as a basis for analyzing the impact on the network due to changes in traffic demands, paths, node and link failures, network optimizations, or other changes.

Cisco WAE is used for IP and optical network planning of multi-vendor networks.

For more information, see Cisco WAN Automation Engine Data Sheet

Cisco Optical Network Planner (Cisco ONP) is a tool that models and tests Optical Transport Networks and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing optical networks using a graphical environment. The primary purpose of Cisco ONP is to design and validate networks of the NCS 2000 series and NCS 1010. Using the Cisco ONP tool, you create multiple instances of a network, modify different parameters at each instance, and compare the instances. Cisco ONP performs the following:

• Generates a rack view of all the sites in the network

• Shows the differences between the instances

• Provides a complete Bill of Materials (BOM) for the network

Cisco ONP models the optical network, generates the BOM, and provides detailed information about the network. This information includes connection reports, optical reports, and traffic matrix.

Note	Cisco ONP must be used to perform the final optical network feasibility analysis and generate production network designs.

For more information, see Cisco Optical Network Planner (CONP) Data Sheet

Cisco Crosswork Hierarchical Controller provides an API and single pane of glass UI for Routed Optical Networking infrastructure and services. It manages your existing optical and packet domains with the same unified approach. Routed Optical Networking with Crosswork Hierarchical Controller dramatically simplifies the operation of multi-layer networks which before now were commonly managed by independent NMS/EMS products.

Cisco Crosswork Network Controller (Crosswork Network Controller) is a network automation solution for deploying and operating IP and Routed Optical Networking converged transport networks. Crosswork Network Controller delivers increased service agility, cost efficiency, and optimization for faster time-to-customer value and lower operating costs. The solution combines intent-based network automation to deliver critical capabilities for service orchestration and fulfillment, network optimization, service path computation, device deployment and management, and anomaly detection and automatic remediation. Using telemetry gathering and automated responses, Cisco Crosswork Network Controller delivers network optimization capabilities that are nearly impossible to replicate even with a highly skilled and dedicated staff operating the network.

The integrated solution combines core capabilities from multiple innovative, industry-leading products including Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO), Cisco Segment Routing Path Computation Element (SR-PCE), and the Cisco Crosswork suite of applications. Its unified user interface allows real-time visualization of the network topology and services, as well as service and transport provisioning, through a single pane of glass.

The Crosswork Network Controller features are:

• Active Topology: Active Topology’s logical and geographical maps provide real-time visibility into the physical and logical network topology, service inventory, and SR-TE policies and RSVP-TE tunnels, all in a single pane of glass. They enable operators to see, at-a-glance, the status and health of the devices, services, and policies.

• Common UI and API: All Crosswork Network Controller functionality is provided within a single, common GUI. This common UI brings together the features of all components of Crosswork Network Controller, including common inventory, network topology and service visualization, service and transport provisioning, and system administration and management functions.

  All Crosswork Network Controller functionality is provided within a single, common GUI. This common UI brings together the features of all components of Crosswork Network Controller, including common inventory, network topology and service visualization, service and transport provisioning, and system administration and management functions.

• Platform Infrastructure and Shared Services: The Platform Infrastructure provides a resilient and scalable platform on which all Cisco Crosswork applications can be deployed. It is a microservices-based platform that brings together streaming telemetry and model-driven application programming interfaces (APIs) to redefine service provider network operations. It retrieves real-time information from the network, analyzes the data, and uses APIs to apply network changes. It employs a cluster architecture to be extensible, scalable, and highly available.

The essential components of Crosswork Network Controller are:

• Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine: Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine provides real-time network optimization allowing operators to effectively maximize network capacity utilization and increase service velocity. Crosswork Optimization Engine enables closed loop tracking of the network state, reacting quickly to changes in network conditions to support a self-healing network. See Cisco Crosswork Optimization Engine Data Sheet

• Cisco Crosswork Data Gateway: Cisco Crosswork Data Gateway (Crosswork Data Gateway) is a secure, common collection platform for gathering network data from multivendor devices. It is an on-premise application that is deployed close to network devices. Crosswork Data Gateway supports multiple data collection protocols including MDT, SNMP, CLI, standards-based gNMI (dial-in), and syslog. Crosswork Data Gateway can collect any type of data as long as the data can be delivered over one of the supported protocols. See Cisco Crosswork Data Gateway Data Sheet

• Cisco Segment Routing Path Computation Element: Cisco Segment Routing Path Computation Element (SR-PCE) is an IOS-XR multidomain stateful Path Computation Engine (PCE) supporting both segment routing (SR) and Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP). Cisco SR-PCE builds on the native PCE abilities within IOS-XR devices, and provides the ability to collect topology and segment routing IDs through BGP-LS, calculates paths that adhere to service SLAs, and programs them into the source router as an ordered list of segments. A Path Computation Client (PCC) reports and delegates control of headend tunnels that are sourced from the PCC to a PCE peer. The PCC and PCE establish a Path Computation Element Communication Protocol (PCEP) connection that SR-PCE uses to push updates to the network and reoptimize paths where necessary.

• Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) Function Packs: Cisco Crosswork Network Controller is packaged with the following Cisco NSO function packs:

  • SR-TE core function pack (CFP)

  • Sample function packs for IETF-compliant L2VPN and L3VPN provisioning

  • Sample IETF-compliant RSVP-TE function pack

The optional components of Crosswork Network Controller are:

• Cisco Crosswork Health Insights: Cisco Crosswork Health Insights is a network health application that performs real-time Key Performance Indicator (KPI) monitoring, alerting, and troubleshooting. Cisco Crosswork Health Insights enables programmable monitoring and analytics. It provides a platform for dynamically addressing changes to the network infrastructure. See Cisco Crosswork Change Automation and Health Insights Data Sheet

• Cisco Crosswork Zero-Touch Provisioning: The Cisco Crosswork Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) application is an integrated solution for onboarding and provisioning new IOS-XR devices automatically. ZTP results in faster deployment of new hardware at lower operating costs. Operators can quickly and easily bring up devices using a Cisco-certified software image and a day-zero software configuration. Once provisioned in this way, the new device is onboarded to the Crosswork device inventory where it can be monitored and managed like other devices. See Cisco Crosswork Zero–Touch Provisioning Data Sheet

• Cisco Service Health: Service Health substantially reduces the time required to detect and troubleshoot service quality issues. It monitors the health status of provisioned L2/L3 VPN services and enables operators to pinpoint why and where a service is degraded. It can also provide service-specific monitoring, troubleshooting, assurance, and proactive causality through a heuristic model that visualizes the:

  • Health status of subservices (device, tunnel) to a map when a single service is selected.

  • Service logical dependency tree and help the operator in troubleshooting in case of degradation by locating where the problem resides, an indication of possible symptoms, and impacting metrics in case of degradation.

  • Historical view of service health status up to 60 days

• Crosswork EMS Services: Element Management System (EMS) services are bundled with the Crosswork Network Controller Advantage pack. The EMS functions include inventory, fault, and Software Image Management (SWIM).

  • Inventory service integrates deep inventory collection with Cisco Crosswork’s Device Lifecycle Management (DLM). It enriches the existing device onboarding workflow to gather more insights about the device. Built-in device packages enable deep inventory collection when the user manually attaches a device to the Crosswork Data Gateway. The collection is persisted in the database and monitored using the Inventory APIs.

  • Fault service is associated with alarm management. It provides API support for subscription, request, retrieval, and auto-clearing of alarms for Topology Visualization services. Monitored using the Fault APIs, the fault service improves the existing topology views by showing the alarm status for devices and links.

  • SWIM is integrated with Crosswork Change Automation and managed with SWIM APIs. It allows operators to view, import, and delete software images, as well as push software images to the devices in the network. SWIM improves compliance, accelerates upgrades, and improves the network engineer experience.

Cisco Optical Network Controller (Optical Network Controller) is an SDN Domain Controller for optical networks. Optical Network Controller collects optical data and uses it to provide network information in an abstracted format to higher layer controllers. This abstraction enables centralized control of optical networks.

Cisco Optical Network Controller serves as a domain controller for optical products and provides data to Hierarchical Controllers. Optical Network Controller supports a standardized TAPI model, which enables it to abstract the device level details from a hierarchical controller. As a Provisioning Network Controller, Optical Network Controller helps in configuring the network elements, monitors the topology (physical or virtual) of networks, and collects information about the topology. Cisco Optical Network Controller improves hardware capability by supporting addition of optical applications to the controller. It centralizes some of the control loop functions that are critical for maintaining and programming the optical components in the hardware.

For more information on Cisco Optical Network Controller, see the Cisco Optical Network Controller Data Sheet.

Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) is an orchestration platform that takes advantage of pluggable function packs to translate networkwide service intent into device-specific configuration. Cisco NSO provides flexible service orchestration and lifecycle management across physical network elements and cloud-based virtual network functions (VNFs), fulfilling the role of the Network Orchestrator within the ETSI architecture. It provides complete support for physical and virtual network elements, with a consistent operational model across both. It can orchestrate across multivendor environments and support multiple technology stacks, enabling extension of end-to-end automation to virtually any use case or device.

Cisco NSO has a rich set of APIs designed to allow developers to implement service applications. It provides the infrastructure for defining and executing the YANG data models necessary to realize customer services. NSO is also responsible for providing the overall lifecycle management at the network service level.

The Cisco Evolved Programmable Network Manager (EPNM) is an all-in-one management solution for today’s converging packet and optical networks.

Cisco EPN Manager supports the Cisco Routed Optical Network architecture and delivers Cisco Optical and IP full device management and Cisco optical circuit network assurance. The Cisco EPN Manager discovers and represents the physical and logical configuration of managed devices.

Cisco EPN Manager provides full software image management and configuration management for the Cisco optical and IP devices.

A graphical chassis view with status indications gives network operators a live-live view of the device. EPNM differentiates itself from other network management systems with the ability to discover optical circuit from the network and maintain up-to-date representation of the optical circuit and the infrastructure dependency.

EPNM helps reduce the time to know about network or optical circuit-affecting conditions by correlating raw events and associating alarm conditions with affected managed network elements, network connectivity, and circuit. Contextual dashboards and 360-degree views (device and port levels) display the most relevant information for fast and efficient problem identification and remediation. To help reduce the time to restore and repair, EPNM guides the troubleshooting process using alarm correlation, identification of affected components or optical circuit, and connectivity. EPNM collects fault and alarm information, and performs node-level performance measurement statistics collection.

For more information on Cisco Evolved Programmable Network Manager, see the Cisco Evolved Programmable Network Manager Data Sheet.

NETCONF is a standard-based and XML-encoded protocol. NETCONF provides the transport to communicate YANG formatted configuration or operational data requests from an application, which runs on a centralized management platform, to the Cisco device that you wish to configure or request operational data from. It provides transaction-based services, such as aborting the entire configuration request when a portion of that configuration request fails.

NETCONF uses a simple Remote Procedure Call based mechanism to facilitate communication between clients (centralized management platform script or application) and servers (Cisco switch or router). It uses SSH as the transport layer across network devices.

YANG is a standards-based data modeling language. You can use YANG to create device configuration requests or requests for operational (show commands) data. It has a structured format similar to a computer program that is human-readable. Several applications that can run on a centralized management platform to create these configuration and operational data requests are available.

There are two types of YANG models:

• Standard (common) YANG data model that applies to all vendors. (For example, a request to disable or shut down an Ethernet interface is identical for both Cisco and non-Cisco devices.)

• Device (native, vendor-specific) data models that facilitate configuring or collecting operational data concerning proprietary vendor features.

This table lists Cisco native models, their Open Config equivalents used in the Routed Optical Networking solution and their functions.

Telemetry is an automated communications process that you use to collect measurements and other data at remote or inaccessible points and transmit to receiving equipment for monitoring. Model-driven telemetry (MDT) provides a mechanism to stream YANG-modeled data to a data collector. Model-driven telemetry allows network devices to continuously stream real-time configuration and operating state information to subscribers.

Applications can subscribe to specific data items they need, by using standards-based YANG data models over NETCONF, RESTCONF, or gRPC Network Management Interface (gNMI) protocols. You can also create subscriptions by using CLIs if they are configured subscriptions. Devices publish structured data at a defined cadence, or on-change, based on the subscription criteria and data type. See Troubleshoot Provisioning Issues for information on telemetry sensor paths and corresponding data fields.

MDT leverages structured data models that the networking device supports. MDT provides critical data that is defined in those data models. Telemetry helps you to manage your multivendor network using a common network management system, a process, and applications. The data that is collected from the network are standards-based and are uniform across vendor implementations.