The Cisco® ASR 9000 Series Route Switch Processor 5 (ASR 9000 RSP5) is the next-generation system processor for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Routers. It supports high-density 100 Gigabit Ethernet line cards and provides backward compatibility with the Cisco ASR 9000 Series third generation family of line cards. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series RSP5 system architecture is designed to accommodate new programmable deployment models and convergence of Layer 2 and Layer 3 services, as required by today's wireline, Data-Center-Interconnect (DCI), and Radio Access Network (RAN) aggregation applications.

The ASR 9000 Series RSP5 brings the time-tested and robust carrier-class capabilities of Cisco IOS® XR Software to the Carrier Ethernet edge. The operating system supports true software process modularity. It also allows each process to run in separate protected memory, including each routing protocol, along with multiple instances of control, data, and management planes supported. The software also supports distributed route processing.

The ASR 9000 Series RSP5 is designed to deliver the high scalability, performance, and fast convergence required for today's and tomorrow's demanding video, cloud, and mobile services. These features provide exceptional scale, service flexibility, and high availability. Some examples include:

• Switch fabric architecture for ASR 9010, ASR 9006, ASR 9904, ASR 9906 as well as hybrid switch fabric architecture along with Cisco ASR 9910 and ASR 9906 Fabric Cards:
• Distributed switch fabric architecture
• Uses the integrated switch fabrics located on the RSPs
• Also uses the switch fabrics located on dedicated switch fabric cards
• Control of up to seven switch fabrics (two located on the RSP and five on dedicated switch fabric cards) to provide same scalability and high availability as on the Cisco ASR 9922 Router and ASR 9912 Router chassis
• Multistage, low-latency, non-blocking architecture
• Service intelligence and traffic prioritization

• Superior network-timing capabilities with support for:
• Centralized Building Integrated Timing Supply (BITS)
• Precision Time Protocol (PTP), or IEEE 1588-2008, through a dedicated 10-Mbps or 100-Mbps Ethernet port
• Bidirectional Time of Day (ToD) with 10-MHz and 1-pps interfaces

Route Switch Processor Types

The ASR 9000 Series RSP5 is available in service-edge-optimized and packet-transport-optimized models. The service-edge-optimized version offers the higher amount of memory that is essential for large-scale, comprehensive service deployment. Both versions of the route switch processor support service-optimized, as well as transport-optimized, line cards. Different line cards can be mixed on the same chassis, providing maximum design flexibility.