The Cisco® ASR 1000 Series Embedded Services Processors (ESPs) are based on the innovative, industry-leading Cisco QuantumFlow Processor for next-generation forwarding and queuing in silicon. The Cisco ASR 1002-X Router and the 100-Gbps Cisco ASR 1000 Series ESP module introduce the second generation of the Cisco QuantumFlow Processor hardware and software architecture.

The 5-, 10-, 10-N-, 20-, 40-, 100-Gbps Cisco ASR 1000 Series ESPs (part numbers ASR1000-ESP5, ASR1000-ESP10, ASR1000-ESP10-N, ASR1000-ESP20, ASR1000-ESP40, and ASR1000-ESP100 respectively) 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 ESP with throughput of 2.5 Gbps, and the Cisco ASR 1001 and ASR 1002-X Routers come with a nonmodular, fixed ESP with throughput of 2.5 Gbps (for ASR 1001) and 5 Gbps (for ASR 1002-X), upgradable with a software-activated performance upgrade license to 5 Gbps (for ASR 1001), and 10, 20, or 36 Gbps (for ASR 1002-X), respectively.