Full English Description for Cisco ASR 9906

1. Official Short Order Description (Datasheet Standard Format)

ASR 9906: Cisco ASR 9000 Series High-Capacity 14RU Modular Carrier-Grade Aggregation Services Router built on hybrid distributed nonblocking switch fabric architecture, dual redundant A99-RSP / RSP5-X / RSP880 Route Switch Processor slots for SSO control-plane high availability, dual dedicated hot-swappable fabric card slots for 1+1 data-plane redundancy, six horizontal hot-swappable line card slots supporting high-density 10G/25G/40G/100G/400G QSFP/QSFP-DD fiber and OTN transport line cards, integrated multi-layer precision timing subsystem (GPS GNSS Stratum 1, BITS, SyncE, IEEE 1588v2 PTP, 10MHz / 1PPS / ToD), up to eight N+1 redundant AC/DC/HVDC power supplies and dual redundant hot-swappable fan trays, RSP base 16GB ECC DDR4 memory upgradable to 32/64GB, dual 32GB hot-swappable SATA SSD mass storage plus 8GB industrial eUSB bootflash, modular 64-bit Cisco IOS XR operating system with full MPLS L2/L3VPN, EVPN, Segment Routing, broadband BRAS multi-subscriber aggregation, end-to-end 5G xHaul transport, hardware MACsec/IPsec wire-speed encryption and multi-layer H-QoS, designed for tier-1 service provider central office core, national 5G mobile transport master hub, hyperscale broadband BRAS aggregation, large-scale DCI interconnection and massive multi-tenant VPN termination deploymentsCisco.

2. Complete Detailed Product Overview

Product Line Positioning

Cisco ASR 9906 is the high-capacity mid-large modular chassis within the modern ASR 9900 next-gen IOS XR portfolio, positioned above 6RU ASR 9904 and below flagship 30RU ASR 9912 terabit core router. It adopts a hybrid fabric design combining integrated RSP fabric plus independent dedicated fabric cards for full 1+1 data-plane redundancy, dual redundant RSP control planes and six high-speed line card expansion slots, delivering superior I/O scalability for high-density 100G/400G fiber uplinks and OTN long-haul trunk convergence. Engineered for carrier central office five-nines availability, it supports ultra-large ECC memory for massive BGP route reflectors, millions of BRAS subscriber sessions and tens of thousands of mobile transport pseudowires, targeting tier-1 operator core aggregation, nationwide 5G transport hubs and hyperscale data center DCI sites requiring full end-to-end hardware redundancy and expandable offline telemetry storage.

Modular FRU Slot Architecture (Core Differentiators vs ASR 9904)

Dual Redundant RSP Route Switch Processor Slots (1+1 Control Plane HA)

Two independent hot-swappable FRU slots supporting A99-RSP-TR/SE, RSP5-X or RSP880 series route processors, enabling Stateful Switchover (SSO), Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) and hitless ISSU zero-downtime firmware upgrades to eliminate control-plane single points of failure. Each RSP integrates multi-core industrial x86 CPU, expandable ECC DDR4 memory, built-in partial switching fabric and complete multi-standard timing clock circuitry. Combined with dedicated fabric cards, total system nonblocking throughput scales up to 3.2 Tbps full-duplexCisco.

Dual Dedicated Fabric Card Slots (Exclusive 1+1 Data Plane Redundancy)

Two separate hot-swappable fabric trays deliver full independent data-plane failover capability unique to ASR 9906 / ASR 9912 large chassis, providing load-balanced low-latency packet forwarding and shared system-wide crypto offload resources for uniform MACsec/IPsec acceleration across all line card portsCisco.

Six Horizontal Hot-Swap Line Card Slots (Max Mid-Tier I/O Scalability)

All six line card slots support OIR (Online Insertion and Removal) for in-service module replacement without chassis power cycle, fully compatible with complete ASR 9000 modern high-density line card portfolio for converged high-speed fiber + legacy optical transport:

High-density Ethernet line cards: 24×10GE SFP+, 12×25G SFP28, 8×100GE QSFP28, 2×400GE QSFP-DD ultra-high capacity uplink modules
Optical transport line cards: OTN / SONET/SDH POS trunk modules for long-haul carrier transport convergence

All line cards integrate distributed Quantum Flow Processor forwarding ASICs with dedicated hardware offload engines for L2/L3 forwarding, CGNAT, firewall, AVC DPI, MACsec/IPsec encryption and hierarchical H-QoS scheduling.

Integrated Multi-Standard Precision Timing Interfaces (Critical for 5G xHaul)

1 × GPS GNSS mini-coax input port for Stratum 1 PRTC grandmaster clock generation
1 × BITS RJ45 timing port compliant with GR-1244-CORE Stratum 3 carrier synchronization standard

Native full support for SyncE, IEEE 1588v2 PTP telecom profiles, ToD, 10MHz reference clock and 1PPS pulse signals to eliminate clock drift for synchronous 4G/5G fronthaul/backhaul transport networksCisco.

Management, Alarm & Auxiliary Interfaces

Dual isolated 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management Ethernet ports for redundant remote chassis monitoring
Dual console access: RJ45 serial console + Mini-USB Type B port for local offline configuration
1×RJ45 AUX dial-out port for backup analog modem remote maintenance
2×USB 3.0 Type-A host ports for license upload, offline configuration backup and IOS XR firmware image transfer
Front-panel multi-color LED array monitoring primary/backup RSP health, fabric module status, line card link activity, power supply, fan tray operating status, timing lock status, SSD storage and critical/minor/major fault alarms.

Processor, Memory & Storage

Hybrid Distributed Switching Fabric Architecture

Multi-stage memoryless nonblocking fabric combining integrated RSP fabric and independent dedicated fabric cards, delivering low-latency wire-speed packet forwarding across all six line card slots, unified hardware crypto resource pool shared system-wide for MACsec and IPsec VPN acceleration.
- Base factory memory per RSP: 16GB ECC DDR4 RAM
- Field-upgradable maximum 64GB ECC DDR4 RAM per RSP for tier-1 carrier route reflectors and large-scale broadband BRAS multi-subscriber workloadsCisco
Boot Flash: Fixed 8GB rugged industrial eUSB onboard flash for 64-bit IOS XR modular boot images, crash dumps, NVRAM persistent logging and system archives.
Dual Hot-Swap Mass SSD Storage Trays (Exclusive Large Chassis Feature)

Two independent 32GB SATA SSD trays for long-term NetFlow/IPFIX streaming telemetry archiving, offline crash dump storage and persistent broadband subscriber log retention, unavailable on compact ASR 9901 / ASR 9904 chassis.

Power, Mechanical & Environmental Specifications

Form Factor: Standard 14RU 19-inch four-post carrier central office rack-mount chassis
Physical Dimensions: 622mm H × 447mm W × 625mm D
Weight: ~26kg empty chassis; fully loaded with dual RSPs, dual fabric cards and six line cards ~42kg
Cooling: Dual hot-swappable redundant fan trays with front-to-back airflow; tray replacement allowed while chassis operational within 4 minutes to avoid thermal alarms
Power Supply Architecture: Up to eight hot-swappable wide-range AC (90–264VAC) / -48VDC / HVDC power supplies supporting flexible N+1 carrier-grade redundant power groups; maximum total chassis power draw 2400W
Operating Temperature: 5°C ~ +40°C continuous indoor central office / equipment room operation; short-term tolerance -5°C ~ +55°C (max 96 hours per cycle)
Storage Temperature: -40°C ~ +70°C
Humidity: 10%–90% RH non-condensing operating humidity
Compliance: UL 62368-1, IEC/EN 60950-1, NEBS GR-1089 / GR-63, FCC Class A, CE certified for carrier central office, mobile transport hub and enterprise core data center deploymentCisco.

Official Performance Benchmarks

Maximum total nonblocking full-duplex IMIX forwarding throughput: Up to 3.2 Tbps
Maximum packet forwarding rate: 3.2 Bpps (billion packets per second)
System-wide hardware-accelerated IMIX IPsec/MACsec total crypto throughput: Max 64 Gbps
Maximum concurrent EVPN/VPLS L2VPN service instances: Up to 10,000 with 64GB RSP memory
Total concurrent stateful firewall sessions: Up to 12 million sessions
Full hardware offload support for NBAR2 AVC deep packet inspection, hierarchical MQC H-QoS, large-scale CGNAT carrier-grade address translation, multicast replication and sub-second BFD fast convergence.

Software & Core Supported Capabilities (64-bit Modular Cisco IOS XR)

Carrier-Grade Routing & Complete MPLS Suite

IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack forwarding, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, IS-IS, Segment Routing, RSVP-TE, BFD sub-second fast convergence; full MPLS feature stack including L3VPN, EVPN, VPLS, EoMPLS, multi-tenant route reflector and broadband L2TP BRAS termination supporting tens of thousands of simultaneous residential subscriber sessions for multi-tenant service provider private WAN architectures.
4G/5G Mobile xHaul Convergence Transport Suite

Native SyncE / IEEE 1588v2 PTP / GPS/BITS multi-layer synchronous timing stack, MEF-compliant Carrier Ethernet E-Line/E-LAN/E-Tree services, SAToP/CESoP TDM pseudowire legacy circuit migration, zero-touch provisioning compatible with Cisco NSO Network Services Orchestrator for mass nationwide cell-site orchestration.
Unified Integrated Carrier-Grade Security Stack

Line-rate hardware MACsec/IPsec tunnel acceleration, next-generation stateful zone firewall, IDS/IPS threat inspection, advanced malware protection (AMP), large-scale CGNAT subscriber address translation, AAA RADIUS/TACACS+, TLS encrypted remote multi-tenant traffic segmentation and secure boot hardware root of trust.
Application Visibility & Hierarchical H-QoS Management

NBAR2 full application signature classification, multi-level hierarchical MQC traffic shaping/policing with strict priority queues for mobile voice and control signaling, IP SLA performance monitoring, NetFlow/IPFIX streaming telemetry for centralized broadband and transport network capacity analytics.
Enhanced Carrier-Grade High Availability Mechanisms (Dual RSP + Dual Fabric Exclusive)

NSF Nonstop Forwarding, SSO Stateful Switchover between primary/backup RSP modules, dual dedicated fabric data-plane redundancy, ISSU In-Service Software Upgrade for zero-downtime firmware updates, HSRP/VRRP gateway redundancy, sub-second BFD link failure detection, N+1 redundant power supplies and dual OIR hot-swap fan trays eliminating single points of failure for 24/7 unmanned core aggregation operation.
Multi-Tenant Automation & Programmability

CLI/SSH console access, REST API, NETCONF/YANG, gRPC, Python scripting, real-time streaming telemetry, native integration with Catalyst Center and NSO Network Services Orchestrator for mass enterprise and service provider core device lifecycle automation.

Typical Deployment Scenarios

Tier-1 service provider central office core aggregation routers, nationwide 4G/5G national mobile xHaul master transport hubs, hyperscale broadband multi-subscriber BRAS aggregation nodes, large-scale enterprise headquarters metro WAN core routers, high-capacity data center DCI interconnection gateways, national retail SD-WAN master core aggregation hubs requiring six high-density line card expansion slots, dual RSP + dual fabric full hardware redundancy, dual SSD offline telemetry storage and integrated carrier-grade synchronous timing synchronization.

3. E-commerce Short Marketing Description

Cisco ASR 9906 High-Capacity 14RU Modular Carrier Aggregation Services Router, dual redundant RSP + dual dedicated fabric FRU hybrid architecture scalable up to 3.2 Tbps total fabric throughput, RSP with upgradable 16/64GB ECC DDR4 RAM, 8GB eUSB bootflash + dual hot-swappable 32GB SATA SSD mass storage trays, six hot-swappable line card slots supporting high-density 10G/25G/100G/400G fiber OTN trunk modules, integrated GPS Stratum 1 + BITS/PTP/SyncE multi-layer precision timing subsystem, up to eight N+1 redundant AC/-48VDC/HVDC power supplies and dual OIR hot-swap fan trays, dedicated hardware crypto engine up to 64Gbps system-wide IPsec throughput, modular 64-bit Cisco IOS XR OS with full carrier-grade MPLS EVPN, 5G mobile xHaul transport and integrated NGFW security, ideal for tier-1 service provider central office core, national 5G transport master hub and hyperscale broadband BRAS multi-subscriber aggregation deployments.

4. Product Catalog Keyword Tags

Cisco, ASR 9906, ASR 9000 Series, 14RU High-Capacity Modular Carrier Aggregation Router, Dual Redundant RSP + Dual Independent Fabric Cards, Hybrid Distributed Nonblocking Switch Fabric Up to 3.2 Tbps, Six Hot-Swap High-Speed Line Card Slots, Multi-Rate 10G/25G/100G/400G QSFP/QSFP-DD Fiber Support, Integrated GPS Stratum 1 + BITS/PTP/SyncE Timing Clock, Dual Hot-Swap SATA SSD Mass Storage Trays, N+1 Multi-PSU Redundant Design, Dual Redundant OIR Fan Trays, NEBS GR-1089 Certified, Up to 64 Gbps Wire-Speed IPsec/MACsec Acceleration, 64-bit Modular Cisco IOS XR Operating System, Carrier-Grade MPLS L3VPN/EVPN/VPLS, MEF Carrier Ethernet Service Support, Broadband L2TP BRAS Mass Subscriber Aggregation Gateway, 4G/5G National xHaul Mobile Transport Master Hub, Tier-1 Service Provider Central Office Core Router, Large-Scale Data Center DCI Interconnection Router

Naming Rule Explanation

ASR = Aggregation Services Router, Cisco’s high-performance IOS XR carrier/enterprise multi-service core aggregation platform series
9000 = Modern high-capacity IOS XR carrier core chassis family (separated from shallow-depth IOS XE ASR 900 mobile transport edge routers)
9906 = Next-gen 14RU high-capacity modular chassis form factor (six line card slots, dual RSP + dual independent fabric card redundancy, dual SSD mass storage trays, superior I/O and HA scalability vs compact ASR 9901 / ASR 9904 mid-tier chassis)
No suffix = Standard high-capacity modular chassis compatible with A99-RSP, RSP5-X / RSP880 modern route processor generations, supporting high-density 400G fiber line cards and full 5G synchronous timing stack


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