Cisco A9K-8X10GE-TR Full Official Product Description

1. Product Overview & SKU Definition

Official Full Name

SKU Breakdown

1. A9K: Cisco ASR 9000 Series carrier-grade aggregation router platform identifier
2. 8X10GE: 8 independent SFP+ 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports on the fixed-port line card
3. TR: Packet Transport Optimized variant, designed for pure Layer 2 / Layer 3 transport workloads with baseline QoS, moderate policer and queue capacity, optimized for metro transport, DCI, mobile backhaul and core backbone transmission, distinct from the subscriber-focused -SE service edge variantCisco.

Core Positioning

2. Chassis Compatibility

• Supported Hardware Chassis: ASR 9006, ASR 9010, ASR 9904, ASR 9910, ASR 9912, ASR 9922
• Incompatible Platforms: Compact single-slot ASR 9001 chassis
• Coexistence Support: Mixed deployment with all ASR 9000 line card generations (1G, 10G, 40G, 100G) within the same chassis midplane
• Minimum IOS XR Software Requirement: IOS XR Release 3.9.0 and later stable software trains

3. Hardware Port & Physical Specifications

Port Details

• Port Count: 8 x hot-pluggable SFP+ 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
• Supported SFP+ Transceiver Types: SR multimode fiber, LR single-mode fiber, ER long-reach optical, DWDM/CWDM dense wavelength division multiplexing modules, and 10G copper SFP+ transceivers
• Port Throughput: Wire-rate 10 Gbps full-duplex per port, zero oversubscription on the line card fabric
• Ethernet Standards Compliance: IEEE 802.3ae 10GE, IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging, IEEE 802.1ad QinQ double tagging
• Per-Port Monitoring Metrics: Real-time PHY operational status, LOS/LOL optical loss alarms, CRC error counters, unicast/multicast/broadcast packet statistics, traffic policer drop counters

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: Single-slot full-height ASR 9000 series line card
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 35.56 cm × 4.37 cm × 52.07 cm (14 in × 1.72 in × 20.5 in)
• Net Weight: Approximately 8.4 kg (18.5 lb)
• Nominal Data Center Operating Temperature: 5°C ~ 40°C (41°F ~ 104°F)
• Short-Term Extended Operating Temperature: -5°C ~ 55°C (23°F ~ 131°F), maximum continuous 96 hours, annual usage limit of 15 consecutive days
• Relative Humidity: 5% – 90% non-condensing during continuous operation; 5% – 93% non-condensing for storage and transit
• Storage & Transit Temperature: -40°C ~ 70°C (-40°F ~ 158°F)
• Cooling Requirement: Front-to-back forced airflow matching ASR 9000 chassis thermal design; blank filler panels must be installed for empty chassis slots to maintain balanced airflow and thermal protection

4. TR (Packet Transport) Optimized Hardware Resource Profile

1. Baseline Hierarchical QoS Queue Capacity
   Limited per-port queue allocation (8 queues per port) optimized for uniform transport traffic flows, supporting LLQ low-latency queuing for mobile backhaul, voice trunk and real-time transport streams without the massive multi-level queue pool of SE line cards.
2. Standard Policer & Classification Resources
   8,000 hardware policers per network processor (NP); ingress/egress ACL and packet classification offloaded to NP without consuming route processor CPU, sized for transport aggregate traffic rather than tens of thousands of independent subscriber sessions.
3. Carrier-Grade Transport Service Offloading
   Wire-speed hardware offload for MPLS label switching, MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE), L2VPN (VPLS, EoMPLS), Layer 3 VPN, multicast replication and NetFlow v9/IPFIX traffic recording.
4. Transport-Focused Ethernet Flow Point (EFP) Scale
   Supports 16,000 EFPs for carrier Ethernet E-Line, E-Tree and E-Access transport services, sufficient for metro aggregation and backbone links, lower than the 64,000 EFP capacity of -SE line cardsCisco.
5. Unified Forwarding Table Scale
   Identical FIB/MAC/VRF table capacity as -SE variants: 4M IPv4 / 2M IPv6 FIB routes, 2 million MAC address entries, 8,000 L3 VRF instances, supporting large-scale backbone routing deploymentsCisco.

5. Carrier-Grade Reliability & High Availability Features

1. OIR Online Insertion and Removal
   Full hot-swap capability; the line card can be inserted, removed or replaced without chassis power cycle, RSP reboot or traffic disruption on other installed line cards.
2. Independent Hardware Fault Isolation
   Separate power supply, clock distribution and forwarding plane per line card; single port or line card hardware failure will not propagate faults to other line cards or chassis Route Switch Processors (RSP).
3. Full Chassis Redundancy Compatibility
   Seamless interoperability with ASR 9000 chassis 1+1 redundant RSP, N+1 redundant power supplies and redundant fan trays, enabling end-to-end five-nines (99.999%) carrier-grade service availability.
4. ISSU In-Service Software Upgrade
   Supports non-disruptive IOS XR firmware upgrades for the line card without interrupting live transport traffic and MPLS backbone sessions.

6. Supported Software & Network Services (IOS XR)

Core Routing & Switching Protocols

MPLS & Carrier VPN Transport Services

Metro & Mobile Transport Workloads

Monitoring & Security Tools

7. Front Panel LED Indicator System

1. Global Line Card STATUS LED: Indicates line card power status, boot initialization progress, and critical hardware fault alarm notifications.
2. Per-Port Dual-Color LED (8 SFP+ ports):
   • Off: SFP+ transceiver missing, port administratively shut down, or optical signal loss (LOS).
   • Solid Amber: Link established with active Layer 1 optical alarms (excessive BER, LOF frame loss).
   • Solid Green: Stable error-free 10GE link active.
   • Blinking Green: Bidirectional packet traffic transmitting/receiving over the port.

8. Key Deployment Advantages

1. Cost-Optimized Transport-Focused Hardware Design
   The TR variant eliminates the over-provisioned subscriber QoS/policer resources of -SE line cards, delivering lower total cost of ownership for pure backbone, metro and mobile transport deployments that do not require large-scale subscriber session processing.
2. Wire-Speed Non-Oversubscribed 10GE Port Density
   8 independent 10G non-blocking ports provide medium-density high-throughput aggregation for DCI, mobile backhaul and metro carrier Ethernet, minimizing total chassis slot consumption for transport network buildouts.
3. Unified Layer 2 / Layer 3 Transport Convergence
   Single line card supports simultaneous Layer 2 carrier Ethernet switching and Layer 3 MPLS backbone routing, enabling operators to consolidate metro transport, mobile backhaul and core DCI workloads on a single ASR 9000 chassis to reduce CapEx and daily OpEx overhead.
4. Complete Carrier-Grade High Availability Toolkit
   Native OIR hot swap, ISSU non-disruptive firmware upgrade, hardware fault isolation and full chassis redundant component support deliver uninterrupted service for mission-critical backbone and metro transport networks with strict uptime requirements.
5. Broad Transceiver & Chassis Compatibility
   Compatible with the full Cisco SFP+ 10G optical/copper transceiver portfolio and all modern ASR 9000 series chassis models, enabling flexible network capacity expansion and full investment protection for existing ASR 9000 deployments.

9. Regulatory & Safety Compliance Certifications

1. Electrical Safety Standards: UL 60950-1, CSA C22.2 No.60950-1, IEC 60950 CB Scheme, EN 60950-1, GB 4943
2. EMC & EMI Electromagnetic Compatibility: FCC Part 15 Class A, ICES-003 Class A, VCCI Class A, EN55022 Class A, CISPR 22, CISPR 24, full EN 61000 series ESD, electrical surge, radiated and conducted immunity compliance
3. Telecommunications & Carrier Industry Standards: NEBS Level 3 (GR-63-Core physical protection, GR-1089-Core EMC/safety), IEEE 802.3ae 10GE, ITU-T MPLS and OTN transport specifications
4. Environmental Directives: EU RoHS hazardous substance restriction compliance, EU WEEE waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling directive compliant

10. Standard Factory Packaging Contents

1. A9K-8X10GE-TR 8-port 10GE Packet Transport Optimized line card
2. ESD anti-static protective transport bag
3. Hardware installation quick reference guide (covers OIR hot-swap procedure, SFP+ transceiver installation, chassis slot assembly instructions)
4. Global regulatory compliance documentation packet (safety, EMC, NEBS, RoHS certification documents)
5. Line card ejector lever assembly pre-installed on the card

Supplementary UNSPSC Classification Code

Standard Hardware Warranty