Cisco N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS Router
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Model: N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS-RF
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Description:
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The Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 540 Large Density series represents a significant advancement in 1RU routing platforms, specifically engineered to address the growing demands of modern service provider networks. As mobile and fixed broadband traffic continues to surge, these routers provide a scalable, converged IP transport solution that simplifies network operations while reducing overall complexity.
By aligning with Cisco’s Routed Optical Networking architecture, this platform enables the use of coherent pluggable optics to streamline infrastructure. These routers are designed to be highly flexible, offering high throughput and a wide range of interface options, which allows service providers to deploy new revenue-generating services more efficiently through automation and advanced network visibility.
Product overview
The NCS 540 Large Density family consists of two primary models: the N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS and the N540-24Q2C2DD-SYS. Both units are built for high performance, featuring a 4-core 1.5GHz x86 CPU, 16GB of DRAM, and 64GB of storage. These platforms are physically robust, featuring a temperature-hardened, small form factor design that is power-efficient and suitable for both indoor and outdoor deployments in sealed cabinets.
These routers support a massive 1Tbps throughput and utilize the industry-leading Cisco IOS XR software to deliver operational efficiency. They are uniquely positioned as a leading platform for SFP56 interfaces and support a variety of port speeds ranging from 1G up to 400G. With hot-swappable power supplies and redundant fan configurations, these systems are built for high availability and reliability in demanding network environments.
Features and benefits
- Versatile Connectivity: Supports a wide array of Ethernet interfaces, including 1/10/25/40/50/100/200/400G, with support for 400G/100G ZR/ZR+ coherent optics.
- Advanced Synchronization: Includes an integrated GNSS receiver and supports precise frequency and phase/time synchronization (SyncE and PTP) compliant with Class C standards.
- Robust Security: Features a comprehensive security suite, including a Trust Anchor module, secure boot, image signing, and run-time defense mechanisms.
- DDoS Protection: Offers on-box Cisco DDoS Edge Protection to detect and mitigate attacks without impacting application latency.
- Operational Efficiency: Powered by Cisco IOS XR, providing advanced capabilities such as Segment Routing (SR-MPLS and SRv6), EVPN, and deep programmability via YANG models and gRPC.
- Environmental Hardening: Designed for extreme conditions, operating reliably in temperatures ranging from -40°C to +65°C.
- Quality of Service (QoS): Provides rich QoS features, including 3-level hierarchical queuing and deep packet buffering to ensure strict adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
- Manageability: Supports modern management tools, including model-driven telemetry, NetFlow, and zero-touch provisioning (ZTP).
Overview
The Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 540 large density routers are a 1RU platforms that support QSFP28 and QSFP56-DD ports and offer customers a 400G coherent optics transport solution. The NCS 540 large density platform enhances the existing NCS 540 portfolio by offering high throughput and flexible port interfaces ranging from 1G up to 400G.
Service providers are challenged by rapid traffic growth from mobile and fixed broadband users, a lack of an easily scalable network infrastructure, and siloed operational support and operational complexity. These challenges can be overcome by building a converged IP network. A single network infrastructure that is simple to operate, one that is capable of quickly scaling with growing demand and utilizes automation to increase flexibility and control will allow service providers to remove complexity and launch new revenue generating services. Aligning with Cisco Routed Optical Networking Architecture to utilize coherent pluggable optics, the Cisco NCS 540 large density routers can be used as part of a converged IP transport solution. The NCS 540 large density routers are the leading platform in the industry supporting SFP56 interfaces, which is the same form factor as SFP/SFP+/SFP28 and leverages the PAM4 technology used for 400GE.
Cisco NCS 540 large density routers are temperature-hardened, small form factor, power-efficient devices suitable for both outdoor and indoor deployments. The NCS 540 large density platform offers 1Tbps throughput and best-in-class security both from a hardware and software standpoint. Powered by the industry-leading Cisco IOS XR software, the platform offers not only operational efficiency and service agility, but also advanced features such as segment routing, EVPN, programmability, application awareness, network visibility, and can integrate automation tools.
Key product highlights
● 1RU small form factor with a 299-mm depth
● Front-to-back airflow
● Environmentally hardened, suitable for deployments in indoor or outdoor sealed cabinets
● Versatile Ethernet interface options: 1/10/25/40/50/100/200/400G
● Low latency forwarding, Class C compliant
● 400G/100G ZR/ZR+ optics support
● Precise frequency and phase/time synchronization using the latest industry standards
● Integrated GNSS receiver
● Rich quality-of-service capabilities for different SLAs
● Security-Trust Anchor module infrastructure, secure boot, image signing, run-time defense
● MEF 3.0 Compliant
● Excellent manageability
● Flexible consumption model
N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS: Cisco NCS 540 Large Density Router Family
N540-24Q2C2DD-SYS: Cisco NCS 540 Large Density Router Family
Model details
| Chassis PID |
N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS |
N540-24Q2C2DD-SYS |
| CPU Memory Storage |
4-core 1.5Ghz x86 CPU 16GB DRAM 64GB storage |
4-core 1.5Ghz x86 CPU 16GB DRAM 64GB storage |
| Interfaces |
24x 25GE/10GE/1GE 8x 50GE/25GE/10GE/1GE 2x 400GE/3x100GE/200GE*/2x100GE/100GE/40GE |
24x 25GE/10GE/1GE 2x 100GE/40GE 2x 400GE/3x100GE/200GE*/2x100GE/100GE/40GE |
| Performance |
Up to 600 Mpps |
Up to 600 Mpps |
| Power supplies Fans Airflow |
2 hot-swappable AC/DC power supplies provide 1+1 redundancy. AC & DC PSU combination is supported. 6 fixed fans (5+1) Front to back |
2 hot-swappable AC/DC power supplies provide 1+1 redundancy. AC & DC PSU combination is supported. 6 fixed fans (5+1) Front to back |
| Surge rating As per IEC 61000-4-5 |
AC: 1kV DM, 2kV CM DC: 1kV DM, 1kV CM |
AC: 1kV DM, 2kV CM DC: 1kV DM, 1kV CM |
| Timing |
SyncE, PTP Internal GNSS receiver (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou) Interfaces: 1pps, 10MHz, ToD, antenna for GNSS Class C (400G/50G) |
SyncE, PTP Internal GNSS receiver (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou) Interfaces: 1pps, 10MHz, ToD, antenna for GNSS Class C (100G, 400G) |
| Physical specification |
1RU Depth: 299 mm Dimension: 299 (D) x 439.42 (W) x 43.6 mm (H) Weight: chassis, 5.8 kg; single PSU, 0.6 kg |
1RU Depth: 299 mm Dimension: 299 (D) x 439.42 (W) x 43.6 mm (H) Weight: chassis, 5.8 kg; single PSU, 0.6 kg |
Software feature support on NCS 540 in Cisco IOS XR:
| Description |
Specification |
| Layer 2 |
Layer 2 forwarding and bridging Bridge Domains (BD) Ethernet Flow Point (EFP) IEEE 802.1Q VLANs and Q-in-Q Ethernet Link Aggregation Group (LAG) Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) 802.3ad G.8032 Spanning Tree Protocol Jumbo frames on all ports |
| Layer 3 |
IPv4 and IPv6 unicast routing Layer 3 interfaces: physical interfaces and sub-interfaces Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) Open Shortest Path First (OSPFv2, OSPFv3) Intermediate System to Intermediate System (ISIS, ISISv6) Multiprotocol Border Gateway Protocol (MP-BGP) Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) Integrated Routing Bridging (IRB) with Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) |
| MPLS |
Label switching (LER, LSR) Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) BGP Labeled Unicast (BGP-LU) MPLS Traffic Engineering with RSVP-TE Point-to-point L2VPN – Static, T-LDP, EVPN-VPWS Multipoint L2VPN – VPLS, EVPN L2/L3 EVPN with Anycast IRB 6PE, 6VPE IP Loop-Free Alternate (LFA) Fast Reroute (FRR) RSVP-TE Fast Reroute (FRR) |
| Segment Routing (SR)* |
ISIS, OSPF, BGP extensions to segment routing Segment Routing with MPLS data plane (SR-MPLS) Segment Routing with IPv6 data plane (SRv6) BGP Egress Peering Engineering (BGP-EPE) Segment Routing Traffic Engineering (SRTE) Segment Routing IGP Flexible Algorithms (Flex-Algo) Segment Routing Path Computation Element (SR-PCE) Topology Independent Loop-Free Alternate (TI-LFA) Segment Routing On-Demand Next-hop (SR-ODN) Segment Routing Performance Measurement (SR-PM) |
| Multicast |
IPv4 and IPv6 multicast routing PIM-SM, PIM-SSM IGMPv3, MLDv2 mLDP profiles 6, 7, and 14 mVPN P2MP-TE profiles 8 and 10 |
| Quality of Service (QoS) |
Class-based 3-level Hierarchical QoS Virtual Output Queueing (VOQ) Policing, Shaping Multi-level priority queuing Classification based on L2/L3/L4 fields Remarking Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED) Deep packet buffer |
| Timing |
SyncE with ESMC Integrated GNSS receiver (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou) IEEE 1588-2008 PTP T-GM, T-BC, T-TSC, A-PTS, Virtual Port G.8265.1, G.8275.1, G.8275.2, Multi-profile G.8273.2 Class C |
| Security |
Control-plane and management plane protection Local Packet Transport Services (LPTS) Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus (TACACS+) Secure Shell (SSH) Layer 3 ingress and egress ACLs for IPv4 and IPv6 Layer 2 ingress ACLs Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (Unicast RPF) |
| OAM |
CDP, LLDP, ICMP, DHCP Relay IP SLA MPLS OAM Ethernet OAM: CFM, Y.1731 DM/SLM TWAMP and TWAMP-Light Responders HW-based timestamping Y.1564 Model/Event-Driven Telemetry NetFlow SPAN/ERSPAN/PW-SPAN |
| Manageability |
CLI SNMP MIB NETCONF/gRPC (XML, JSON, GPB) YANG models (native, open: OpenConfig, IETF) RPM-based SW infrastructure ZTP Third-party application hosting |
Supported transceiver modules
Please refer to Transceiver Module Group (TMG) Compatibility Matrix for the NCS 540 Series supported transceivers.
Additional features
The NCS 540 Series Router also supports the Cisco DDoS Edge Protection solution.
Add leading DDoS protection directly to the NCS 540 Series Router to detect and block DDoS attacks on-box cost-effectively, without any impact on application latency.
DDoS edge protection can be leveraged for mobility traffic (GTP) and other traffic (IPv4/v6, MPLS, etc.) depending on the use case for the NCS 540 Series Router deployment.
Learn more about Cisco DDoS Edge Protection.
Environment
● Environmental properties for NCS 540 fixed systems
| Description |
NCS 540 Large Density Router |
| Operating environment and altitude |
–40°C to +65°C up to 300 m –40°C to +60°C up to 1800 m –40°C to +50°C up to 3900 m |
| Nonoperating (storage) temperature |
–40 to 70°C (–40 to 158°F) |
| Operating humidity |
5% to 85% (noncondensing) |
| Storage (relative) humidity |
5% to 95% at 40°C per NEBS GR-63-Core |
| Altitude |
0 to 3900 m |
| Acoustics |
NEBS GR-63-CORE Issue 5 - ISO 3744 |
| Power |
Worldwide ranging AC (90–264V; 50/60 Hz) Worldwide ranging DC (–40V to –72V) |
| Outside plant installation |
It is required that the router be protected against airborne contaminants, dust, moisture, insects, pests, corrosive gases, polluted air, or other reactive elements present in the outside air. To achieve this level of protection, it is recommended that the unit be installed in an environmentally sealed enclosure with heat exchanger. Cabinets that conform to GR-487 are considered environmentally sealed. In addition, closures with a minimum NEMA rating of 4 or a minimum IP 66 rating can be considered environmentally sealed. |
Regulatory standards compliance
● Regulatory standards compliance: safety and EMC
| Specification |
Description |
| Regulatory compliance |
Products should comply with CE markings according to directives 2004/108/EC and 2006/95/EC |
| Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS) |
Designed to meet GR-63-CORE and GR-1089-CORE |
| Safety |
ANSI/UL 60950-1 CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 60950-1 ANSI/UL 62368-1 CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 62368-1 EN/IEC 62368-1 |
| EMC standards |
47CFR Part 15 (CFR 47) Class A AS/NZS CISPR22 Class A CISPR22 Class A EN55022 Class A ICES003 Class A VCCI Class A EN61000-3-2 EN61000-3-3 KN22 Class A CNS13438 Class A |
| EMC immunity |
EN55024 CISPR24 EN300386 KN 61000-4 series |
| ETSI |
ETS/EN 300 119 Part 4 ETS/EN 300 019 - Storage: Class 1.2, Transportation: Class 2.3, In-Use/Operational: Class 3.2 ETS/EN 300 753 |
| RoHS |
The product is RoHS-6 compliant with exceptions for leaded-ball grid-array (BGA) balls and lead press-fit connectors. |
Ordering information
| Router PID |
N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS |
N540-24Q2C2DD-SYS |
| Description |
NCS540-2x400G QSFP-DD+8x50G+24x25G |
NCS540-2x400G QSFP-DD+2x100G+24x25G |
| Power supplies |
Power supply: N540-PWR400-A N540-PWR400-D |
Power supply: N540-PWR400-A N540-PWR400-D |
| Accessories |
Rackmounts: N540DD-RKM-19 N540-RKM-23-FHC N540-RKM-ETSI-FHC Cable brackets: N540-CBL-BRKT-FHC |
Rackmounts: N540DD-RKM-19 N540-RKM-23-FHC N540-RKM-ETSI-FHC Cable brackets: N540-CBL-BRKT-FHC |
| Software |
XR-7.4-K9-AC-TRK TRK-7.4-54l-K9 |
XR-25.1-K9-AC-TRK TRK-25.1-54l-K9 |
Ordering information for software licenses available on NCS 540
| Part number |
Description |
| ESS-AC-10G-RTU-1 |
Access Essentials SW Right-to-Use v1.0 per 10G |
| ADV-AC-10G-RTU-1 |
Access Advantage w/o Essentials SW RTU v1.0 10G |
| ADN-AC-10G-RTU-1 |
Access Advantage w/ Essentials SW RTU v1.0 10G |
| ESS-ADN-AC-10G-RT |
Access Essentials to Advantage Upgrade RTU per 10G |
| ESS-AC-10G-SIA-3 |
Access Essentials SIA 10G 3-5 year term |
| ESS-AC-10G-SIA-5 |
Access Essentials SIA 10G 5-10 year term |
| ADV-AC-10G-SIA-3 |
Access Advantage w/o Essentials SIA 10G 3-5 year term |
| ADV-AC-10G-SIA-5 |
Access Advantage w/o Essentials SIA 10G 5-10 year term |
| ADN-AC-10G-SIA-3 |
Access Advantage w/ Essentials SIA 10G 3-5 year term |
| ADN-AC-10G-SIA-5 |
Access Advantage w/ Essentials SIA 10G 5-10 year term |
| ESS-ADN-AC-10G-S3 |
Access Essentials to Advantage Upgrade SIA 10G 3-5 yrs |
| ESS-ADN-AC-10G-S5 |
Access Essentials to Advantage Upgrade SIA 10G 5 – 10 yrs |
| N540-24Z8Q2C-FC-SW |
NCS 540 Series additional Software Licenses (RTU, SIA) |
Ordering information for power cables supported on NCS 540
| Part number |
Description |
| CAB-AC-SA |
Power Cord - South Africa, 16/10A, 250V, 1830 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-ARG |
Power Cord - Argentina, 10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-ISR |
Power Cord - Israel, 16/10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-TAI |
Power Cord - Taiwan, 15/10A, 125V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-CHI |
Power Cord - China, 10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-KOR |
Power Cord - Korea, 16/10A, 125V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-EUR |
Power Cord - Europe, 16/10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-ITL |
Power Cord - Italy, 10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-UK |
Power Cord - UK, 13/10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-AUS |
Power Cord - Australia, 10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-US |
Power Cord - US, 15A, 125V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-BRA |
Power Cord - Brazil, 10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-IND |
Power Cord - India, 16/10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-SUI |
Power Cord - Swiss, 10A, 250V, 2500 mm, –40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-SA |
Power Cord - South Africa, 16/10A, 250V, 1830 mm, -40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-ARG |
Power Cord - Argentina, 10A, 250V, 2500 mm, -40C to +85C |
| CAB-AC-ISR |
Power Cord - Israel, 16/10A, 250V, 2500 mm, -40C to +85C |
| Model | N540-24Q8L2DD-SYS-RF |