Design and Deployment

of the ASR5500
Rafael Ceara Batlle, Network Consulting Engineer
Teru Sato, Network Consulting Engineer

BRKSPM-2025
Agenda
• Cisco Mobility Products
• ASR5500 Platform Overview
• Hardware & Software Architecture
• Design & Routing Options
• Deployment Case Study
• Q&A

3
Cisco Mobility Products

4
 Introduction to Cisco Mobility Products

2G/3G/LTE Solution 2G/3G/LTE Virtualized Solution PCRF Solution Monetization Solution

Cisco Policy Suite Mobile Orchestration

ASR5700
ASR5000 Gateway
ASR5500 QvPC-SI/DI

Cisco Packet Core

Solutions

5
ASR5500 Platform
Overview

6
 ASR 5000/5500 Family Platforms
2017 -
2015 - 2016
- 2014 ASR 5500
ASR 5500
ASR 5500 UDPC3
ASR 5000 UDPC2/UMIO2
ASR 5000 UDPC/UMIO
ASR 5000 PSC3 Series
PSC2 Series
PSC Series

Session Capacity: 10M 4-6x Performance

Session Capacity: 7M 2x Performance
Session Capacity: 4M Throughput: 200G
Session Capacity: 2.5M Throughput: 50G
Throughput: 30G Signaling (TPS): 200K
Throughput: 15G Signaling: (TPS): 140K
Signaling: (TPS): 90K
Signaling: (TPS): 45K

Actual performance is call model dependent. TPS = Transactions Per Second

7
The "NEW" ASR 5700
• “ASR 5000” on Cisco COTS Environment
Services
• Cisco delivers and supports the E2E product
• HW/SW, Testing, Implementation, support, documentation StarOS
•

•
Optimized deployment efforts/costs
Can scale from very small to very large
ASR
Hypervisor (KVM)

•
• 4Gbit/s to 250Gbit/s+, unlimited (Future)
Protects the customer investment
5700
Red Hat OS

• Can easily evolve to a full blown, orchestrated, virtualized

solution
UCS

8
ASR5500 Platform Overview

• ASR 5500 is a 21RU, 19" rack-

mount midplane-based chassis.
• NEBS Certified
• 20 slots:
10 in the front
• Fabric & storage and status cards
10 in the back
• Management & I/O and Processing

• Fully Redundant hardware

configuration
• Two ASR 5500 chassis fit into
standard rack
9
ASR5500 product support
SGSN
2G/3G Core Network
GGSN

ASR5500
MME
LTE Core Network
SGW

PGW

CDMA/HRPD
HA

HSGW eHRPD

SaMOG
Trusted WiFi to EPC Integration

HNB-GW 3G Small Cell Aggregation

HeNB-GW LTE Small Cell Aggregation

IPSG
IP Services Gateway

10
ASR5500 Hardware
Architecture

11
ASR5500: Hardware Architecture

Reserved Slots

System Status
Data Processing Card (SSC)
Card (DPC)

Management Input
Output (MIO) Fabric Storage
Card (FSC)

Rear View

12
ASR5500: Hardware Architecture
Power Filter Unit Power Filter Unit Power Connectors Power Connectors

Air Exhaust

Fan Tray
Fan Tray
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

R R
E E
S S
S S F F F F F F
E E
S S S S S S S S
R R D D D D M M D D D D
C C C C C C C C
V V P P P P I I P P P P
E E C C C C O O C C C C
D D

Fan Tray
Cable Management
Air Intake
Fan Tray

13
Data Processing Card (DPC/DPC2)
 Minimum of 4 DPCs for 1:N
redundancy;
 Up to 8 possible
 Manages subscriber sessions and
controls traffic
 Provides system memory, compute
capacity, and crypto functions
 DPC has two identical subsystems,
each with 12 CPU cores and 96 GB
RAM
 DPC2 has three identical subsystems,
each with 64 GB RAM
14
Management and I/O Card (MIO/MIO2)
 Provides chassis management and
physical I/O
 Each MIO has:
 One CPU subsystem with 96 GB of
RAM
 Four NPU subsystems
 MIO/MIO2 Physical interfaces
 20 x 10-GE ports, 2 x GE ports on one
MIO
 4 x 100G ports, 4 x 10G ports, 2 x GE
ports on one MIO2
15
 FSC and SSC
Fabric Storage Card Power Filter Unit Power Filter Unit

• 2 x 600 GB FDX crossbar fabric per FSC

4.8 Tbps FDX max.
Fan Tray
• 2 x 2.5-in. SAS HD/SSD, RAID 5
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
• 2 x 200 GB SSD – 1.2 TB total system capacity
R R
e e
S S F F F F F F s s
S S S S S S S S e e
System Status Card C C C C C C C C
r r
v v
e e
• Monitors Temperature, airflow and power d d
• Audible alarms
• System status LEDs Fan Tray

• Alarm Relays Air Intake

16
ASR5500 Card Architecture
External IP Network

Management Traffic

DPC DPC MIO MIO DPC DPC

Switch Fabric

FSC FSC FSC FSC

RAID0 RAID0 RAID 5 RAID0 RAID0

SSC SSC
17
MIO Card- Port and NPU Association

5/10-5/14 5/15-5/19 5/20-5/24 5/25-5/29

Management Input Output Card

NPU = Network Processing Unit

18
Typical ASR5500 Card
Power Connectors Power Connectors

Air Exhaust

Fan Tray
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DPC (DeMux)
DPC (Standby)
D D D D M M D D
P P P P I I P P
C C C C O O C C

Cable Management

Fan Tray

19
Improvement in session capacity
Power Connectors Power Connectors

Air Exhaust
Moving Demux Manager
Function to MIO Cards
Fan Tray
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

M M Additional DPC available to

DPC (Standby)
I I serve more capacity
D D D D D D D
O O
P P P P P P P
C C C C C C C
System capacity increase with
DeMux

only software upgrade

Cable Management

Fan Tray

20
ASR5500 Software
Architecture

21
ASR5500 Software Architecture: Tasks

✔ ✔

✔ ✔

22
 ASR5500 StarOS SW Architecture
Active MIO Standby MIO
Boot Configuration Boot Configuration
High Switch Sync High Switch
Availability Resource Fabric Availability Resource Fabric
Tasks Manager Control Tasks Manager Control
Controller Tasks: Controller Tasks:
VPN, Port, Session, Signaling VPN, Port, Session, Signaling

Control
DPC Slot 1 (DeMux) DPC Slot 2 AAA DPC Slot 3 AAA
AAA DPC Slot 10
AAA
AAA AAA
Manager
Session
Session
Session Manager
Manager Session
Session
Session Manager
DeMux Mgr Tasks Manager Manager Standby
DeMux Mgr Tasks
DeMux Mgr Tasks
Manager
Manager
Manager Manager
Manager
Manager Tasks
Standby

HW Engines
Standby Tasks

HW Engines
Standby Tasks

HW Engines
…. Tasks
Standby
Tasks
Standby
Tasks

D-NPU D-NPU. D-NPU

23
StarOS Control & Bearer planes

VPN/ Controller M-NPU

MIO Routing Tasks

Demux Demux
D-NPU
DPC
Internal Control

AAA Session
AAA
AAA Session
Session Bearer
DPC
DPCs
Manager
Manager
Manager
Manager
Manager
Manager D-NPU
Signaling

24
 StarOS Stateful Session Recovery
Active MIO Standby MIO
Sync

Controller Tasks:
Controller Tasks:
VPN, Port, Session, Signaling
VPN, Port, Session, Signaling

Control

DPC Slot 1 DPC

DPCSlot
Slot22 DPCDPC
SlotSlot
3 3 DPC Slot 10
Session AAA
Manager Manager Standby
Tasks
Standby

……
AAA Session Tasks
Standby
Manager Manager Tasks
Standby
Session AAA Tasks
Manager Manager
Session
Session
Standby Task
Manager
Manager Standby Task Standby Task

25
Design & Routing Options

26
 LTE Topology
HSS
PCRF
S6a Gx

S11 SGi
S5
MME SGW PGW Internet
LTE-
S1-MME
Uu

S1u OCS
UE
eNodeB S8

Legend Roaming
OFCS
Control Data User Data
Network

27
 LTE Topology
HSS
PCRF
S6a Gx

SGW
S11 + SGi
MME Internet
LTE- PGW
S1-MME
Uu

OCS
UE S1u S5/S8
eNodeB

Legend Roaming
Network OFCS
Control Data User Data

28
 LTE Interworking with UMTS
RNC
UMTS IuB IuPS SGSN
Uu
Gn

UE NodeB

GGSN
S12

Gn /S3
Internet

S11
MME S5
S1-MME SGW PGW
LTE-
S8 Roaming
Uu
S1u Network
UE eNodeB

29
 LTE Interworking with UMTS
RNC
UMTS IuB IuPS SGSN
Uu

UE NodeB

Gn/S3
S12
GGSN

Internet

PGW

S11 S5/S8
S1-MME MME SGW
LTE-
Uu Roaming
S1u
UE Network
eNodeB

30
LTE Interworking with Non-3GPP
Un-trusted SWu
Non - 3GPP ePDG
IP Access SWm
STa 3GPP AAA
SaMOG S6b
Trusted S2a
Non - 3GPP S2b
IP Access

HSGW Internet

S11
LTE- MME S5 S5/S8
S1-MME SGW PGW
Uu
Roaming
S1u
UE Network
eNodeB
31
ASR5500 Routing and
Redundancy

32
 Link Aggregation Group Design
Active MIO5
Physical Connectivity Logical Connectivity

5/10 SAEGW
Active
ASR5500 5/15 L3 Router/FW#1

5/20
5/25 L3 Router/FW#1
Backbone
Backbone
6/10
6/15
L3 Router/FW#2
6/20 SAEGW

6/25
Legend Standby Legend
L3 Router/FW#2 LAG 1 LAG1
Standby MIO6 LAG 2
LAG 2
Full Port / Card Redundancy Redundant
Failed
and Load Balance 33
 Routing Design using OSPF
OSPF Features on the ASR5500
OSPFv2v3 OSPFv2v3

Area N Area N

IPRAN Backbone

Router L3 Router/FW

ASR5500
OSPFv2 and OSPFv3
Configuration very similar to Cisco IOS
VRF VPNv4/VPNv6 instance support
Well known debug and show commands
StarOS LLDebug for OSPF
Requirements base on IETF specs
34
 Routing Design using BGP
BGP Features on the ASR5500
BGP BGP

ASN ASN

IPRAN Internet

Router L3 Router/FW

ASR5500
iBGP and eBGP AS
Configuration very similar to Cisco IOS
VRF VPNv4/VPNv6 instance support
Well know debug and show commands
StarOS LLDebug for BGP
Requirements base on IETF specs
35
VRF Lite Design
Corporate
Customer Network
Mobile Partners
ASR5500

Internet

IPRAN Gi/SGi

Gn/S4/S11/S1u

Network
Corporate
Customer Network
L3 Router/FW

Multiple ways to divide the traffic

with VRF Lite on the ASR5500: Corporate
Customer Network
• IPSec VPN
M2M Communication
• GRE Tunnel
• L2TP
File/APPs Servers

36
MPLS L3VPN Design
Corporate
Customer Network Mobile Partners
L3VPN
VPNv4/v6

Internet

IPRAN Gn/S4/S11/S1u
Gi/SGi

Network Corporate
Customer Network
L3 Router/FW

• Full support of MPLS/LDP

on the ASR5500. ASR5500 Corporate
• Routing decisions base on Customer Network
the Intelligence of the next- M2M Communication
hop.
• Robust policy based control
of the in/outbound IPv4/v6
routes.

File/APPs Servers
37
Inter Chassis Session Recovery
Chassis #1 • Provides 1:1 redundancy in case
of failures
• Uses propriety Service
Redundancy Protocol (SRP) over
BFD/BGP TCP link
BFD/BGP
• Needs a separate context for
SRP
• Configuration must be identical

SRP
Router 1 Router 1
• Tasks peers between two chassis
• Session states are synchronized
between the chassis pair
• Session states checkpoint starts
after 60 seconds for call
establishment

Chassis #2 38
Inter Chassis Session Recovery
Active
Standby
L2/L3 Redundancy SAEGW #1
BFD/BGP BFD/BGP

SGi

Router 1 Router 1

Backbone

SRP
Internet
MME’s

SGi Router 2
Router 2

eNodeB
BFD/BGP BFD/BGP

SAEGW #2
Active
Standby 39
Inter Chassis Session Recovery
Geo Redundancy
SRP

L3 RTR/FW
L3 RTR/FW

P P
Internet National Internet
SGi PE1 P P
PE1 SGi
Backbone
P P

PE2 PE2
L3 RTR/FW
SAEGW #1 SAEGW #2 L3 RTR/FW
Standby
Active Standby
Active

Different ways for SRP Communication:

• B2B Dedicated link connection.
MME’s
• Dedicated L3VPN.
• iBGP or eBGP Multihop.
eNodeB
40
Deployment Case Study

41
Deployment Customer - Case Study 1
Gx
MME VoLTE
PCRF
PGW CSCF IMS
S5 Network
S11 SGi
S1-MME

SGi
Internet
eUTRAN S5 Data PDN
S1-U
SGW
PGW AAA
Gy Gz
eNodeB Gx
S5

PCRF OCS OFCS RADIUS

A10/A11 S2a Enterprise Gx
eHRPD HSGW AAA
Corporate
PGW RADIUS
eRNC SGi PDN

42
Deployment Customer - Case Study 2

IMS
S1-U
Network CSCF

SGi Internet
IuPS SGSN Gn/S4
eUTRAN GGSN PDN
UTRAN SAEGW Gz
NodeB-RNC Gx
Gy
eNodeB S3

Cisco OCS OFCS

Enterprise PCRF (CPS)
MME S11
GGSN
Corporate
SAEGW RADIUS
SGi PDN

S1-U

43
 Documentation
Cisco Documentation about the ASR5000 and ASR5500:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11072/products_installation_and_configuration_
guides_list.html

Cisco Documentation Sets:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/wireless/asr_5000/18-0/PDF/18-Docset.zip
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/wireless/asr_5000/18-0/PDF/18-CLI-
Reference.pdf
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/wireless/asr_5000/18-0/PDF/18-ASR5000-
Sys-Admin.pdf
http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/wireless/asr_5000/18-0/PDF/18-ASR5500-
Sys-Admin.pdf

44
 US Ciscolive 2015 @ San Diego - SP Mobility Sessions
Session ID Time Room No Session Title Speakers
Sunday (7 June 2015)
TECSPM-2122 08:00 - 12:00 PM 2 Upper level E2E SPWiFi Solutions Biju Pularikka, Srinivas Irigi
Monday (8 June 2015)
BRKSPM-2122 10:00 - 12:00 PM 25C Upper Level Virtualizing Mobile Service Providers Transport Network Ravi Narahari
BRKSPM-2123 01:00 - 03:00 PM 25C Upper Level Wi-Fi Calling: Supporting voice over carrier Wi-Fi, enterprise Wi-Fi and residential environments Byju Pularikkal
BRKSPM-2125 01:00 - 03:00 PM 24AB Upper level Virtualizing Cisco Mobile Packet Core Mark Ghattas, Dave Clough
BRKSPM-2013 08:00 - 09:30 PM 24AB Upper Level High Density WiFi for Stadiums and Large Public Venues Matt Swartz, Josh Suhr
LTRSPM-2121 01:00 - 05:00 PM 29D Upper Level Cisco QvPC-Distributed Instance - Virtualized LTE MPC Amir Amadi, William Padrez, Chris Clark
PLNSPM-2021 01:00 – 02:30 PM 8 Upper Level Under the Top: The Service Provider Advantage Joe Cozzolino, Gee Rittenhouse, Vilma Stoss,
Prakash Suthar
Tuesday (9 June 2015)
BRKSPM-2126 01:00 - 03:00 PM 25C Upper Level Analytics for Large Connected Venues: App Integration with Wi-Fi Infrastructure ViswasPuttasubbapa, Matt Swartz
BRKSPM-2021 03:30 - 05:00 PM 24AB Upper Level GiLAN and Service Chaining Prakash Suthar, Ajay Simha
Wednesday (10 Jun 2015)
BRKSPM-2022 08:00 - 09:30 AM 24AB Upper Level Cisco Policy Suite Greg Horkacher, Kishen Manget
BRKSPM-2025 08:00 - 10:00 AM 24AB Upper Level Design and Deployment of the ASR5500 Rafael Ceara Batlle, Teru Sato
BRKSPM-2024 01:00 - 02:30 PM 24AB Upper Level Deploying large scale managed SP WiFi Service Ravindra Shankar, Piyus Patel
BRKSPM-2023 03:30 – 05:00 PM 25AB Upper Level Cisco Licensed Small Cell Design and Deployment Brian Cox
Thursday (11 June 2015)
BRKSPM-2026 08:00 - 09:30 AM 24AB Upper Level Managing customer Experience for Mobile Networks Anwin Kallumpurth
23 AB Upper
BRKSPM-2121 01:00 - 02:30 PM Level Cisco SON Solutions Pavan Kambhatla, Vasant Narayanan
BRKSPM-2124 01:00 - 02:30 PM 24AB Upper Level Cisco TelcoCloud and VoLTE Solution Ali Bukhari, Sean Marrow
Service Provider Cisco Education Offerings
Course
Deploying Cisco Service Provider Network Routing
(SPROUTE) & Advanced (SPADVROUTE)
Implementing Cisco Service Provider Next-Generation
Core Network Services (SPCORE)
Edge Network Services (SPEDGE)
Building Cisco Service Provider Next-Generation
Networks, Part 1&2 (SPNGN1), (SPNGN2)
Implementing Cisco Service Provider Mobility UMTS
Networks (SPUMTS);
Implementing Cisco Service Provider Mobility CDMA
Networks (SPCDMA);
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Networks (SPLTE)
Implementing and Maintaining Cisco Technologies
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For more details, please visit: http://learningnetwork.cisco.com
Questions? Visit the Learning@Cisco Booth or contact ask-edu-pm-dcv@cisco.com
Description Cisco Certification
SPROUTE covers the implementation of routing protocols (OSPF, IS-IS, BGP), CCNP Service Provider®
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SPCORE covers network services, including MPLS-LDP, MPLS traffic engineering,
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Service Provider/Enterprise engineers to implement, verification-test, and optimize Cisco IOS XR Specialist
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46
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47
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48
Continue Your Education
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49
Thank you

50