The Cisco A9K-8X100GE-SE is a Cisco ASR 9900 Series 8-Port 100 Gigabit Ethernet Line Cards with support for 7- fabric connectors deliver industry-leading high density, with line-rate 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, to any slot of a Cisco ASR 9900 Series Aggregation Services Router. These high-capacity line cards are designed to remove bandwidth bottlenecks in the network that are caused by a large increase in Video on Demand (VoD), IPTV, point-to-point video, Internet video, and cloud services traffic. A single 100 Gigabit Ethernet port can now replace large 10 Gigabit Ethernet link aggregation bundles to simplify network operations. Based on Cisco CPAK® technology, these line cards have flexible interfaces that support 100 Gigabit Ethernet, 40 Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet modes, giving customers the flexibility to mix and match interface types on the same line card.

The ASR 9900 Series 8-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet line cards are fully compatible with the Cisco ASR 9904, ASR 9906, ASR 9910, ASR 9912, and ASR 9922 Routers. They are not compatible with the Cisco ASR 9006 and ASR 9010 Routers.

The line cards set a new standard for Layer 2 and Layer 3 service density and scale, allowing operators to offer highly predictable, managed transport services while optimizing the use of network assets. The 10x10G Cisco CPAK breakout option further increases the capability of each line card to support large-scale aggregation, Data Center Interconnect (DCI), and the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Satellite Network Virtualization (nV) System mode on the ASR 9900 Series router. These versatile capabilities help operators qualify and stock one type of line card that can be deployed in any combination of Layer 2, Layer 3, DCI, or aggregation applications, thereby reducing capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx), as well as reducing the time required to develop and deploy new services.

The ASR 9900 Series can extend 100 Gigabit Ethernet transport over an IP-over-dense-wave-division-multiplexing (IPoDWDM) network when used with the Cisco ONS 15454 DWDM transponder solution. Distances of up to 3000 kilometers can be achieved while using the optical protection capabilities of the DWDM network.