This line card delivers industry-leading 40 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports or a combination of 4 10-Gigabit Ethernet and 16 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports to any slot of a Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router. These line cards deliver economical, scalable, highly available, line-rate Ethernet and IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching IP/MPLS) edge services. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series line cards and routers are designed to provide the fundamental infrastructure for scalable Carrier Ethernet and IP/MPLS networks, allowing profitable business, residential, and mobile services.

The Cisco ASR 9000 Series 40 and 56 Gigabit Ethernet Line Cards are fully compatible with all Cisco ASR 9000 Series chassis except the Cisco ASR 9001 Router. No hardware upgrade to the chassis or cooling system is required to deploy these line cards.

Each line card provides simultaneous support for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 services and features. This helps operators qualify and stock a single line card that can be deployed in any combination of Layer 2 and Layer 3 applications. It also helps reduce capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx) and reduces the time required to develop and deploy new services. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Ethernet 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.