Router Product Overview

Summary

This chapter introduced you to Cisco router products that support VPN capabilities. I wanted to give you an overall idea as to where Cisco routers play a role in implementing VPNs, and what kind of router you should use when creating your VPN design. Routers are best used when you need a one-box solution, combining features such as security, QoS, routing, WAN interfaces, and voice support, or if you have many L2L sessions you need to support. Therefore, you might already have a router-based network and want to add VPN functionality to it. You might easily be able to do this with the existing equipment you have, or at a minimal outlay of cost for equipment and software. Plus, out of all of the Cisco VPN offerings, the VPNSM can provide 19 Gbps VPN throughput from a single chassis, which is quite a lot of sessions!

Next up is Chapter 16, "Router ISAKMP/IKE Phase 1 Connectivity," where I discuss how to configure a router to establish a Phase 1 management connection as well as many of its advanced Phase 1 capabilities, like being able to perform the functions of a certificate authority (CA).