The Cisco 7603 Router is a small-form-factor, high-performance router designed for deployment at the network edge, where a combination of performance and services is necessary to meet the requirements of both enterprises and service providers. The Cisco 7603 delivers high performance with a forwarding rate of 15Mbps, and 32Gbps of bandwidth across the backplane while delivering high-touch, hardware-accelerated IP services via Cisco Parallel Express Forwarding (PXF) IP services processor technology.One of the Cisco 7600 Series Routers, the Cisco 7603 delivers optical LAN, WAN, and metropolitan-area network (MAN) networking with high-touch IP services at the network edge, enabling service providers and enterprises to "service enable" their networks at optical speeds. This creates opportunities for service providers to offer high-value, differentiated services, and for enterprises to develop the advanced network infrastructure necessary to succeed in the modern business environment.The Cisco 7603 delivers performance in a compact (four-rack unit [RU]) three-slot chassis. The Cisco 7603 may be configured with a single route processor and two slots available for line cards or for high-availability and redundancy, with dual route processors and a single open line-card slot. The Cisco 7603 also supports redundant power supplies for increased reliability.The inclusion of two Gigabit Ethernet ports on the Cisco Supervisor 2 Multilayer Switch Feature Card 2 (MSFC2) route processor eliminates the need to use a line-card slot for uplink ports. The result of this design is more efficient use of available line-card slots and increased deployment flexibility. Four Gigabit Ethernet ports are available for use in dual-route processor configurations.Optical Services Modules for the Cisco 7600 Series are available with interface speeds ranging from OC-3 to OC-48, and the Cisco 7603 can also utilize the Cisco FlexWAN module (WS-X6182-2PA) to take advantage of the majority of Cisco 7200 and 7500 port adapters for terminating DS0 to OC-3 speeds. Along with the Catalyst 6000 Series of Ethernet line cards, the Cisco 7600 can scale WAN connectivity from DS0 to OC-48 and LAN connectivity from 10-Mbps Ethernet through Gigabit Ethernet.Understanding the need to use rack space efficiently, the Cisco 7603 was designed to be a compact 7-inch-tall (four RU) unit, with single-side connection management for both interface and power terminations. This setup allows placement of up to 11 Cisco 7603 units per standard 7-foot rack.With a powerful combination of speed and services in a compact form factor, the Cisco 7603 is an outstanding choice for deployment in applications such as peering where a small number of interfaces is needed, in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 point of presence (POP) where space is critical but high-speed aggregation is necessary, or in the metropolitan area to provide high-performance Ethernet aggregation and uplink.