Exterior Cosmetic Components; Control Plane And Data Plane Overview; System Discovery And Inventory - Cisco CRS-1 System Description

Exterior Cosmetic Components

Figure 6: Cable Management Bracket
Exterior Cosmetic Components
The Cisco CRS 8-slot Line Card Chassis Enhanced router includes the following exterior cosmetics:
• Cable management bracket (shipped preinstalled on the chassis)
• Inlet grille (shipped separately)
• Front cover (shipped separately)

Control Plane and Data Plane Overview

The control plane is a logical communication path between cards, modules, and components in the chassis,
tying physical components and software functions into a unified entity. The control plane is used during
system discovery, inventory, configuration, booting, management, upgrades, fault detection and recovery,
and performance monitoring.
The data plane is the path that packets take through the routing system from the physical layer interface
module (PLIM) to a line card to the switch fabric to another line card and out a PLIM. The control plane and
data plane may share some physical components. For instance, the control plane uses the switch fabric for
some types of intrasystem communication, just as the data plane uses it to switch packets.

System Discovery and Inventory

The control plane hardware provides for system discovery and inventory. This process includes mechanisms
to determine system topology of the control plane and switch fabric before the system has been configured.
In addition to topology discovery, the control plane hardware must also provide mechanisms for card- or
module-presence detection and tracking information, such as the card type, revision, and serial number. These
mechanisms allow system management software to build a database representing the CRS routing system,
including individual board identification and location information. A running routing system can be upgraded
or serviced at any time during operation. The control plane hardware provides online insertion and removal
(OIR) detection.
Cisco CRS Carrier Routing System 8-Slot Line Card Chassis Enhanced Router System Description
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Cisco CRS Carrier Routing System 8-Slot Line Card Chassis Enhanced Router Overview