The Cisco ASR 9000 series operates in a fully distributed fashion; all packet-forwarding decisions and actions take place on the individual line cards. These high-density Ethernet line cards are equipped with a specialized network processor that provides a flexible programming infrastructure with high-density hierarchical quality-of-service (H-QoS) services, security, and integrated Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE). The distributed nature of the Cisco ASR 9000 series improves resiliency by adding a new dimension in scale for features such as Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) and Ethernet Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (EOAM).

The Cisco ASR 9000 series operates in a fully distributed fashion; all packet-forwarding decisions and actions take place on the individual line cards. These high-density Ethernet line cards are equipped with a specialized network processor that provides a flexible programming infrastructure with high-density hierarchical quality-of-service (H-QoS) services, security, and integrated Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE). The distributed nature of the Cisco ASR 9000 series improves resiliency by adding a new dimension in scale for features such as Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) and Ethernet Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (EOAM).