Cisco IOS XR software is a distributed operating system designed for continuous system operation
combined with service flexibility and high performance.

Cisco IOS XR software running on the Cisco XR 12000 Series Router provides the following features
and benefits:

•

IP and Routing—Supports a wide range of IPv4 and IPv6 services and routing protocols; such as
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Routing Information Protocol (RIPv2), Intermediate
System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), IP Multicast, Routing
Policy Language (RPL), Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), and Virtual Router Redundancy
Protocol features (VRRP).

•

BGP Prefix Independent Convergence—Provides the ability to converge BGP routes within sub
seconds instead of multiple seconds. The Forwarding Information Base (FIB) is updated,
independent of a prefix, to converge multiple 100K BGP routes with the occurrence of a single
failure. This convergence is applicable to both core and edge failures and with or with out MPLS.
This fast convergence innovation is unique to Cisco IOS XR software.

•

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)—Supports MPLS protocols, including Traffic
Engineering (TE), Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP), Label Distribution Protocol (LDP),
Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), and Layer 3 Virtual Private Network (L3VPN).

•

Multicast—Provides comprehensive IP Multicast software including Source Specific Multicast
(SSM) and Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) in Sparse Mode only.

•

Quality of Service (QoS)—Supports QoS mechanisms including policing, marking, queuing,
random and hard traffic dropping, and shaping. Additionally, Cisco IOS XR software also supports
modular QoS command-line interface (MQC). MQC is used to configure QoS features.

•

Manageability—Provides industry-standard management interfaces including modular
command-line interface (CLI), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and native
Extensible Markup Language (XML) interfaces. Includes a comprehensive set of Syslog messages.

•

Security—Provides comprehensive network security features including access control lists (ACLs);
routing authentications; Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA)/Terminal Access
Controller Access Control System (TACACS+); Secure Shell (SSH); Management Plane Protection
(MPP) for management plane security; and Simple Network Management Protocol version3
(SNMPv3). Control plane protections integrated into line card Application-Specific Integrated
Circuits (ASICs) include Generalized TTL Security Mechanism (GTSM), RFC 3682, and Dynamic
Control Plane Protection (DCPP).

•

Craft Works Interface (CWI)—CWI is a client-side application used to configure and manage
Cisco routers. Management and configuration features include fault, configuration, security, and
inventory, with an emphasis on speed and efficiency. The CWI provides a context-sensitive