At-A-Glance

Cisco Regional WAN Solution

Cisco Regional WAN Solution Overview
Extending the enterprise network to remote branch offices has long been one of the
more difficult challenges of the IT organization. The Cisco Regional WAN (RWAN)
Solution architecture provides a set of pretested deployment recommendations for
addressing some of the challenges with remote branch-office environments.
The RWAN includes the network services for the remote branch office as well as the
wide-area connections and aggregation necessary to connect to those sites. The
RWAN also happens to be one of the most exciting areas in the next-generation
enterprise network, where industry trends such as cloud computing, virtual desktops,
videoconferencing, bring-your-own-devices, and secure access meet the real world.
Figure 1. RWAN Sizing
Mobile Branch
Cisco 800 & 1900
3G/4G
Satellite
Standard branch office: Most typical remote branch offices connected to
headquarters or regional sites
High-end branch office: Large branch offices with many users, services, and
high-availability requirements
Ultrahigh-end branch office: Extremely large branch offices or campus locations
that demand higher throughput and services performance which justify high
performance routers and dedicated appliances for network services.
What Problems Does the Regional WAN Solution Address?
Traditionally, the architecture and connectivity to remote branch offices has been an
important topic for IT groups. Crafting the proper quality-of-service (QoS) policy and
ordering the correct bandwidth from the local service provider are typical problems.
However, several recent technology trends being led by a desire to reduce costs and
Enterprise Edge
operate more efficiently across the organization are pushing these same networks to
be much more intelligent and flexible in the way they respond to some new challenges.

Internet
VPN The Cisco Regional WAN Solution outlines a tested architecture for delivering these
Head-End
Standard Branch Cisco ASR 1000 new services in a secure and scalable manner with tight service and application
Cisco 2900 et
ern integration in the RWAN network of the future. Some of these new-world challenges
l Eth
S eria Redundant, Scalable addressed with the RWAN solution include:
Headend
Cisco ASR 1000 Discovering applications on the WAN and providing appropriate QoS at the
High-End Branch Enterprise
Cisco 3900 SP A Interconnect application level
E
DS3, F MPLS
Intelligently using the bandwidth for both primary and backup network connections
SP B Assessing, deploying, and monitoring the performance of the network for rich-
MPLS
E media applications such as Cisco TelePresence conferencing and other high-
,G
OC
-3
App App App App
definition business video
Improving application and virtual desktop response times while reducing bandwidth
OS OS OS OS

Ultra High-End costs through intelligent wide-area acceleration

Branch Cisco Data
ASR 1000 Campus Center
Implementing new higher-bandwidth WWAN (4G) networks as cost-effective
backup connections
Because every network is different, RWAN solution guides are also tailored to
the needs of your remote office deployments. These guides provide consistent Simplifying the deployment and management of large complex branch-office
recommendations for the most common branch-office sizes: networks to make it easier to handle new services with a lean IT staff

Mobile branch office: Third- and fourth-generation (3G and 4G, respectively) Relationship to Next-Generation Enterprise WAN Architecture
wireless WAN (WWAN) as a primary connection in a mobile environment or
locations without access to traditional land line connectivity. The Next-Generation Enterprise WAN (NGEW) is an end-to-end architecture that
provides foundation building blocks for next-generation enterprise networks.

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks.
Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)
 At-A-Glance

The hierarchical design provides the scalability required by large enterprises that Increased productivity and lower risk when venturing into new areas with a trusted guide
can be extended and replicated throughout multiple regions and topologies. This Recommended deployment scenarios for some of the most popular network
consistency leads to ease of deployment, maintenance, and troubleshooting. services and applications
The architecture comprises five core modules (Figure 2): A constantly evolving set of tested configurations that grow as new technologies are
The RWAN: Used to connect branch offices and aggregate remote locations introduced and customers look for helpful recommendations
The in-theater core: Used to interconnect RWANs within a country or theater Deployment recommendations for the RWAN environment that are designed to
The global core: Used to interconnect theater cores merge into the broader NGEW solution set with complementary guidance across the
corporate network
The enterprise edge: Used to connect the enterprise network to other networks
Solutions designed by the experts who are building these next-generation
The enterprise interconnect: Used as an interconnect and aggregation point for all modules
technologies
Figure 2. RWAN Architecture Feedback and guidance from a broad set of network architects from a wide range of
Inter
Connect
Inter
Connect
companies facing these same deployment challenges that feeds into the creation of
In-Theater In-Theater
WAN Core
Global
WAN Core
Regional every RWAN solution
WAN Core WAN
Country A Country C

Inter The Cisco Advantage in a Regional WAN Solution

Connect
No one in the industry has more experience building networks, including regional-office
networks, than Cisco. In todays world of IT technologies, no other company continues
In-Theater
WAN Core to innovate and create capabilities at the same pace in the network designed to make
Country B
Remote Remote rolling out these new services easy and manageable. Whether you face a daunting virtual
Branch Branch
Regional desktop rollout, new cloud-based applications, or a constrained WAN budget, the Cisco
Metro
WAN
Inter Regional WAN Solution can provide suggestions for solving your problems.
Connect
WAN Primary
or Backup No other network company talks to more IT professionals in a broader range of
Internet
App App App App

OS OS OS OS
environments than Cisco. That broad exposure directly influences the RWAN testing
Public and recommendations because the solution guides are tested using real-world
App App App App

Cloud
OS OS OS OS

Data
Hybrid
Service Local Data
Private
Cloud Center configurations and lessons learned from your peers at companies facing the same
Cloud
Services
Provider Campus Center challenges all around the world.
Voice, Video
Etc.

Where to Go for More Information

Benefits of Regional WAN Solution
Using a proven and validated solution from Cisco gives you a head start in planning
your network upgrades. The RWAN solution has been specifically designed and tested
to make deploying next-generation services and applications easier on the network
planners and give you an advantage when tasked with rolling out the latest exciting
service in your branch-office environment. Beyond the obvious benefits of having a
tested and optimized set of configurations built by the technology experts, the RWAN
solution set also provides:
The Cisco Regional WAN documentation and deployment guides can be found along
with the entire Next-Generation Enterprise WAN solution set in the Cisco Design Zone.
Design Zone is a one-stop-shop for tested and validated recommendations from the
Cisco experts in a variety of network environments. For more information, please visit:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns816/networking_solutions_white_papers_list.html
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns816/networking_solution_solution_overview_list.html

2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks.
Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R) C45-706548-00 06/12