Product Overview

The 4- and 8-port Cisco ® Gigabit Ethernet Enhanced High-Speed WAN interface cards (EHWICs) can reduce your company's total cost of ownership (TCO) by integrating Gigabit Ethernet (GE) switch ports within Cisco 3900, 2900, and 1900 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISRs). These low-density Gigabit Ethernet switches offer small to medium-sized business (SMB) and enterprise branch-office customers a combination of switching and routing integrated into a single device (Figure 1).
Integration of these switches with Cisco IOS ® Software allows network administrators to manage a single device using Cisco management tools or the router command-line interface (CLI) for LAN and WAN management needs. This approach reduces network complexity, lowers maintenance contract costs, and lessens staff training needs. It also simplifies software qualification efforts and delivers a consistent user experience at branch offices. Additionally, these low-density Gigabit Ethernet switching modules enable Cisco's industry-leading power initiatives, Cisco EnergyWise, Cisco Enhanced Power over Ethernet (ePoE), and per-port Power over Ethernet (PoE) power monitoring, which enhance the ability of the branch office to scale to higher performance requirements and still meet environmental initiatives for IT teams to operate a power-efficient network.
The 4- and 8-port Gigabit Ethernet EHWICs provide line-rate Layer 2 switching across onboard Gigabit Ethernet ports. The 4-port Gigabit Ethernet EHWIC has four 10/100/1000 switch ports, with options for PoE support on all four ports. The 8-port Gigabit Ethernet EHWIC has eight 10/100/1000 switched Gigabit Ethernet ports, with a PoE support option on all 8 ports.
The new features for the Gigabit Ethernet EHWICs include: 8 quality-of-service (QoS) queues per port, Shaped Deficit Weighted Round Robin (SDWRR), dynamic secure port, intrachassis cascading, up to 20W of PoE per port, and PoE per-port monitoring and policing. Multigigabit Fabric (MGF) is enabled for direct module-to-module communication.

Secure Network Connectivity for Data, Voice, and Video
When inserted in a Cisco 1900, 2900, or 3900 Series ISR, the Gigabit Ethernet EHWICs provide a fully integrated, secure networking and converged IP communications solution. From a single platform with an integrated switch, you can connect IP phones, wireless access points, and IP-based video cameras to your network and power them using the IEEE 802.3af or Cisco ePoE. With the optional integration of Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, the router can also provide call processing for the phones. As users attempt network access, the Gigabit Ethernet EHWIC can use IEEE 802.1x to validate the credentials of the end device and place the users in the appropriate VLAN or Cisco TrustSec ™ group. As the end-user data leaves the LAN, the router can then encrypt the traffic and place it on a multitude of VPNs, securing the communications among branch offices and central sites.

Features and Benefits
The Cisco Gigabit Ethernet EHWICs provide increased performance levels, enhanced per-port security, ease of configuration, and, with intermodule cascading capabilities, they allow for additional ports expandability over time.

Enhanced Power over Ethernet
Although PoE has been employed for more than a decade, the technology is still evolving. New and innovative applications continue to raise expectations for power requirements. The Cisco EHWICs take advantage of the increased power capabilities of the Cisco 1900, 2900, and 3900 Series routers. Table 9 provides information about total PoE power output per platform. Depending on the ISR series model, the available PoE power ranges from 80 to 1014 watts. The Cisco Enhanced EHWICs support not only IEEE 802.1af (15.4 watts) but also Cisco ePoE (20 watts).

Additional PoE features include:

- Per-port power consumption control allows you to specify a maximum power setting on an individual port.
- Per-port PoE power sensing measures the actual power being drawn, enabling more intelligent control of powered devices.
- The Cisco PoE MIBs provide proactive visibility into power usage and allow you to set different power-level thresholds.
- Cisco Discovery Protocol Version 2 allows the Cisco EHWICs to negotiate a more granular power setting than IEEE classification provides when connecting to a Cisco powered device such as IP phones or access points.