Cisco Universal Serial Bus (USB) Cards

One of the primary architectural enhancements of the Cisco 3800, 2800, and 1800 series integrated services routers is the introduction of one or two Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports per routing platform, to provide increased flexibility and simplicity when delivering different applications and services.

These router-based USB ports unlike those found on PCs; have been designed to support only the specific USB devices that Cisco creates drivers for.

The first of many applications supported on the USB ports include

• Provisioning. With this solution, you can, for example:
  • Drop-ship the router to the final destination.
  • Provision a secure token (available through Aladdin Systems [www.aladdin.com]) with the configuration or boot-strap.
  • Send the token to the location.
  • At the final destination, the token plugs into the USB port, and the router is turned on. The router uses the configuration on the token, or loads off the bootstrap and downloads the configuration.
  • This provisioning capability can save time and money because companies avoid shipping the router twice: once to configure it, and a second time to send it to the final destination.
• Distribution and storage of VPN credentials. The preshared keys and/or certificates are stored directly on the token, allowing you to to easily provision and distribute them.
• Bulk Flash storage (Flash memory). It is useful for image and configuration distribution and storage, as an alternative to compact Flash.

Additional Resources