Cisco Route Switch Processor 2 - control processor

Control plane and data plane elements. The Cisco Route Switch Processor (RSP) is the powerful centralized engine that provides these features and more for Cisco routers. The Cisco RSP is designed to address the requirements of converged service provider networks - from Carrier Ethernet technologies to advanced services such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). It helps providers add innovative traffic management and intelligent packet switching and routing features.

The Cisco RSP module contains separate control plane and data plane components. These include the main control plane CPU for the operating system and platform control software. The data plane packet processing and traffic management is performed by the Cisco Carrier Ethernet application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).