The Cisco 2800 Series comprises four platforms: the Cisco 2801, the Cisco 2811, the Cisco 2821, and the Cisco 2851. The Cisco 2800 Series provides significant additional value compared to prior generations of Cisco routers at similar price points by offering up to a fivefold performance improvement, up to a tenfold increase in security and voice performance, embedded service options, and dramatically increased slot performance and density while maintaining support for most of the more than 90 existing modules that are available today for the Cisco 1700, Cisco 2600, and Cisco 3700 Series.

The Cisco 2800 Series features the ability to deliver multiple high-quality simultaneous services at wire speed up to multiple T1/E1/xDSL connections. The routers offer embedded encryption acceleration and on the motherboard voice digital-signal-processor (DSP) slots; intrusion prevention system (IPS) and firewall functions; optional integrated call processing and voice mail support; high-density interfaces for a wide range of wired and wireless connectivity requirements; and sufficient performance and slot density for future network expansion requirements and advanced applications.