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CCR2116-EE
The MikroTik CCR2116 (specifically the CCR2116-12G-4S+ model) is a highly capable Cloud Core Router designed for robust and high-demand network environments, making it suitable for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), large businesses, and data centers.The 2116 is the Swiss Army Knife of networking.
Here's a detailed look at what a CCR2116 can do:
1. Exceptional Processing Power:
16-core ARM 64-bit Annapurna Labs Alpine v3 AL73400 CPU (2 GHz per core): This is the core of its power. With 16 cores running at 2 GHz, it delivers immense processing power, significantly boosting performance, especially in tasks reliant on single-core performance (like complex queues). It can easily double the performance of older 36-core CCR models in many scenarios.
Marvell Aldrin family (98DX3255) switch chip with L3 Hardware Offloading:4 This dedicated switch chip offloads Layer 3 routing tasks from the CPU, enabling wire-speed forwarding for a massive number of packets. This is crucial for handling high traffic volumes without bogging down the main CPU.
16 GB of DDR4 RAM: Provides ample memory for large routing tables, complex firewall rules, and handling numerous active connections.
1 TB NVME Storage: Extend your services with containers or use as a NVME Target. Supports up to 8TB.
2. High-Speed Connectivity:
Four 10G SFP+ ports: These ports provide high-speed fiber connectivity, ideal for connecting to core switches, upstream ISPs, or high-bandwidth servers.7 They are directly connected to the switch chip with separate full-duplex lines, ensuring no bottlenecks.
Thirteen Gigabit Ethernet ports (12 managed by the switch chip, 1 directly to CPU): Offers versatile connectivity for a mix of devices, including management, internal networks, or connecting to other network segments.9 Each group of 4 Gigabit ports has a separate full-duplex connection to the switch chip.
3. Advanced RouterOS Features (RouterOS v7):
Comprehensive Routing: Supports dynamic routing protocols like BGP, OSPF, and MPLS, essential for complex and large-scale networks. It delivers "6x faster BGP performance" compared to some older models.
Advanced Firewall: Robust firewall capabilities with support for Layer 3 hardware offloading to maintain high performance even with many rules.
Quality of Service (QoS): Enables precise control and prioritization of network traffic, crucial for voice, video, and other critical applications.
VPN Capabilities: Supports various VPN protocols, including IPsec with hardware acceleration for secure and high-speed tunnel connections.
VLANs and Layer 2 features: Standard for network segmentation and flexible network design.
User Management and Authentication: For controlling access and managing network users.
4. Reliability and Redundancy:
Dual Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies: Ensures high availability and minimizes downtime in case of a power supply failure.
Multiple Cooling Fans: Maintain optimal operating temperatures for stable performance.
Wide Operating Temperature Range: Designed to operate reliably in various environmental conditions (-20°C to +60°C).
5. Typical Use Cases:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): As a core or edge router, handling massive BGP feeds, complex routing, and high traffic volumes for subscriber management.
Large Enterprises: For data center aggregation, main office router, or core network infrastructure where high throughput and advanced routing are required.
Data Centers: As an aggregation layer switch/router, connecting servers and other network devices with 10G SFP+ links.
Organizations with Demanding Network Requirements: Any environment needing a powerful, reliable, and versatile router for high-performance networking, traffic management, and security
Extensible Platform with Containers
Network Monitoring and Logging:
Grafana/Prometheus: Deploy a lightweight Grafana instance for visualizing router metrics (CPU, memory, traffic, interface stats) and Prometheus for collecting them. This provides far richer and more customizable dashboards than built-in RouterOS monitoring.
Syslog Server: Run a small syslog server to collect logs from multiple MikroTik devices or other network gear directly on the router, simplifying log management for smaller networks.
Traffic Analysis Tools (e.g., NetFlow/IPFIX Collectors): While RouterOS can export NetFlow, a container can run a basic collector and analyzer, providing deeper insights into network traffic patterns without needing a separate server.
Out-of-Band Management/Tools:
Jumphost/Bastion Host: A small Linux container with SSH can act as a secure jumphost for accessing other devices on your network, isolating your management traffic.
Network Utilities: Run common network tools like nmap, iperf3, curl, wget, tcpdump (with proper network configuration), etc., directly on the router for troubleshooting or testing without needing to SSH into another machine.
Configuration Backup/Automation Scripts: A container can run Python or Bash scripts to automate configuration backups of other network devices, push configuration changes, or interact with APIs.
Lightweight Application Hosting (Edge Computing):
Home Automation Hub: For advanced home users, a container could host a lightweight home automation platform (e.g., Home Assistant Core) to integrate with smart home devices.1
DNS Blocklist (Pi-hole/AdGuard Home): Run a DNS-based ad blocker for your entire network.2 This is a very popular use case, providing system-wide ad and tracker blocking.
Local Caching Proxy: For specific scenarios, a small caching proxy might improve performance for frequently accessed content.
IoT Device Management: For small-scale IoT deployments, a container could host a lightweight IoT broker or data collector.
Security Enhancements:
Intrusion Detection/Prevention (IDS/IPS - Lightweight): While not a full-blown commercial IDS, a container could run a lightweight IDS (e.g., Suricata in a basic configuration) to monitor specific traffic for known threats, especially on less critical segments.
Threat Intelligence Feed Ingestion: A container could fetch and process threat intelligence feeds, which could then potentially be used by RouterOS firewall rules (though this would require custom scripting).
Honeypot: A simple honeypot can be deployed in a container to detect and log unauthorized access attempts.
Development and Testing Environments:
Sandbox: A perfect environment for testing new RouterOS scripts, configurations, or even network service changes in an isolated manner without affecting the main router functionality.
Custom Services: If you have a very specific, lightweight network service that isn't provided by RouterOS, you can develop and run it in a container.
In essence, the CCR2116 is designed to be a "forget about CPU limitations" router for 10 Gigabit networking, offering a powerful combination of CPU, port density, and hardware offloading to handle very high traffic loads and complex network configurations.
The MikroTik CCR2116 (specifically the CCR2116-12G-4S+ model) is a highly capable Cloud Core Router designed for robust and high-demand network environments, making it suitable for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), large businesses, and data centers.The 2116 is the Swiss Army Knife of networking.
Here's a detailed look at what a CCR2116 can do:
1. Exceptional Processing Power:
16-core ARM 64-bit Annapurna Labs Alpine v3 AL73400 CPU (2 GHz per core): This is the core of its power. With 16 cores running at 2 GHz, it delivers immense processing power, significantly boosting performance, especially in tasks reliant on single-core performance (like complex queues). It can easily double the performance of older 36-core CCR models in many scenarios.
Marvell Aldrin family (98DX3255) switch chip with L3 Hardware Offloading:4 This dedicated switch chip offloads Layer 3 routing tasks from the CPU, enabling wire-speed forwarding for a massive number of packets. This is crucial for handling high traffic volumes without bogging down the main CPU.
16 GB of DDR4 RAM: Provides ample memory for large routing tables, complex firewall rules, and handling numerous active connections.
1 TB NVME Storage: Extend your services with containers or use as a NVME Target. Supports up to 8TB.
2. High-Speed Connectivity:
Four 10G SFP+ ports: These ports provide high-speed fiber connectivity, ideal for connecting to core switches, upstream ISPs, or high-bandwidth servers.7 They are directly connected to the switch chip with separate full-duplex lines, ensuring no bottlenecks.
Thirteen Gigabit Ethernet ports (12 managed by the switch chip, 1 directly to CPU): Offers versatile connectivity for a mix of devices, including management, internal networks, or connecting to other network segments.9 Each group of 4 Gigabit ports has a separate full-duplex connection to the switch chip.
3. Advanced RouterOS Features (RouterOS v7):
Comprehensive Routing: Supports dynamic routing protocols like BGP, OSPF, and MPLS, essential for complex and large-scale networks. It delivers "6x faster BGP performance" compared to some older models.
Advanced Firewall: Robust firewall capabilities with support for Layer 3 hardware offloading to maintain high performance even with many rules.
Quality of Service (QoS): Enables precise control and prioritization of network traffic, crucial for voice, video, and other critical applications.
VPN Capabilities: Supports various VPN protocols, including IPsec with hardware acceleration for secure and high-speed tunnel connections.
VLANs and Layer 2 features: Standard for network segmentation and flexible network design.
User Management and Authentication: For controlling access and managing network users.
4. Reliability and Redundancy:
Dual Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies: Ensures high availability and minimizes downtime in case of a power supply failure.
Multiple Cooling Fans: Maintain optimal operating temperatures for stable performance.
Wide Operating Temperature Range: Designed to operate reliably in various environmental conditions (-20°C to +60°C).
5. Typical Use Cases:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): As a core or edge router, handling massive BGP feeds, complex routing, and high traffic volumes for subscriber management.
Large Enterprises: For data center aggregation, main office router, or core network infrastructure where high throughput and advanced routing are required.
Data Centers: As an aggregation layer switch/router, connecting servers and other network devices with 10G SFP+ links.
Organizations with Demanding Network Requirements: Any environment needing a powerful, reliable, and versatile router for high-performance networking, traffic management, and security
Extensible Platform with Containers
Network Monitoring and Logging:
Grafana/Prometheus: Deploy a lightweight Grafana instance for visualizing router metrics (CPU, memory, traffic, interface stats) and Prometheus for collecting them. This provides far richer and more customizable dashboards than built-in RouterOS monitoring.
Syslog Server: Run a small syslog server to collect logs from multiple MikroTik devices or other network gear directly on the router, simplifying log management for smaller networks.
Traffic Analysis Tools (e.g., NetFlow/IPFIX Collectors): While RouterOS can export NetFlow, a container can run a basic collector and analyzer, providing deeper insights into network traffic patterns without needing a separate server.
Out-of-Band Management/Tools:
Jumphost/Bastion Host: A small Linux container with SSH can act as a secure jumphost for accessing other devices on your network, isolating your management traffic.
Network Utilities: Run common network tools like nmap, iperf3, curl, wget, tcpdump (with proper network configuration), etc., directly on the router for troubleshooting or testing without needing to SSH into another machine.
Configuration Backup/Automation Scripts: A container can run Python or Bash scripts to automate configuration backups of other network devices, push configuration changes, or interact with APIs.
Lightweight Application Hosting (Edge Computing):
Home Automation Hub: For advanced home users, a container could host a lightweight home automation platform (e.g., Home Assistant Core) to integrate with smart home devices.1
DNS Blocklist (Pi-hole/AdGuard Home): Run a DNS-based ad blocker for your entire network.2 This is a very popular use case, providing system-wide ad and tracker blocking.
Local Caching Proxy: For specific scenarios, a small caching proxy might improve performance for frequently accessed content.
IoT Device Management: For small-scale IoT deployments, a container could host a lightweight IoT broker or data collector.
Security Enhancements:
Intrusion Detection/Prevention (IDS/IPS - Lightweight): While not a full-blown commercial IDS, a container could run a lightweight IDS (e.g., Suricata in a basic configuration) to monitor specific traffic for known threats, especially on less critical segments.
Threat Intelligence Feed Ingestion: A container could fetch and process threat intelligence feeds, which could then potentially be used by RouterOS firewall rules (though this would require custom scripting).
Honeypot: A simple honeypot can be deployed in a container to detect and log unauthorized access attempts.
Development and Testing Environments:
Sandbox: A perfect environment for testing new RouterOS scripts, configurations, or even network service changes in an isolated manner without affecting the main router functionality.
Custom Services: If you have a very specific, lightweight network service that isn't provided by RouterOS, you can develop and run it in a container.
In essence, the CCR2116 is designed to be a "forget about CPU limitations" router for 10 Gigabit networking, offering a powerful combination of CPU, port density, and hardware offloading to handle very high traffic loads and complex network configurations.