Cisco CRS-3 14-port 10GbE LAN/WAN-PHY Interface Module
Fourteen ports.
Two PHY modes on demand.
A field guide to the Cisco CRS-3 14-port 10GbE LAN/WAN-PHY Interface Module (14X10GBE-WL-XFP) — the line card that lets a Carrier Routing System speak both data-center Ethernet and carrier WAN in the same chassis.
Most 10GbE line cards make you pick a lane: LAN framing for the data center, or WAN framing (SONET/SDH-compatible) for the carrier network. This module doesn’t make you choose — each of its 14 ports can be provisioned as LAN-PHY or WAN-PHY independently, which is exactly the kind of flexibility a carrier-grade router needs when the same chassis is doing enterprise handoffs on one port and long-haul transport on the next.
01 Where it lives
This card is a line card for the Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System — the chassis-based platform built around Cisco’s QuantumFlow packet-processing silicon and running IOS XR, Cisco’s self-healing, distributed operating system. The CRS-3 is designed to scale from a single chassis up to a massive multi-chassis system, and this module is one of the interface cards that slots into it to deliver 10 Gigabit Ethernet density. It’s also backward- and forward-compatible with the earlier CRS-1 platform, so it protects investment in gear that’s already deployed.
02 LAN-PHY vs. WAN-PHY, in practice
LAN-PHY is what you’d expect from standard 10 Gigabit Ethernet — Ethernet framing, used for data-center interconnects, enterprise handoffs, and short high-speed links. WAN-PHY reframes that same 10GbE signal to be compatible with SONET/SDH transport, so the port can ride directly onto carrier optical networks without a separate transponder. Having both available per-port on one card means a single line card can serve mixed roles: some ports facing the data center, others facing the long-haul network — no separate SKU required for each job.
03 Optics and slot density
All 14 ports take pluggable XFP transceivers, so reach and fiber type (short-reach multimode, long-haul single-mode, DWDM, etc.) are chosen per port at the optics level rather than baked into the card. At 14 ports per slot and up to 140 Gb/s of line-rate throughput per card, port density scales cleanly as you add line cards across the chassis.
04 Operations and management
The card supports online insertion and removal (OIR), so it can be swapped without powering down the chassis — important for carrier gear where downtime windows are scarce. Management options include the standard CLI, SNMP, Cisco’s CraftWorks Interface, and Cisco Active Network Abstraction, alongside VLAN and QoS support for traffic segmentation and prioritization.
| Part number | 14X10GBE-WL-XFP |
| Platform | Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System |
| Port count | 14x 10 Gigabit Ethernet |
| PHY modes | LAN-PHY or WAN-PHY, per port |
| Aggregate throughput | Up to 140 Gb/s line-rate |
| Optics | Pluggable XFP, 14 slots |
| Serviceability | Online insertion/removal (OIR) |
| Management | CLI, SNMP, CraftWorks Interface, Cisco ANA, VLAN, QoS |
| Dimensions | 20.6″H x 1.8″W x 11.2″D |
05 Why it still matters
- Per-port LAN/WAN-PHY flexibility means one card can do the job of two single-purpose cards.
- OIR support keeps maintenance non-disruptive on chassis that can’t take scheduled downtime.
- Broad XFP optics compatibility means reach and fiber type are a purchasing decision, not a hardware constraint.
- CRS-1/CRS-3 compatibility protects existing chassis investment as networks scale.
If you’re maintaining or expanding a CRS-3 deployment — genuine or tested-refurbished — this is usually the card we get asked about first. Reach out and we’ll help you match port count and PHY mix to your build.
