The specific questions and research I was doing was related to the Cisco Nexus 3000 series switches, namely the 3064 and 3016. I state that because there is the chance that the QSFP+ could operate differently if using different switch types – and that’s per the TME of optic. For those new to the Nexus 3000 series, the 3064 has 48 front facing ports of SFP+ (1G/10G) and 4 x 40GbE QSFP+ that could be used as uplinks. The 3016 has 16 40GbE QSFP+ ports.
There are trends of high density 10GbE connectivity in the data center that are increasing the needs for some to use 40GbE interfaces for uplink connectivity. Because 40GbE requires a new type of optic, called a QSFP+, I’ve had many questions from customers and myself regarding the connectivity and cabling options. Oddly enough, it took talking to at least 5 Cisco Engineers that span San Jose to NYC to compile this data, so if you’ve like to correct or add anything here, please feel free to comment below.
The specific questions and research I was doing was related to the Cisco Nexus 3000 series switches, namely the 3064 and 3016. I state that because there is the chance that the QSFP+ could operate differently if using different switch types – and that’s per the TME of optic. For those new to the Nexus 3000 series, the 3064 has 48 front facing ports of SFP+ (1G/10G) and 4 x 40GbE QSFP+ that could be used as uplinks. The 3016 has 16 40GbE QSFP+ ports.
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Let me be fair by saying I work on designs on a regular basis that are 99% Cisco. Of course, there are integrations with other equipment for every technology, but from an R/S standpoint, it’s mainly Cisco. Occasionally, I’ll come across competitive (to CSCO) information, but that’s about it. For this post, I wanted to make it a point to see what was out there in the new 40 GbE LAN switching market. It’s a topic that is becoming more popular (for various trends in the Data Center) and I’m really quite surprised about it all, so I figured let’s dive in and see who’s got what.
And this was a shallow dive. The goal was not to spend countless hours on each solution; I simply wanted to get a high level overview. The focus was just to try and get the following questions answered. Who has fixed configuration switches with 40GbE interfaces? Do they support “standard” L2/L3 protocols? Do they support some type of Layer 2 multipathing? Is there support for a type of MLAG? What is the port to port latency? What is the power consumption? Is there anything “special” about the switch, or is it unique in anyway? After a few seconds of thinking about it, I decided to focus on Arista, Dell Force10, Extreme, IBM, Juniper, Brocade, HP, and of course, Cisco. |
AuthorJason Edelman, Founder & CTO of Network to Code. Categories
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