Switches & Bridges

Network traffic has grown exponentially over the last several years, and this trend is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. By 2016, there will be 19 billion networked devices, up from 10 billion in 2011. Business IP traffic is expected to reach 13.1 exabytes per month in 20161 . Networks must be capable of scaling well beyond the needs of today to deal with the traffic of tomorrow while at the same time providing investment protection.

The Cisco® Catalyst® 6880-X Series Switch (Figure 1) is an extensible fixed aggregation switch that delivers a best-in-class Cisco Catalyst 6500 feature set in a small form factor. This premier aggregation platform offers best-in-class scalability and flexibility with the premier Cisco Catalyst 6500 feature sets. This platform is ideal for those who want to introduce premium 10G services in small or midsize campus backbones. This unique platform offers 10G port density, full MPLS/VPLS functionality with large table sizes (up to 2M FIB entries), and more than 15 years of best-in-class features. With a full suite of L2/L3, virtualization, security, multicast, IPV6, application visibility, smart operations, and rich media services Cisco Catalyst 6800-X delivers unprecedented capabilities on day one. This platform also runs on the same architecture as the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 2T and therefore offers stability with a proven operating system software.

The Cisco Catalyst 6800-X Series chassis offers integrated resiliency by providing N+1 redundant fans, 1+1 power supply redundancy, and support for Virtual Switching System (VSS), thereby limiting network downtime, and ensures workforce productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability.

Cisco Catalyst 6880-X Product Details

The Cisco Catalyst 6880-X provides flexibility to build desired port density through two versions (C6880-X-LE with standard FIB/ACL/Netflow tables and C6880-X with larger FIB/ACL/Netflow tables) of base chassis along with optional port cards (Figure 2). The base chassis comes with 16 10G/1G ports, and each port card supports 16 additional 10G/1G ports. Each system can be built up to 80 ports in 16-port increments. The port interface on the base module and the port cards supports both 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 1 Gigabit Ethernet speeds allowing customers to use their investment in 1 Gigabit Ethernet SFP and upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ when business demands change, without having to do a comprehensive upgrade of the existing deployment. The port cards are hot swappable.

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Cisco Nexus 3048 Ethernet Switch - 48 Ports - Manageable - Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet - 10/100/1000Base-T, 10GBase-X - 3 Layer Supported - Twisted Pair, Optical Fiber - 1U - Rack-mountable - 1 Year Limited Warranty Learn More

The increasing number of applications requiring greater bandwidth and the availability of less expensive 10-Gbps servers are fueling a growing demand for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switches. At the same time, data center architecture is evolving in response to new demands on the IT infrastructure. Application workloads are being deployed across a mix of virtualized and physical server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.

The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform Gigabit Ethernet switches are the third generation of the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches: the leading data center server access switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform, the successor to the widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 platform, maintains all the existing Cisco Nexus 5500 platform features, including LAN and SAN convergence (unified ports and Fibre Channel over Ethernet [FCoE]), fabric extenders, and Cisco® FabricPath. In addition, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform offers integrated line-rate Layer 2 and 3 capabilities with true 40 Gigabit Ethernet support, Cisco's programmable fabric innovation, Network Virtualization Using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE), Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) bridging and routing capabilities, excellent network programmability and visibility, large buffer capacity, and significantly greater scale and performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 40-Gbps switches include 1-rack-unit (1RU), 2RU, and 4RU configurations for a flexible, agile, and energy-efficient design. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform complements existing Cisco Nexus switches and is an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture. The platform offers 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE with integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed. It also offers low latency: approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of port-side intake and fan-side intake airflow options to align with cold-aisle and hot-aisle placement within the data center, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform 40-Gbps switches are designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform with the Cisco NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. NX-OS is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform is designed for top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of-row (MoR) deployment in data centers that support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform delivers dense 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching that is well suited for cloud, big data, and virtualized environments.

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In today's data centers, virtualization deployments have become commonplace, and this trend is increasing rapidly with the availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers at attractive prices. The combination of increased adoption of these servers and applications with higher bandwidth requirements is increasing the need for dense 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switching. Moreover, data center architecture is changing as application environments create new demands for IT infrastructure. Application workloads are deployed across a mix of virtualized and nonvirtualized server and storage infrastructure, requiring a network infrastructure that provides consistent connectivity, security, and visibility across a range of bare-metal, virtualized, and cloud computing environments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform is the third generation of industry's leading Data Center Server-Access Nexus 5000 series of switches. Cisco Nexus 5600 is the successor of industry's most widely adopted Cisco Nexus 5500 series switches that maintain all the existing Nexus 5500 features including LAN/SAN convergence (Unified Ports, FCoE), Fabric Extenders (FEX) and Fabric Path, but in addition brings integrated line-rate Layer 2/3 with true 40GE support, Cisco's Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) innovation, NVGRE, VxLAN bridging & routing capability, network programmability & visibility, deep buffers and significantly higher scale & performance for highly virtualized, automated, and cloud environments. The Cisco Nexus® 5600 platform switches include both 1RU and 2RU switches built to overcome these challenges with a flexible, agile and energy efficient design. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches are an important component of the Cisco Unified Data Center architecture, complementing existing Cisco Nexus switches. The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switches are energy-efficient switches that offer 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), providing integrated Layer 2 and 3 features at wire speed, and low latency of approximately 1 microsecond for any packet size. With a choice of front-to-back (port-side exhaust) and back-to-front (port-side intake) airflow options, the Cisco Nexus 5600 platform switch is designed for a broad range of traditional data center and large-scale virtualized cloud deployments.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform with Cisco® NX-OS Software operating system provides customers with features and capabilities that are widely deployed in data centers around the world. Cisco NX-OS Software is a purpose-built data center operating system designed for performance, resiliency, scalability, manageability, and programmability. It meets Ethernet and storage networking requirements, providing a robust and comprehensive feature set that can meet the demanding requirements of virtualization and automation in present and future data centers.

The Cisco Nexus 5600 platform is designed for top-of-rack (ToR) and middle-of-row (MoR) deployment in data centers that support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, and cloud computing environments.

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Today's data centers are increasingly filled with dense rack-mount and blade servers that host powerful multicore processors. The rapid increase in in-rack computing density and the increasing use of virtualization software combine to accelerate the demand for 10 Gigabit Ethernet and consolidated I/O: applications for which the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches are an excellent match. With low latency, front-to-back cooling, and rear-facing data ports, the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series is designed for a broad range of physical, virtual, storage access, and high-performance computing environments, thus giving customers the flexibility to meet and scale their data center requirements in a gradual manner and at a pace that aligns with their business objectives.

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