The Cisco Nexus 34180YC and 3464C programmable switches are high-speed, low-power, high-density fixed data center switch. Joining the industry’s widely deployed Cisco Nexus 3000 Series portfolio, they support enterprise applications, service provider hosting, financial networks applications, and secured cloud computing environments. These switches support a wide range of port speeds, with flexible combinations of 10-, 25-, 40-, and 100-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and improved scalability and configurability because of the switch’s capacity to modify and customize packet-forwarding behavior.
The Cisco Nexus 34180YC and 3464C platforms run the industry-leading Cisco NX-OS network software operating system, which helps ensure continuous availability and sets the standard for mission-critical data center environments. The platforms are designed for programmable fabric, which offers flexibility, mobility, and scalability for service providers and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and cloud providers; and for programmable networks, which automate configuration and management for customers who want to take advantage of the DevOps operating model and tool sets. They are well suited for data centers that require cost-effective, power-efficient, line-rate Layer 2 and 3 Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches. These switches also support forward and reverse airflow (port-side exhaust and port-side intake) schemes with AC and DC power inputs.
The Cisco Nexus 34180YC and 3464C provide the following benefits:
● Wire-rate Layer 2 and 3 switching on all ports, with up to 3.6 Terabits per second (Tbps) and up to 1.4 billion packets per second (bpps) for the 34180YC model, and up to 12.8 Tbps and 5.2 bpps for the 3464C model.
● NXOS programmability, with support for Cisco NX-API, Linux containers, Extensible Markup Language (XML), and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the OpenStack plug-in, Python, and Puppet and Chef configuration and automation tools.
● Forwarding pipeline programmability allows customers to implement a breadth of packet-forwarding and filtering use cases with the same hardware. These implementations are made possible by the switch’s capacity to flexibly allocate hardware resources and define custom match-action logic. They take shape in the form of profiles selectable through Cisco NX-OS software. In addition, chipset programmability provides customers with investment protection as it extends the product’s lifecycle with the possible support of all existing and future packet encapsulation and decapsulation formats. It allows customers to innovate at the speed of software development.
● Inband Network Telemetry (INT) is a framework that enables the collection and reporting of network states at wire-rate, by the data plane, without requiring the intervention of the control plane. Telemetry is the foundation of network automation; combined with pipeline reprogramming, it is used to close the loop on correcting anomalies and rebalancing workloads across network resources. Telemetry data for a given packet is cumulated at every node and inserted into the packet header. It is then collected by a destination switch and exported to an analytics engine. Telemetry information includes, but is not limited to, aggregate buffer usage and latency data across the network, microburst tracking and aggressor flow detection, and packet path tracing and drop history. Alternately, the framework supports a postcard mode that allows reporting of network states on a node by node basis.
● Deep header and packet parsing beyond the traditional 128B allows for monitoring application transactions and may be used to define new metadata, which in turn enables customers to fine-tune the match-action logic to a desired forwarding or filtering behavior.
● Precision Time Protocol (PTP) as per IEEE 1588 provides accurate clock synchronization and improved data correlation with network captures and system events.
● High-availability, provisioning, and advanced maintenance capabilities: This switch supports hot and cold patching and Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR) mode. Power-on Auto Provisioning (POAP) enables touchless bootup and configuration of the switch, drastically reducing provisioning time. The switch uses hot-swappable Power Supply Units (PSUs) and fans.