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Sunday, November 4, 2018

400G Ethernet, My Observation Notes

I saw a post about Cisco has announced 400G Ethernet switch products.

400G Ethernet means the bit rate can be up to 400 Gbps. Here are some of my observation notes on 400G Ethernet products.

Cisco announced four models of Nexus 400G switches


Screen capture on Cisco.com
In the product page, Cisco announced 4 new models of Nexus switches with 400G Ethernet capability.

Nexus 9316D-GX is for Cisco ACI Spine. Nexus 93600CD-GX is for Cisco ACI Leaf. Nexus 3408-S and Nexus 3432D-S are non-ACI Ethernet switches.

Cisco's Product page is:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/data-center/high-capacity-400g-data-center-networking/index.html


400G port transceivers: QSFP-DD

All four models use QSFP-DD as 400G Ethernet transceiver type.

Screen capture on Cisco.com.

QSFP Double Density (QSFP-DD) transceivers are the same size on the switch front panel as QSFP transceivers. The switch ports are also compatible with existing QSFP28 transceivers. That means, my current 100G transceivers can be inserted and reused on these new faster Nexus switches.


The fiber connectors: LC or MPO-12

Fiber connectors should be in LC or MPO-12 types.

I cannot find an official datasheet to confirm that at this moment. However, I believe this should be true when I saw photos published on Cisco official web site.
Screen capture on Cisco.com

Screen capture on Cisco.com

If my fiber cabling connectors are in types of LC or MPO-12, I can reuse my existing fiber infrastructure to upgrade to 400G Ethernet. When you are planning for new fiber installation, I also recommend choosing LC and MPO-12 connectors.


One more thing…

I believe 400G Ethernet should still be very expensive today in year 2018. I might not need it soon. I know I can reuse my existing expensive 100G Ethernet transceivers and fiber infrastructures when I upgrade to 400G Ethernet in the future. And this makes me feel better.

I am Li-Ji Hong. What do you think about 400G Ethernet? Please share your ideas with me in the comments below! Thank you!

Lotus pond inside Taipei Botanical Garden (台北植物園).
Taipei City, Taiwan

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