The Cisco Nexus^® 3232C Switch is a low latency, dense, high-performance, power-efficient, 100-Gbps switch designed for the data center. This compact, 1-rack-unit (1RU) model offers wire-rate Layer 2 and 3 switching on all ports with latency of 450ns. It is a member of the Cisco Nexus 3200 platform and runs the industry-leading Cisco^® NX-OS Software operating system, providing customers with comprehensive features and functions that are widely deployed. The comprehensive programmability features help enable organizations to run today’s applications while also preparing them for demanding and changing application needs such as big data, cloud, and virtualization. The Cisco Nexus 3232C supports both forward and reverse (port-side exhaust and port-side intake) airflow schemes with AC and DC power inputs.

The Cisco Nexus 3232C (Figure 1) is a Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable (QSFP) switch with 32 QSFP28 ports. Each QSFP28 port can operate at 10, 25, 40, 50, and 100 Gbps, up to a maximum of 128 x 25-Gbps ports^[1].

Figure 1.      Cisco Nexus 3232C Switch

Main Benefits

The Cisco Nexus 3232C provides the following:

• Wire-rate Layer 2 and 3 switching on all ports^[2],with up to 6.4 terabits per second (Tbps) and up to 3.3 billion packets per second (bpps)
• Robust programmability,with support for Cisco NX-API, Linux containers, XML and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) APIs, the OpenStack plug-in, Python, and Puppet and Chef configuration and automation tools
• High performance and scalabilitywith a four-core CPU, 8 GB of DRAM, and 16 Mb of dynamic buffer allocation, making the switch excellent for massively scalable data centers and big data applications
• Flexibility

◦     The QSFP28 port can be configured to work as 4 x 25-Gbps ports, offering deployment flexibility, with up to a maximum of 128 x 25-Gbps ports.

◦     Both fiber and copper cabling solutions are available for 10-, 25-, 40-, 50-, and 100-Gbps connectivity, including active optical cable (AOC) and direct-attached cable (DAC).

• High availability

◦     Virtual PortChannel (vPC) technology provides Layer 2 multipathing through the elimination of Spanning Tree Protocol. It also enables fully utilized bisectional bandwidth and simplified Layer 2 logical topologies without the need to change the existing management and deployment models.

◦     The 64-way equal-cost multipath (ECMP) routing enables the use of Layer 3 fat-tree designs. This feature allows organizations to prevent network bottlenecks, increase resiliency, and add capacity with little network disruption.

◦     Advanced reboot capabilities include hot and cold patching and fast reboot capabilities.

◦     The switch uses hot-swappable power-supply units (PSUs) and fans.

• Purpose-built NX-OS operating system with comprehensive, proven innovations

◦     Power-on auto provisioning (POAP) enables touchless bootup and configuration of the switch, drastically reducing provisioning time.

◦     Cisco Embedded Event Manager (EEM) and Python scripting enable automation and remote operations in the data center.

◦     Advanced buffer monitoring reports real-time buffer utilization per port and per queue, which allows organizations to monitor traffic bursts and application traffic patterns.

◦     EtherAnalyzer is a built-in packet analyzer for monitoring and troubleshooting control-plane traffic and is based on the popular Wireshark open-source network protocol analyzer.

◦     Complete Layer 3 unicast and multicast routing protocol suites are supported, including Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Routing Information Protocol Version 2 (RIPv2), Protocol Independent Multicast sparse mode (PIM-SM), Source-Specific Multicast (SSM), and Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP).

Configuration

The Cisco Nexus 3232C has the following configuration:

• 32 fixed 100 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP28 ports
• Locator LED
• Environment LED
• Status LED
• Dual redundant power supplies
• Redundant (3+1) fans
• Lane-selected LED
• One 10/100/1000-Mbps management port
• One RS-232 serial console port
• Two USB ports

Transceiver and Cabling Options

The Cisco Nexus 3232C has 32 QSFP28 ports. QSFP28 technology allows a smooth transition from 40 to 100 Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure in data centers. Each of the Cisco Nexus 3232C Switch’s QSFP28 ports can operate in either native 100 Gigabit Ethernet mode or 4 x 25 Gigabit Ethernet mode. This switch supports both fiber and copper cabling solutions for these two modes.

For low-cost cabling, copper-based 40-Gbps Twinax cables can be used, and for longer cable reaches, short-reach optical transceivers are excellent. Connectivity can be established from the QSFP28 ports to 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches or hosts using a splitter cable that has an Enhanced QSFP (QSFP+) transceiver on one end and four SFP+ transceivers on the other end. Similar capability can be achieved on the fiber solution by using QSFP+ SR4 transceivers on both ends and procuring third-party fiber splitter MPO-to-LC cables. Table 1 lists the transceiver types supported.

Table 1.       Cisco Nexus 3232C QSFP28 Transceiver Support Matrix

The Cisco Nexus 3232C supports 100, 40 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet optics. Please refer to latest compatibility matrix for information about all supported optics:

• 100 Gigabit Ethernet compatibility matrix: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/100GE_Tx_Matrix.html
• 40 Gigabit Ethernet compatibility matrix: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/40GE_Tx_Matrix.html
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet compatibility matrix: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/10GE_Tx_Matrix.html

For more information about the transceiver types, see http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps5455/prod_module_series_home.html.

Cisco NX-OS Software Benefits

NX-OS is a data center-class operating system built with modularity, resiliency, and serviceability at its foundation. NX-OS helps ensure continuous availability and sets the standard for mission-critical data center environments. The self-healing and highly modular design of NX-OS makes zero-impact operations a reality and enables exceptional operation flexibility.

Focused on the requirements of the data center, NX-OS provides a robust and comprehensive feature set that meets the networking requirements of present and future data centers. With an XML interface and a command-line interface (CLI) like that of Cisco IOS^® Software, NX-OS provides state-of-the-art implementations of relevant networking standards as well as a variety of true data center-class Cisco innovations.

Table 2 summarizes that benefits that NX-OS offers. Table 3 lists NX-OS packages available for the Cisco Nexus 3232C.

Table 2.       Benefits of Cisco NX-OS Software

Table 3.       Cisco NX-OS Software Packages Available for Cisco Nexus 3232C^*

^* Nexus 3232C uses Nexus 9000 Licensing scheme. Please refer to http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/nx-os/licensing/guide/b_Cisco_NX-OS_Licensing_Guide/b_Cisco_NX-OS_Licensing_Guide_chapter_01.html#con_24753

^** VXLAN will be supported in future release

Product Specifications

Table 4 lists the specifications for the Cisco Nexus 3232C.

Table 4.       Specifications

^* Denotes ASIC capabilities; please refer to Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Verified Scalability Guide documentation for exact scalability numbers validated for specific software releases: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11541/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list.html.

^** Latency for Switch only.

Software Features

Please refer to the latest release notes for a list of software features supported by the Cisco Nexus 3200 platform: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-3000-series-switches/products-release-notes-list.html.

Standards

Table 5 lists management standards supported by the Cisco Nexus 3200 platform.

Table 5.       Management and Standards Support

Regulatory Standards Compliance

Table 6 summarizes regulatory standards compliance for the Cisco Nexus 3200 platform.

Table 6.       Regulatory Standards Compliance: Safety and EMC

Ordering Information

Table 7 provides ordering information for the Cisco Nexus 3232C.

Table 7.       Ordering Information

Nexus 3232C 32 x 100G # N3K-C3232C