The Cisco Nexus^® 7000 48-Port 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet F2-Series Module (referred to as the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module in this document) offers outstanding flexibility and wire-rate performance on each port. The module enables the deployment of high-density, low-latency, scalable data center architectures.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches provide the foundation of the Cisco^® Unified Fabric. They are a modular data center-class product line designed for highly scalable 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks. The fabric architecture scales beyond 15 terabits per second (Tbps), designed to support future 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. To meet the requirements of the most mission-critical network environments, the switches deliver continuous system operations and virtualized services. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is powered by the proven Cisco NX-OS Software operating system, with enhanced features to deliver real-time system upgrades with exceptional manageability and serviceability. Its innovative unified fabric design is purpose built to support consolidation of IP and storage networks on a single lossless Ethernet fabric.

Features and Benefits

The Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module (Figure 1) is a low-latency, high-performance, high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet module designed for mission-critical data center networks. Up to 768 wire-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports are supported in a single system through the use of the Cisco Nexus 7000 18-Slot Switch chassis, providing the highest-density of wire-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports on the market (Table 1).

Figure 1.      Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module

Table 1.       Wire-Rate Port Density

The Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module is built with switch-on-chip (SoC) architecture, in which a single ASIC implements all the module functions: from ingress buffering, to forwarding lookups and access control lists (ACLs) and quality-of-service (QoS) tables, to fabric interfaces and virtual output queuing (VOQ). Each SoC manages four front-panel interfaces. This type of design increases performance while lowering the power and cooling requirements of the module.

Powered by the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series SoC architecture, the module delivers 720 million packets per second (mpps) of distributed Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding and up to 480 Gbps of data throughput. A Cisco Nexus 7000 18-Slot Switch fully populated with the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module has the capability to deliver up to 11.5 billion packets per second and 15.4 terabits per second (Tbps) of switching performance, with a typical power consumption of around 7.5 watts (W) per port.

The module protects investments with standards-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) features, and virtual machine-awareness features that allow IT departments to consolidate networks based on their own unique requirements and timing. Each port can also be used at 1 Gigabit Ethernet speed, allowing IT departments to migrate to 10 Gigabit Ethernet based on the specific needs of their networks.

With the Cisco Nexus 7000 F-Series module, FCoE can be deployed in director-class modular platforms for the access and core of converged networks. In addition to FCoE host and target support, the module provides VE-port support, allowing creating of FCoE Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) and enabling scalable, multi-hop FCoE topologies. The FCoE traffic in a Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switch can be segmented using a dedicated storage virtual device context (VDC), providing isolation within the shared physical infrastructure. Cisco Nexus 7000 Series FCoE converged networks can be transparently bridged to Cisco^® MDS 9500 Series Fibre Channel SANs with the Cisco MDS 10-Gbps 8-Port FCoE Module. This capability preserves existing and continued investments in Fibre Channel SANs and offers a single unified OS (Cisco NX-OS Software) and management platform (Cisco Data Center Network Manager [DCNM]) for both the LAN and SAN.

The comprehensive feature set of the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module includes classic Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding, with the feature richness offered by Cisco NX-OS Software: a modular multitasking and multithreaded operating system built with high availability, granular fault management, resiliency, and nondisruptive serviceability at its foundation. This extremely comprehensive set of Layer 2 and Layer 3 functions makes this module ideal for data center networks, where density, performance, and continuous system operation are critical.

Besides the classic Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding capability, the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module delivers Cisco FabricPath technology based on IETF TRILL. Cisco FabricPath consists of a set of multipath Ethernet technologies, combining the reliability and scalability benefits of Layer 3 routing with the flexibility and “plug-and-play” aspects of Layer 2 Ethernet networks.

With Cisco FabricPath, organizations can now build resilient, flexible, and, when needed, massively scalable Layer 2 networks, no longer relying on Spanning Tree Protocol and its inherent bisectional bandwidth limitations. Cisco FabricPath protects enterprises’ investments by allowing existing Ethernet infrastructure to be connected to a Cisco FabricPath network. Enhanced virtual PortChannel (vPC+) technology is part of Cisco FabricPath and allows the redundant interconnection of classic Spanning Tree Protocol-based Layer 2 environments.

The benefits of Cisco FabricPath include:

• Operational simplicity: Cisco FabricPath embeds an autodiscovery mechanism that does not require any additional platform configuration. By offering Layer 2 connectivity, this “VLAN anywhere” characteristic simplifies provisioning and offers workload flexibility across the network.
• High resiliency and performance: Since Cisco FabricPath is a Layer 2 routed protocol, it offers stability, scalability, and optimized resiliency along with network failure containment.
• Massively scalable fabric: By building a forwarding model on 16-way equal-cost multipath (ECMP), Cisco FabricPath helps prevent bandwidth bottlenecks and allows capacity to be added dynamically, without network disruption.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module can also be used in conjunction with the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders (Figure 2).

Figure 2.      Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders

The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders comprise a category of data center products that provide a server-access platform that scales across a multitude of 1 Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, unified fabric, rack, and blade server environments. The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders are designed to simplify data center architecture and operations by dramatically reducing the points of management and by meeting the business and application needs of a data center. Working in conjunction with Cisco Nexus switches, the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders offer a cost-effective and efficient way to support today’s Gigabit Ethernet environments while allowing easy migration to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, virtual machine-aware Cisco unified fabric technologies.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module also delivers integrated FCoE, greatly simplifying the network infrastructure and reducing costs by enabling the deployment of unified data center fabrics to consolidate data center traffic onto a single, general-purpose, high-performance, highly available network. With the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module, FCoE can be deployed in director-class modular platforms for the access and core of converged networks. In addition to FCoE host and target support, the module provides virtual expansion port (VE-port) support, allowing creation of FCoE Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) and enabling scalable, multi-hop FCoE topologies.

Table 2 summarizes the features and benefits of the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module.

Table 2.       Features and Benefits

Product Specifications

Table 3 lists product specifications for the Cisco Nexus 7000 F2-Series Module. Tables 4 and 5 list specifications for transceivers. Not all optics are supported in the first software release. Refer to the release notes for up-to-date software version information to see what optics are supported.

Table 3.       Product Specifications

Table 4.       10 Gigabit Ethernet Interface Distances and Options

¹ Bandwidth is specified at transmission wavelength.

² Minimum cabling distance for -SR, -LRM, -LR, and -ER modules is 2m, according to IEEE 802.3ae.

³ Links longer than 30 km are considered engineered links according to IEEE 802.3ae.

⁴ 40 different wavelengths offered. See the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) SFP+ optics data sheet for additional product numbers and information: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/ps6576/data_sheet_c78-711186.html.

⁵ FCoE traffic is supported up to 70 km, in pure FCOE environment, with constant line rate on 10 Gig, only after assigning all buffers (follow method documented in CSCua10484) to one port on SOC via custom queuing policy. Please note that the other three ports on SOC will have no buffer credits left and will need to be shut down. Depending on type of traffic, customer can choose to assign percentage of buffers to non-drop (FCOE) class. Please note supported distance of cable length (with no-drops) would be reduced depending on amount of burst.

⁶ A mode-conditioning patch is required for use over legacy multimode fiber types such as FDDI-grade, OM1and OM2. Please refer to the product bulletin: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/product_bulletin_c25-530836.html.

Note:    Complete 10 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver information can be found at http://cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/data_sheet_c78-455693.html.
Please refer to the release notes for software version requirement information.

Table 5.       Gigabit Ethernet Interface Distances and Options

¹ A mode-conditioning patch is required for use over legacy multimode fiber types such as FDDI-grade, OM1and OM2. Please refer to the product bulletin: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/product_bulletin_c25-530836.html.

² 1000BASE-ZX SFP can reach up to 100 km by using dispersion-shifted SMF or low attenuation SMF; the distance depends on fiber quality, number of splices, and connectors.

³ 8 different wavelengths offered. See the coarse wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM) SFP optics data sheet for additional product numbers and information: http://cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/ps6575/product_data_sheet09186a00801a557c.html.

⁴ 40 different wavelengths offered. See the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) SFP optics data sheet for additional product numbers and information: http://cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/ps6576/product_data_sheet0900aecd80582763.html.

Note:    Complete Gigabit Ethernet transceiver information can be found at http://cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/ps6577/product_data_sheet0900aecd8033f885.html.
Please refer to the release notes for software version requirement information.

Ordering Information

To place an order, visit the Cisco Ordering homepage. To download software, visit the Cisco Software Center. Table 6 provides ordering information.

Table 6.       Ordering Information

 Nexus 7000 F2-Series 48 Port 10GbE (req. SFP+) # N7K-F248XP-25