Cisco Nexus 5548P, Nexus 5596UP, Nexus 5596T, Nexus 5548UP Datasheet

Data Sheet

Cisco Nexus 5548P, 5548UP, 5596UP, and 5596T
Switches

Latest Additions to the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches Product Overview

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 and choice of front-to-back or back-to-front
cooling, copper or fiber access ports, 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.

The switch series, using cut-through architecture, supports line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet on all ports while
maintaining consistently low latency independent of packet size and services enabled. It supports a set of network
technologies known collectively as Data Center Bridging (DCB) that increases the reliability, efficiency, and
scalability of Ethernet networks. These features allow the switches to support multiple traffic classes over a
lossless Ethernet fabric, thus enabling consolidation of LAN, SAN, and cluster environments. Its ability to connect
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) to native Fibre Channel protects existing storage system investments while
dramatically simplifying in-rack cabling.

In addition to supporting standard 10 Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) on servers, the Cisco Nexus
5000 Series integrates with multifunction adapters called converged network adapters (CNAs) that combine the
functions of Ethernet NICs and Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs), making the transition to a single, unified
network fabric transparent and consistent with existing practices, management software, and OS drivers. The
switch series is compatible with integrated transceivers and Twinax cabling solutions that deliver cost-effective
connectivity for 10 Gigabit Ethernet to servers at the rack level, eliminating the need for expensive optical
transceivers. The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series portfolio also provides the flexibility to connect directly to servers using
10GBASE-T connections or fiber with Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) transceivers.

The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series is designed for data center environments with cut-through technology that enables
consistent low-latency Ethernet solutions, with front-to-back or back-to-front cooling, and with data ports in the
rear, bringing switching into close proximity with servers and making cable runs short and simple. The switch
series is highly serviceable, with redundant, hot-pluggable power supplies and fan modules. It uses data center­class Cisco® NX-OS Software for high reliability and ease of management.

Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform Overview

In a constantly changing business environment, companies are calling upon their IT departments to help them
reduce costs, improve productivity, and introduce new ways to interact with their customer base.

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The Cisco Nexus 5500 platform extends the industry-leading versatility of the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series purpose­built 10 Gigabit Ethernet data center-class switches and provides innovative advances toward higher density,
lower latency, and multilayer services. The Cisco Nexus 5500 platform is well suited for enterprise-class data
center server access-layer deployments across a diverse set of physical, virtual, storage-access, and
high-performance computing (HPC) data center environments.

Cisco Nexus 5548P Switch

The Cisco Nexus 5548P Switch (Figure 1) is the first of the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches. It is a one-rack­unit (1RU) 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE switch offering up to 960-Gbps throughput and up to 48 ports. The
switch has 32 1/10-Gbps fixed SFP+ Ethernet and FCoE ports and one expansion slot.

Figure 1. Cisco Nexus 5548P Switch

Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch

The Cisco Nexus 5548UP (Figure 2) is a 1RU 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and FCoE switch offering up to
960 Gbps of throughput and up to 48 ports. The switch has 32 unified ports and one expansion slot.

Figure 2. Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch

Cisco Nexus 5596UP Switch

The Cisco Nexus 5596UP Switch (Figure 3) is a 2RU 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and FCoE switch
offering up to 1920 Gbps of throughput and up to 96 ports. The switch has 48 unified ports and three expansion
slots.

Figure 3. Cisco Nexus 5596UP Switch Configured with Three 16-Port Expansion Modules

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Cisco Nexus 5596T Switch

The Cisco Nexus 5596T Switch (Figure 4) is a 2RU form factor, with 32 fixed ports of 10G BASE-T and 16 fixed
ports of SFP+. The switch also supports up to three expansion slots. The switch supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet
(fiber and copper), Fibre Channel, and FCoE, offering up to 1920 Gbps of throughput and up to 96 ports. The
switch supports unified ports on all SFP+ ports. The 10G BASE-T ports support FCoE up to 30m distance with
Category 6a and Category 7 cables.

Figure 4. Cisco Nexus 5596T Switch Configured with three 12-Port 10G BASE-T Expansion Modules

Expansion Module Options for the Cisco Nexus 5548P, 5548UP, 5596UP, and 5596T
Switches

The Cisco Nexus 5500 platform is equipped with expansion modules that can be used to increase the number of
10 Gigabit Ethernet, 40 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports or to connect to Fibre Channel SANs with 8/4/2/1-Gbps
Fibre Channel switch ports, or both.

The Cisco Nexus 5548P and 5548UP supports two expansion module, and the Cisco Nexus 5596UP and 5596T
support four expansion modules from the following offerings (Figure 5):

●

Ethernet module that provides sixteen 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports using the SFP+ interface.

●

Fibre Channel plus Ethernet module that provides eight 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports using the
SFP+ interface, and eight ports of 8/4/2/1-Gbps native Fibre Channel connectivity using the SFP+/SFP
interface.

●

Unified port module that provides up to sixteen 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE ports using the SFP+
interface or up to sixteen ports of 8/4/2/1-Gbps native Fibre Channel connectivity using the SFP+ and SFP
interfaces; the use of 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet or 8/4/2/1-Gbps Fibre Channel on a port is mutually exclusive
but can be selected for any of the 16 physical ports per module.

●

Four port QSFP Ethernet module that provides 4 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports using QSFP interface. Each
QSFP 40GE port can only work in 4x10G mode and supports DCB and FCoE.

Figure 5. From Left to Right: 16-Port 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE Module, 8-Port Fibre Channel Plus 8-Port 1 and

10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE Module, 16 port Unified Port Module and 4 port QSFP module.

The Cisco Nexus 5596T also supports another expansion module:

●

Ethernet module (Figure 6) that provides twelve 10G BASE-T ports; The 10G BASE-T ports support FCoE
up to 30m distance with Category 6a and Category 7 cables.

© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information. Page 3 of 29

Figure 6. 12-Port 10G BASE-T Expansion Module (Front View and Side View)

Layer 3 Daughter Card and Expansion Module Options for Cisco Nexus 5548P, 5548UP,
5596UP, and 5596T Switches

●

In addition to these expansion modules, the Cisco Nexus 5548P and 5548UP support a Layer 3 daughter
card that can be ordered with the system or as a spare (field upgradable). This daughter card provides up
to 160 Gbps of Layer 3 forwarding capability (240 million packets per second [mpps]) that can be shared by
all 48 ports in the chassis. As shown in Figure 7, the Layer 3 daughter card does not take up one of the
expansion slots on the rear of the chassis, but instead is installed by replacing the Layer 2 I/O module
(N55-DL2) that is located on the front of the chassis.

Figure 7. Layer 3 Daughter Card on the Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch

●

In addition to these expansion modules, the Cisco Nexus 5596UP and 5596T support a Layer 3 module
that provides up to 160 Gbps of Layer 3 forwarding capability (240 mpps) that can be shared by all the I/O
ports in the chassis (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Layer 3 Module (Front View and Side View)

●

Version 2 of Layer 3 daughter cards and expansion modules have enhanced capabilities that increase the
host table size from 8000 to 16,000 entries, or multicast routes from 4000 to 8000 starting from software
release Cisco NX-OS Software Release 5.2(1)N1(1b) and later.

●

Requires free of charge a base LAN license (N55-BAS1k9=) to be installed. This is included in the
hardware purchase; however the license would need to be manually installed.

Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders

The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders comprise a category of data center products that provide a
universal 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 meeting the business and application needs of a data center.

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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 2000 Series design is aligned with the design of servers. It offers front-to-back or back-to-front
cooling, compatibility with data center hot-aisle and cold-aisle designs, placement of all switch ports at the rear of
the unit in close proximity to server ports, and accessibility of all user-serviceable components from the front
panel. The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series is built for nonstop operation, with redundant hot-swappable power supplies
and a hot-swappable fan tray with redundant fans. Its compact 1RU form factor takes up relatively little space,
making it easy to incorporate into rack designs (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders from Bottom Right to Top Left: Cisco Nexus 2224TP GE, 2248TP GE,

2248TP-E GE, 2232TM 10GE, 2232TM-E 10GE, 2232PP 10GE and 2248 PQ 10GE

The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series provides two types of ports: ports for end-host attachment (host interfaces) and
uplink ports (fabric interfaces). Fabric Interfaces are differentiated with a yellow color for connectivity to the
upstream parent Cisco Nexus switch.

Table 1 lists the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders. Fabric extenders can be mixed and matched to a
parent switch to provide connectivity options.

Table 1. Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Specifications

Description Specification Minimum Software

Cisco Nexus 2224TP 24 100/1000BASE-T host interfaces and 2 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (SFP+) 4.2(1)N2(1)
Cisco Nexus 2248TP 48 100/1000BASE-T host interfaces and 4 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (SFP+) 4.2(1)N2(1)
Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E 48 100/1000BASE-T host interfaces and 4 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces (SFP+)

[32MB Shared Buffer]

Cisco Nexus 2232PP 32 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE host interfaces (SFP+) and 8 10 Gigabit Ethernet and

FCoE fabric interfaces (SFP+)

Cisco Nexus 2248PQ 48 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE host interfaces (SFP+) and four QSFP+ Gigabit

Ethernet and FCoE fabric interfaces (QSFP+)

Cisco Nexus 2232TM 32 1/10 G BASE-T host interfaces and 8 10 Gigabit Ethernet (SFP+) Uplink Module 5.0(3)N2(1)
Cisco Nexus 2232TM-E 32 1/10 G BASE-T host interfaces and 8 10 Gigabit Ethernet (SFP+) Uplink Module (Lower

power consumption and improved BER)

Cisco Nexus B22HP 16x 1/10 G BASE-KR internal host interfaces and 8 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces

(SFP+) Network Interfaces

Cisco Nexus B22F 16x 10 G BASE-KR internal host interfaces and 8 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces

(SFP+) Network Interfaces

Cisco Nexus B22DELL 16x 10 G BASE-KR internal host interfaces and 8 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces

(SFP+) Network Interfaces

Cisco NX-OS Release

5.1(3)N1(1)

4.2(1)N2(1)

6.0(2)N1(1)

5.2(1)N1(1)

5.0(3)N2(1)

5.2(1)N1(1)

6.0(2)N1(1)

The Cisco Nexus 2224TP, 2248TP, and 2248TP-E provide port density options for highly scalable 100-Mbps
and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. The Cisco Nexus 2232PP provides ease of migration from Gigabit Ethernet to
10 Gigabit Ethernet while supporting highly scalable 10 Gigabit environments.

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The Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E Fabric Extender is a general-purpose 1 Gigabit Ethernet fabric extender with
enhancements that target workloads such as large-volume databases, distributed storage, and video editing. Just
like the Cisco Nexus 2248TP, the Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E also supports 48 100/1000BASE-T host facing ports and
four 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces.

The Cisco Nexus 2232TM-E Fabric Extender supports scalable 1/10GBASE-T environments, ease of migration
from 1GBASE-T to 10GBASE-T, and effective reuse of existing structured cabling. It comes with an uplink module
that supports eight 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric interfaces. It is a superset of the Cisco Nexus 2232TM with the latest
generation of 10GBASE-T PHY, enabling lower power and improved bit error rate (BER). The Cisco Nexus
2232TM-E supports DCB and LAN and SAN consolidation.

The Cisco Nexus 2232PP 1/10GE Fabric Extender is the ideal platform for migration from Gigabit Ethernet to
10 Gigabit Ethernet and unified fabric environments. It supports FCoE and a set of network technologies known
collectively as Data Center Bridging (DCB) that increase the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of Ethernet
networks. These features allow the switches to support multiple traffic classes over a lossless Ethernet fabric, thus
enabling consolidation of LAN, SAN, and cluster environments.

The Cisco Nexus 2248PQ 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fabric Extender is the newest member of the Cisco Nexus Fabric
Extender Family. It supports high- density 10 Gigabit Ethernet environments and has 48 forty-eight 1/10 Gigabit
Ethernet SFP+ host ports and 4 QSFP+ fabric ports (16 x 10 GE fabric ports). QSFP+ connectivity simplifies
cabling while lowering power and solution cost. The Cisco Nexus 2248PQ 10GE Fabric Extender supports FCoE
and a set of network technologies known collectively as Data Center Bridging (DCB) that increase the reliability,
efficiency, and scalability of Ethernet networks. These features allow support for multiple traffic classes over a
lossless Ethernet fabric, thus enabling consolidation of LAN, storage area network (SAN), and cluster
environments.

The Cisco Nexus B22HP Fabric Extender (Figure 10) for HP Blade System is the first 10 Gigabit Ethernet and
FCoE fabric extender in a third-party blade chassis format. It is targeted at customers who already own HP blade
servers and makes it easier for them to integrate with the Cisco Nexus data center fabric.

Figure 10. From Left to Right: Cisco Nexus B22HP Fabric Extender, Cisco Nexus B22F Fabric Extender, Cisco Nexus

B22DELL Fabric Extender

The Cisco Nexus B22F (Figure 10) Fabric Extender for Fujitsu BladeSystem is the 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE
fabric extender in a third-party blade chassis format. It is targeted at customers who already own Fujitsu blade
servers and makes it easier for them to integrate with the Cisco Nexus data center fabric.

The Cisco Nexus B22DELL (Figure 10) Fabric Extender for Dell Blade System is the 10 Gigabit Ethernet and
FCoE fabric extender in a third-party blade chassis format. It is targeted at customers who already own Dell blade
servers and makes it easier for them to integrate with the Cisco Nexus data center fabric.

Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders connect to a parent Cisco Nexus switch through their fabric links using
CX1 copper cable, short-reach or long-reach optics, and the cost-effective Cisco Fabric Extender Transceivers.
Cisco Fabric Extender Transceivers are optical transceivers that provide a highly cost-effective solution for
connecting the fabric extender to its parent switch.

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Cisco Nexus 2000 Series and Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Deployment Scenarios

The fabric extenders can be used in the following deployment scenarios:

●

Rack servers with 100 Megabit Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, or 10 Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards
(NICs); the fabric extender can be physically located at the top of the rack and the Cisco Nexus 5000
Series switch can reside in the middle or at the end of the row, or the fabric extender and the Cisco Nexus
5000 Series switch can both reside at the end or middle of the row.

●

Mixed Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet environments in which rack servers are running at either
speeds in the same rack or in adjacent racks.

●

10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE deployments, using servers with converged network adapters (CNAs) for
unified fabric environments with the Cisco Nexus 2232PP.

●

1/10 Gigabit Ethernet BASE-T server connectivity with ease of migration from 1 to 10GBASE-T and
effective reuse of structured cabling.

●

Server racks with integrated lights-out (iLO) management, with 100 Megabit Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet
management and iLO interfaces.

●

Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet blade servers with pass-through blades.

●

Low-latency, high-performance computing environments.

●

Virtualized access.

●

Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders can single or dual-connect (using Enhanced vPC) to two
upstream Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches (Figure 11).

●

Servers or end host can connect to single or dual Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders using NIC
teaming (Figure 11) when the parent Cisco Nexus 5500 platform has Enhanced vPC enabled.

●

Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches do not support enhanced vPC. Hence, vPC is supported only between
Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders and Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches or between servers
using NIC teaming and Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders. (Note: In the latter case, vPC is not
allowed between Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders and Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches).

Figure 11. Deployment Scenario

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Efficient Transceiver and Cabling Options

The Cisco Nexus 5500 platform supports a wide variety of 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options using
Cisco 10GBASE SFP+ modules.

In addition, the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform supports 1 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options using 1GBASE SFP
modules, 8/4/2 -Gbps Fibre Channel SFP+ and 4/2/1-Gbps Fibre Channel SFP interfaces are supported with
expansion module options.

Table 2 lists the supported transceiver options.

Table 2. Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform Transceiver Support Matrix

Cisco SFP Description

FET-10G 10-Gbps SFP+ module for Cisco Nexus 2000 Series to Cisco Nexus 5000 Series connectivity
Cisco SFP-10G-SR 10GBASE-SR SFP+ module (multimode fiber [MMF])
Cisco SFP-10G-LR 10GBASE-LR SFP+ module (single-mode fiber [SMF])
Cisco SFP-10G-ER 10GBASE-ER-SFP+ module (single-mode fiber[SMF])
Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU1M 10GBASE-CU SFP+ cable 1m (Twinax cable)
Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU3M 10GBASE-CU SFP+ cable 3m (Twinax cable)
Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU5M 10GBASE-CU SFP+ cable 5m (Twinax cable)
Cisco SFP-H10GB-ACU7M 10GBASE-CU SFP+ cable 7m (active Twinax cable)
Cisco SFP-H10GB-ACU10M 10GBASE-CU SFP+ cable 10m (active Twinax cable)
Cisco GLC-T 1000BASE-T SFP
GLC-ZX-SM 1000BASE-ZX SFP transceiver module for SMF, 1550-nm wavelength, dual LC/PC connector
Cisco GLC-SX-MM Gigabit Ethernet SFP, LC connector SX transceiver (MMF)
Cisco GLC-SX-MMD Gigabit Ethernet SFP, LC connector SX transceiver (MMF), extended temperature range and digital optical

Cisco GLC-LH-SM Gigabit Ethernet SFP, LC connector LX/LH transceiver (SMF)
Cisco GLC-LH-SMD Gigabit Ethernet SFP, LC connector LX/LH transceiver (SMF), extended temperature range and digital optical

Cisco SFP-GE-T 1000BASE-T SFP, extended temperature range
Cisco SFP-GE-S Gigabit Ethernet SFP, LC connector SX transceiver (MMF), extended temperature range and digital optical

Cisco SFP-GE-L Gigabit Ethernet SFP, LC connector LX/LH transceiver (SMF), extended temperature range and DOM
Cisco DS-SFP-FC4G-SW 4-Gbps Fibre Channel SW SFP, LC (for Fibre Channel expansion module ports)
Cisco DS-SFP-FC4G-LW 4-Gbps Fibre Channel LW SFP, LC (for Fibre Channel expansion module ports)
Cisco DS-SFP-FC8G-SW 8-Gbps Fibre Channel SW SFP+, LC (for Fibre Channel expansion module ports)
Cisco DS-SFP-FC8G-LW 8-Gbps Fibre Channel LW SFP+, LC (for Fibre Channel expansion module ports)

monitoring (DOM)

monitoring (DOM)

monitoring (DOM)

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The high bandwidth of 10 Gigabit Ethernet poses challenges to transmissions that are met by the transceiver and
cabling options supported by the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform.

The platform supports an innovative Twinax copper cabling solution that connects to standard SFP+ connectors
for in-rack use, and optical cabling for longer cable runs (Table 3).

●

For in-rack or adjacent-rack cabling, the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform supports SFP+ direct-attach
10 Gigabit Ethernet copper, an innovative solution that integrates transceivers with Twinax cables into an
energy-efficient, low-cost, and low-latency solution. SFP+ direct-attach 10 Gigabit Twinax copper cables
use only 0.1 watt (W) of power per transceiver and introduce only approximately 0.25 microsecond of
latency per link.

●

For longer cable runs, the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform supports multimode, short-reach optical SFP+
transceivers. These optical transceivers use approximately 1W per transceiver and have a latency of less
than 0.1 microsecond.

Table 3. The Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform Supports SFP+ Direct-Attach 10 Gigabit Copper for In-Rack Cabling, and Optical

Connector (Media) Cable Distance Power (Each Side) Transceiver Latency (Link) Standard

SFP+ CU copper Twinax 5m Approximately 0.1W Approximately 0 microsecond SFF 8431
SFP+ ACU copper Active Twinax 7m

SFP+ SR MMF and SR MMF (OM2)

SFP+ LR SMF 10Km 1W Approximately 0.1 microsecond IEEE 802.3ae
SFP+ ER SMF 40Km 1.5W Approximately 0.1 microsecond IEEE 802.3ae

Solutions for Longer Connections (Ethernet Only)

Approximately 0.5W Approximately 0.1 microsecond SFF 8461

10m

MMF (OM3)

82m
300m

1W Approximately 0.1 microsecond IEEE 802.3ae

Features and Benefits

The comprehensive feature sets of the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform make it well suited for top-of-rack, middle-of­row, or end-of-row data center access-layer applications. The platform switches protect investments in data center
racks with standards-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE features and virtual machine awareness features that
allow IT departments to consolidate networks based on their own requirements and timing. The combination of
higher port density, lossless Ethernet, wire-speed performance, and very low latency makes the switch platform
well suited for meeting the growing demand for 10 Gigabit Ethernet that can support a common Ethernet-based
fabric in enterprise and service provider data centers, protecting enterprises’ investments. The switch platform
provides sufficient port density to support single and multiple racks fully populated with blade and rack-mount
servers.

●

Built for today’s data centers, the switches are designed just like the servers they support. Ports and power
connections are at the rear, close to server ports, helping keep cable lengths as short and efficient as
possible, delivering benefits traditionally offered on blade servers to rack servers as well. Hot-swappable
power and fan modules can be accessed from the front panel, where status lights offer an at-a-glance view
of switch operation. Front-to-back or back-to-front cooling is consistent with server designs, supporting
efficient data center hot- and cold-aisle designs. Serviceability is enhanced with all customer-replaceable
units accessible from the front panel. The use of SFP+ ports offers increased flexibility, enabling use of a
range of interconnect solutions, including copper Twinax cable for short runs and fiber for long runs.

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