Product Overview

The Cisco Nexus^® 7000 Series Switches are the foundation of the Cisco^® Unified Fabric solution. Designed to meet the requirements of mission-critical data centers, these switches deliver exceptional availability, outstanding scalability, and the proven and comprehensive Cisco NX-OS Software data center switching feature set.

The Cisco Nexus 7700 Switches are the latest extension to the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series modular switches. With more than 83 terabits per second (Tbps) of overall switching capacity, the Cisco Nexus 7700 Switches delivers the highest-capacity 10, 40, and 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports in the industry, with up to 768 native 10-Gbps ports, 384 40-Gbps ports, or 192 100-Gbps ports. This high system capacity is designed to meet the scalability requirements of the largest cloud environments.

The Cisco Nexus 7700 switches (Figure 1) have operational and feature consistency with the existing Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches, using common system architecture, the same application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology, and the same proven Cisco NX-OS Software releases.

Features and Benefits

Powered by Cisco NX-OS, the Cisco Nexus 7700 switches deliver a comprehensive set of features with nonstop operations in four chassis form factors:

●   Cisco Nexus 7700 2-Slot Switch: A 2-slot switch with two front-accessible module slots with front-to-back airflow and an integrated cable management system

●   Cisco Nexus 7700 6-Slot Switch: A 6-slot switch with six front-accessible module slots with front-to-back airflow and an integrated cable management system

●   Cisco Nexus 7700 10-Slot Switch: A 10-slot switch with 10 front-accessible module slots with front-to-back airflow and an integrated cable management system

●   Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch: An 18-slot switch with 18 front-accessible module slots and front-to-back airflow with integrated cable management system

All Cisco Nexus 7000 Series chassis use a passive mid-plane architecture, providing physical connectors and copper traces for interconnecting the fabric modules and I/O modules for direct data transfer. All inter-module switching is performed via crossbar fabric ASICs on the individual I/O modules and fabric modules.

A scalable, fully distributed fabric architecture uses up to six fabric modules to deliver up to 1.32 Tbps per slot of bandwidth in the Cisco Nexus 7700 6-, 10-, and 18-slot switches on day one. In case of the Cisco Nexus 7700 2‑slot chassis, the fabric modules are not required since it uses a single I/O module. The midplane design on the 2‑, 6-, 10-, and 18-slot chassis supports flexible technology upgrades as your needs change, providing ongoing investment protection. Future fabric modules will allow higher bandwidth capabilities on the platform.

Cisco Nexus 7700 2-Slot Switch

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 2-Slot Switch, with one I/O module slots, supports up to 48 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 24 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, or 12 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, to meet the demands of small campus and data center deployments in a compact 3 rack units (RU) footprint.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 2-Slot Switch has one dedicated half-slot supervisor.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 2-slot chassis does not include any fabric modules as it has a single module only. The system is capable of supporting all current and future Cisco Nexus 7700 modules at full line-rate switching capacity.

●   Front-to-back airflow helps ensure that the Cisco Nexus 7702 addresses the requirement for hot-aisle and cold-aisle deployments, to help provide efficient cooling.

●   The system uses one fan tray for cooling. The fan tray is composed of three independent variable-speed fans that automatically adjust to the ambient temperature, helping to reduce power consumption in
well-managed facilities while supporting optimum operation of the switch.

●   The system supports an optional door and air filter to help ensure clean airflow through the system. The addition of the air filter satisfies Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS) requirements.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 2-Slot Switch can have up to two 3- or 3.5-kilowatt (KW) power supplies. The redundant power supply configuration provides more flexibility in power redundancy configuration.

●   The I/O module, supervisor module, and power supplies are accessible from the front, and the fan tray is accessible from the back of the chassis.

●   The I/O module, supervisor module, and power supplies are inter-changeable across all Cisco Nexus 7700 chassis.

Cisco Nexus 7700 6-Slot Switch

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 6-Slot Switch, with up to four I/O module slots, supports up to 192 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 96 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 48 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, meeting the demands of small to medium data center deployments in a compact 9 Rack Units (RU) footprint.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 6-Slot Switch has two dedicated half-slot supervisors to provide full redundancy, stateful supervisor switchover, and hitless In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) capabilities.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7706 has six fabric module slots to provide simultaneously active fabric channels to each of the I/O and supervisor modules. Through the parallel forwarding fabric architecture, the Cisco Nexus 7706 can achieve 10.5 Tbps of forwarding capacity or more.

●   Front-to-back airflow helps ensure that the Cisco Nexus 7706 addresses the requirement for hot-aisle and cold-aisle deployments to help provide efficient cooling.

●   The system uses three redundant fan trays for cooling. Each fan tray is composed of independent 
variable-speed fans that automatically adjust to the ambient temperature, helping reduce power consumption in well-managed facilities while helping enable optimum operation of the switch. The system also allows hot swapping of fan trays without negatively affecting the system.

●   The system supports an optional door and air filter to help ensure clean airflow through the system. 
The addition of the air filter satisfies Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS) requirements.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 6-Slot Switch can have up to four 3- or 3.5-(kW) power supplies. The smaller power supply configuration provides more flexibility and greater control in power provisioning. The four power supply bays are designed for future growth.

●   I/O modules, supervisor modules, and power supplies are accessible from the front, and fabric modules and fan trays are accessible from the back of the chassis.

Cisco Nexus 7700 10-Slot Switch

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 10-Slot Switch, with up to eight I/O module slots, supports up to 384 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 192 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 96 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, to meet the demands of large data center deployments.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 10-Slot Switch has two dedicated half-slot supervisors to provide full redundancy, stateful supervisor switchover, and hitless In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) capabilities.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7710 has six fabric module slots to provide simultaneously active fabric channels to each of the I/O and supervisor modules. Through the parallel forwarding fabric architecture, the Cisco Nexus 7710 can achieve 21 Tbps of forwarding capacity or more.

●   Front-to-back airflow helps ensure that the Cisco Nexus 7710 addresses the requirement for hot-aisle and cold-aisle deployments to help provide efficient cooling.

●   The system uses three redundant fan trays for cooling. Each fan tray is composed of independent 
variable-speed fans that automatically adjust to the ambient temperature, to help reduce power consumption in well-managed facilities while helping to enable optimum operation of the switch. The system also allows hot swapping of fan trays without negatively affecting the system.

●   The system supports an optional door and air filter to promote clean airflow through the system. 
The addition of the air filter satisfies Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS) requirements.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 10-Slot Switch can have up to eight 3- or 3.5-(kW) power supplies. The smaller power supply configuration provides more flexibility and greater control in power provisioning. The eight power supply bays are designed for future growth, and most common configurations do not require the use of all power supply units for redundant power configurations.

●   I/O modules, supervisor modules, and power supplies are accessible from the front, and fabric modules and fan trays are accessible from the back of the chassis.

Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch, with up to 16 I/O module slots, supports up to 768 x 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 384 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and 192 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, to meet the demands of the largest data center deployments.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch has two dedicated half-slot supervisors to provide full redundancy, stateful supervisor switchover, and hitless In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) capabilities.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch has six fabric module slots to provide simultaneously active fabric channels to each of the I/O and supervisor modules. Through the parallel forwarding fabric architecture, the Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch can achieve 42 Tbps of forwarding capacity or more.

●   Front-to-back airflow helps ensure that the Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch addresses the requirement for hot-aisle and cold-aisle deployments to support efficient cooling.

●   The system uses three redundant fan trays for cooling. Each fan tray is composed of independent variable‑speed fans that automatically adjust to the ambient temperature, to reduce power consumption in well-managed facilities while helping to enable optimum operation of the switch. The system also allows hot swapping of fan trays without negatively affecting the system.

●   The system supports an optional door and air filter to help ensure clean airflow through the system. The addition of the air filter satisfies NEBS requirements.

●   The Cisco Nexus 7700 18-Slot Switch can have up to sixteen 3- or 3.5-kW power supplies. The smaller power supply configuration provides more flexibility and greater control in power provisioning. The 16 power supply bays are designed for future growth, and most common configurations do not require the use of all power supply units for redundant power configurations.

●   I/O modules, supervisor modules, and power supplies are accessible from the front, and fabric modules and fan trays are accessible from the back of the chassis.

Common Components on Cisco Nexus 7700 Switches

All Cisco Nexus 7700 Switches have the following components:

●   An integrated cable management system, custom designed for the 2-, 6-, 10-, and 18-slot switches, supports the cabling requirements of a fully configured system at either or both sides of the switch, providing outstanding flexibility. All system components can easily be removed with the cabling in place, providing ease of maintenance with no disruption.

●   A series of LEDs at the top of the chassis (except in case of the Cisco Nexus 7700 2-slot chassis) provides a clear summary of the status of the major system components, alerting operators to the need to conduct further investigation. These LEDs report the power supply, fan, fabric, supervisor, and I/O module status.

Energy-Efficient Design

The Cisco Nexus 7700 Switches use 3.5-kW and 3-kW power supplies that are 96 and 90 percent efficient or greater, so less power is dissipated as heat, and more power is available for the system to use than with typical power supplies. These high-efficiency power supplies allow smaller power configuration and provide flexible power provisioning.

The fan trays in the switches have variable speed fans that adjust to compensate for changing thermal characteristics and use less power at typical operating conditions. Standard fan trays are included as part of the Nexus 7700 2-, 6-, 10-, and 18-slot chassis. The Nexus 7700 6-, 10-, and 18-slot chassis also support optional generation 2 fan trays. All fan trays provide NEBS compliance in combination with the rest of the components of the chassis for specific system configurations. Additionally, the generation 2 fan trays provide NEBS Level-3 acoustic compliance and short term operation at 55C for the Nexus 7700 6-, 10-, and 18-slot chassis if configured with the Nexus 7700 M3 100G I/O modules or future I/O modules.

Consolidation of multiple switches to Cisco Nexus 7700 Switches is made possible by the high density of ports on the switches combined with high-performance device virtualization, comprehensive reliability, and availability features. This consolidation capability provides multiple benefits such as reduced power, cooling, and space requirements to save on costs.

Product Specifications

Table 1 lists the product specifications for the Cisco Nexus 7700 Switches.

Table 1.       Product Specifications