Juniper Networks QFX10000 Modular Ethernet Switches Overview

The ultra-high density Juniper QFX10000 Modular switches provide the ultimate support and solid ground for today’s most demanding network operations and applications. Their scalability options and their stable performance make them optimal for deployment in medium to large sized Datacenters as well as in private and public clouds. With the custom built ASICs the Juniper QFX10000 switch can deliver from 3 to 96 Tbps of throughput in your network thus becoming a safe and long-term investment. The leading network architects in Juniper are also looking to increase this capability to even 200 Tbps in the near future. With the option to use up to 480 100GB/s ports in a single chassis the Juniper QFX 10000 is the industry leading switch in its class. This eventually enables you to evolve your network infrastructure and boost the performance by upgrading to 100 GB/s and leaving the 40 GB/s and 10 GB/s in the past. This would make the clients extremely happy and will motivate them for even greater creativity. Some of the key features of this switch series are listed below:

• The high port density capability of QFX 10000 Modular switches redefine the per-slot economics, enabling customers to do more with less and at the same time simplifying network design and reducing OpEx (operational expenditure)
• The custom, built by Juniper, ASICs in each QFX10000 switch delivers unmatched and unparalleled intelligence and analytics
• Deep buffers support ensures even greater quality of service options
• With the large number of 100GB/s ports this switch series is the optimal solution for future upgrades

The Juniper QFX10000 Modular Switch series gives customers the ultimate architecture flexibility. With both Layer 2 and Layer 3 support the customers can deploy this switch in every part of their network infrastructure. For networks evolving to become software-defined (SDN), the QFX10000 can integrate with VMware NSX SDN controllers and can act as a Virtual Extensible LAN, both Layer 2 and Layer 3,  gateway. You can eventually select out of two available modular chassis:

• The QFX10008 Ethernet Switch with an 8-slot, 13 U chassis that supports up to eight line cards
• The QFX10016 Ethernet Switch with a 16-slot, 21 U chassis that supports up to 16 line cards

Optionally you can choose some of the following line cards to boost the chassis’ performance:

• QFX10000-36Q which can be a 36-port 40GbE quad small form-factor pluggable plus transceiver (QSFP+) or a 12-port 100GbE QSFP28 line card
• QFX10000-30C which is a 30-port 100GbE QSFP28/40GbE QSFP+ line card
• QFX10000-60S-6Q which is a 60-port 1GbE/10GbE SFP/SFP+ line card with six-port 40GbE QSFP+ or two-port 100GbE QSFP28

Whatever road you take you can’t go wrong with the QFX10000. When it’s fully equipped and configured a single QFX10016 chassis can support up to 480 100GbE ports making it an industry leader.

Key components of the QFX10000

Both versions of the QFX10000 modular switches share some common architectural elements. Both versions run the JunOS operating system which is tasked to handle the Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols while the Switch Fabric modules have the task to manage the chassis and provide switching functionality for data traffic coming from line cards. The line cards mentioned above include Packet Forwarding Engines (PFEs) and independent line card processors. Due to the Virtual Output Queue (VOQ)-based architecture, the QFX10000 can scale up to a very large deployments with no head of-line blocking, a single-tier low-latency switch fabric and deep buffering to ensure high performance throughout the whole network. One neat feature is the option for easy future upgrade thanks to the direct connection between the horizontal line cards in the front of the chassis and the vertical switch fabric cards in the rear of the chassis. They are connected with each other in a so called orthogonal interconnects which eliminates the need for a midplane. This makes it extremely popular with customers looking to invest in 100 GB/s connections and even 400 GB/s in the near future. The line cards provide an uninterrupted support of cold air due to the redundant and variable-speed fan trays. The power supplies have the capability to convert the external power to the internal voltage needed for safe and stable operation. Each and every component of the QFX10000 switches is hot swappable and interchangeable.

QFX10000 Line Cards key features

Every set of line cards supported by the QFX10000 provides an extensive set of features to compliment your network. They can be deployed in any combination of Layer 2 and Layer 3 network. They have a unique ability for seamless transition between the supported speeds due to the support for tri-speed 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE connections. Each line card is built by Juniper Networks making it a recommended component for your QFX Modular switch. The line cards support many technologies including 802.1Q VLAN and VXLAN, link aggregation, VRRP, L2 to L3 mapping. In addition the line cards support filtering, sampling, load balancing, rate limiting, CoS, MPLS, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) transit functionality and other key features needed to deploy a high-performance and stable Ethernet infrastructure.

For redundancy in deployments where the power is not stable, the QFX10008 contains six power supply bays while the QFX10016 has ten power supply bays. This offers the much needed flexibility and redundancy. Each power supply has its own internal fan for cooling. In addition all QFX10000 chassis provide both AC and DC power supplies however, AC and DC supplies cannot be mixed in the same chassis. The QFX10000 chassis has front-to-back cooling with hot air being exhausted through the fan trays placed in front of the line cards.

With the high port density provided by the QFX10000 Switch Series you have the option of selecting many different pluggable optics. All of the pluggable optics supported by this chassis, together with their CBO BlueOptics equivalents are listed below:

Deploying the QFX10000 switch will benefit and boost your network’s performance. Among the many features that this switch provides, the below few are extremely important to be mentioned:

• Each QFX10000 chassis comes with a very important redundant feature: an extra slot to accommodate a redundant RE module that serves as a backup in hot-standby mode. This module is ready to take over in the event of a master RE failure. The taking over of the backup module will be seamless thanks to the integrated Layer 2 and Layer 3 graceful Routing Engine switchover feature implemented in JunOS, while working in conjunction with the nonstop active routing and nonstop bridging features
• The support for a virtual output queue for deployment in large size Datacenters. This feature allows for packets to be queued and dropped on ingress traffic during congestion with no head-of-line blocking
• The QFX10000 provides many MPLS features to suit your needs. Among many the most important are L3 VPN, IPv6 provider edge router (6PE, 6VPE), RSVP traffic engineering and LDP for segmentation and virtualization
• The QFX offers you the support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) together with priority-based flow control (PFC) and Data Center Bridging Capability Exchange (DCBX). All of these features are included as part of the default software which comes with the switch

The QFX10000 Switch Series offers industry leading scale options and high performance with a design capable to seamlessly upgrade your Datacenter to 100 GB/s operating Datacenter. The QFX10000 Series Switches have been designed and destined for the future deployment of 400 GB/s Ethernet solutions. With the deployment of this switch series you will help your cloud and Datacenter operators extract maximum value and intelligence from their network infrastructure.