Introduction to Cisco Nexus 3232C Switch

It is undeniable that switch is the heart of the telecommunication network. Now is the time for 100G Ethernet network and 100G switch is widely deployed in data center. Cisco Unified Fabric family is able to get high-density, advanced programmability, low latency, workload isolation, and wire-rate layer 2 and 3 switching on a data-center-class, Cisco NX-OS operating system. This article is going to introduce one kind of this series—Cisco Nexus 3232C switch.

 

The Cisco Nexus 3232C switch is a 1U fixed form-factor 100G switch with 32 qsfp28 ports. Each QSFP28 port can operate at 10, 25, 40, 50, and 100Gbps, up to a maximum of 128 x 25Gbps ports. It runs the industry leading Cisco NX-OS Software operating system which provides customers with comprehensive features and functions that are widely deployed. In addition, the QSFP28 transceiver, AOC cable and DAC cable can work on its QSFP28 ports. Here is a figure of Cisco Nexus 3232C switch for you.

 

There are many advantages of Cisco Nexus 3232C switch which will be introduced in this part.

 

High-density ports: It structured with 32 qsfp28 ports. Each QSFP28 port can be configured to work as 4 x 25Gbps ports, offering deployment flexibility, with up to a maximum of 128 x 25Gbps ports.

 

Flexibility: The switch can be used for fiber-based network deployment and copper-based network deployment. Both fiber and copper cabling solutions are available for 10G, 25G, 40G, 50G and 100G connectivity, including AOC cable and DAC cable.

 

High performance and scalability: With a four-core CPU, 8GB of DRAM and 16Mb of dynamic buffer allocation, the switch is suitable for massively scalable data centers and big data applications.

 

Comprehensive programmability: It enables data center managers to run today’s applications while also preparing them for demanding and changing application needs such as big data, cloud and virtualization.

 

This part will introduce two 100G to 100G cabling solutions for Cisco Nexus 3232C switch to you.

 

As the following figure shows, two 100G QSFP28 transceivers are plugged into QSFP28 ports on Cisco Nexus 3232C switch set on two sides. The two 100G QSFP28 transceivers are designed with 12-fiber MTP connector interface. Therefore, they can be directly connected by 12-fiber MTP trunk cable. This is the simplest way to achieve 100G to 100G connectivity.

 

We can also deploy fiber enclosure to get higher density and make the cabling procedure more flexible. Since 1RU rack mount fiber enclosure is able to hold up to 4 MTP fiber adapter panels or 4 HD 12 core MTP MPO fiber optic plug-n-play cassettes, here we take MTP fiber adapter panel for example. From the figure below we can see that, the two 100G QSFP28 transceivers are plugged into QSFP28 ports on Cisco Nexus 3232C switch on two sides. The the 100G QSFP28 transceiver is connected to the MTP adaptor on MTP fiber adapter panel by 12-fiber MTP trunk cable. Then the two MTP fiber adapter panels installed inside two fiber enclosures respectively are connected by 12-fiber MTP trunk cable.

 

As a compact 1RU form factor switch for top-of-rack (ToR) data center deployments, Cisco Nexus 3232C switch allows a smooth transition from 40 to 100G Ethernet infrastructure in data centers. It is a high quality 100G switch. I hope after reading this article, you can have a better understanding of Cisco Nexus 3232C switch.