About the Cisco Nexus 3550-F Fusion

Introduction

The Cisco Nexus 3550-F Fusion (formerly ExaLINK Fusion) is a uniquely flexible top-of-rack switch with a unique and modular architecture. As a low latency switch, it allows for 95ns switching, 39ns forwarding and aggregation and sub 5ns layer 1 patching and tapping, all within the same device.

Extensible by design, the Nexus 3550-F features two internal module bays that are both fully interconnected via a high speed, reconfigurable layer 1 switch. This allows deployment of both Cisco-developed firmware as well as customer developed logic directly to the FPGA itself.

The Nexus 3550-F

Overview of Features

A unique architecture that provides an unprecedented level of control over your network.

• Tap, patch, and replicate data electronically and with very low and deterministic latency. Tapping using the Nexus 3550-F is far more flexible than using traditional optical taps, and does not suffer from signal degradation associated with high-fanout tapping. Patching allows the Nexus 3550-F to dynamically reconfigure the physical topology of your network with very low latency overhead. Both patching and tapping/replication is done at port to port latencies of 5ns.
• Mux and aggregate feeds with low and deterministic latency. Useful in situations where sharing of a common network resource is required (for example, an order line), muxing delivers the industry's lowest latency of 55ns port to port.
• Full Layer 2 switching where many hosts communicate with each other is fully supported and is performed at 95ns latency, the industry's lowest.
• Timestamping and logging of data flows through the Nexus 3550-F to 2.8ns of accuracy is supported, with multiple time synchronization options available. Additionally, the Nexus 3550-F can be delivered with a stable oven baked oscillator option for low drift hold-over in the event that PPS (pulse-per-second) input or other sources of reference time are lost.
• Development of custom applications can be achieved by pushing FPGA applications directly to the Nexus 3550-F.

Accepts all SFP+ Modules

The Nexus 3550-F works with all brands of SFP+ modules and is not tied to a particular brand.

Other Features

• Dedicated Ethernet management port
• Robust and intuitive command line interface (CLI)
• SNMP-compatible management, for integration with network management and monitoring infrastructure
• Switch configuration, including per-port filtering
• Software updates via USB, HTTP, TFTP, console or web interface
• Access to management interfaces via serial console and Ethernet interfaces
• Monitoring of available SFP+ parameters, including SFP+ model information and dynamic parameters such as received power, transmitted power and temperature
• Log access via CLI and remote logging via syslog
• TACACS+ and AAA