In order to meet the requirements of demanding environments such as ultra low latency financial ECNs, HPC clusters and cloud data centers, Arista launched a series of switch—Asita 7150S, including 7150S-24, 7510S-52 and 7510S-64. The Arista 7150S series represents the industry’s leading ultra low latency 1RU 1/10/40GbE layer 2/3/4 wire speed switch family. As one member of the Arista 7150S family, Arista 7150S-64 switch has both SFP+ and QSFP+ ports while the another two haven’t QSFP+ ports. This article would provide the basic information about Arista 7150S-64 switch and its network migration with Agile ports.
The most distinctive feature of Arista 7150S switch is the design of AgilePorts on the switch which enables flexible deployment. AgilePorts deliver complete flexibility in connectivity—each SFP+ interface is capable of supporting 100M-10G over a variety of media, including DWDM with distances up to 80 km. The AgilePorts feature also enables groups of adjacent SFP+ ports to be configured for 40Gb operation using 10G transceivers and cables providing maximum port flexibility and a seamless migration from 10Gb to 40Gb.
The Arista 7150S-64 has 48 SFP+ and 4 QSFP+ ports, you can see the detailed information in the below table. Different from the other two 7150S switches, 7150S-64 has the largest number port and it is the only one has QSFP+ ports. The SFP+ ports can support 1G and 10G operation and also 100Mb support with 100/1000-TX transceivers. On this 7150S-64 switch with QSFP+ ports, you can split the 40G interfaces into 4×10G. The 7150S-64 switch can provide 16×40G interfaces including 4 QSFP+ ports and 12×40G ports (48 SFP+ ports grouped into 12×40G) (see figure1).
| Arista 7150S-64 Switch | |
| Description | 7150 Switch 48-Port SFP+ 4 QSFP+ |
| Total Ports | 64 |
| SFP+ Ports | 48 |
| L2/3 Throughput | 1.28 Tbps |
| L2/3 PPS | 960 Mpps |
| Latency | 380ns |
| Typical Power Draw | 224 W |
Table1: Information about Arista 7150S-64 Switch
Figure1: Rear view on Arista 7150S-64 Switch
There are many compatible 10GbE SFP+ transceivers for 7150S-64, such as 10GBASE-SR, 10GBASE-LRL, 10GBASE-CR, and so on. You can just plug these SFP+ transceivers into the SFP+ port on the switch. For the QSFP+ ports, there is a wide range of choices as well, including 40GBASE-CR4, 40GBASE-SR4, 40G-PLRL4, 40GBASE-LR4 and etc. The distances can be supported from 100 m over OM3 to 10 km over single-mode fiber on the 7150S-64 switch.
We would mainly compare the common practice of connection with connection with AgilePorts to highlight the key distinction of connection with AgilePorts.
For any network migration, optical transceivers play an essential role. So does the 10G to 40G network migration—you must take 40G QSFP+ transceiver into consideration. If you use the general switches to migrate 10G to 40G network, you can take the following connection solution as a reference. Just as we see in the below picture, an MPO/MTP LGX cassette connects four 10G SFP+ links. And then a Type-B female MPO/MTP trunk cable is used to connect the cassette and 40G QSFP+ Transceiver.
Figure2: 10G to 40G solution (1)
Like we described before, the Arista 7150S switch’s AgilePosts is designed to address device and cabling life cycles, you can upgrade from 10GbE to 40GbE only with just 10G SFP+ transceivers and cables. It provides maximum port flexibility and a seamless migration. Under this situation, 40G QSFP transceiver is unnecessary. 40G connection is achieved by connecting four 10GBASE-SR SFP+ transceivers with LC duplex fiber patch cables. In this way, time and space are saved through this kind of connection.
Figure3: 10G to 40G solution (2)
The Arista 7150S-64 is a 10/40G Ethernet switch, the distinctive design of AgilePorts on the switch plays a prominent role on the network data rate migration from 10G to 40G.
Comprehensive Fiber Optic Solution 