AX8600S Series : High-end core switches for next generation, enabling 100 Gigabit, full-route transmission with their large capacities that can support networks of the smart device era

Layer 3 chassis-type switchAX8600S Series

With the growing popularity of smart devices and the proliferation of rich content, we have seen a sharp rise in traffic, making it imperative for carriers/ISPs, enterprises and public facilities to increase the speeds and capacities of their networks. The AX8600S, which is a series of high-end core switches for next generation, inherited the architecture of the AX8600R (a series of carrier-grade routers), and features performance and capacity that can support the operations of carriers/ISPs. Further, the AX8600S has a large forwarding table and a large filtering/QoS entry capacity, making it suitable for use as a core switch in the backbone networks of large enterprise / public facility systems.

Configuration example : large-scale campus network

Core switch
High-end chassis-type switch featuring high performance (Max. switching capacity: 6.4 Tbps)
Capacity supporting a large-scale system (10G: 192 ports, 1G: 384 ports, large number of table entries)
High scalability and high flexibility (modular-type switch that eases device replacement and system enhancement)
High reliability (FT switch, full link aggregation)
Virtualization ensuring security for individual departments
Field-proven L2/L3 functionality (OSPF/BGP, IPv6, multicast, L2 functionality)

Configuration example : data center

Core switch
100G Ethernet, full-route transmission
High scalability and high flexibility (modular-type switch that eases device replacement and system enhancement)
High performance (Max. switching capacity: 6.4 Tbps)
High reliability (FT switch, full link aggregation)
  • IPv6 Ready Logo Phase2(Core)(Logo-ID-:02-C-001099)

    IPv6 Ready Logo
    Phase2(Core)
    (Logo-ID-:02-C-001099)

  • RoHS compliant

High Speed, Large Capacity

100 Gigabit Ethernet

  • The AX8600S series supports 100G Ethernet (popular among carriers/data centers).
  • 100G interface: max. 16 ports

Scalable switching capacity

  • High-scalability architecture (scalable up to 10 Tbps or more)
  • 400 Gbps and 1,000 Gbps (1 Tbps) communication services (expected to be available in the future)

High Port Density

Industry-leading 10G port density

  • 16U body capable of housing max. 384 interfaces (future support) for 10G Ethernet
  • 24 ports/unit (allows efficient use of installation space)

High-Functionality Reliable Packet Forwarding

Packet forwarding with large route entry capacity

  • The AX8600S series employs field-proven, highly reliable routing software.
  • More than 1 million IPv4 routes, 0.2 million IPv6 routes and 0.5 million FDB routes can be specified (route distribution pattern can be tailored to each user's requirements (future support)).
  • With large entry capacity (L2 routes: approx. 0.5 million FDB entries, filter/QoS: more than 0.5 million entries), the AX8600S series features high performance allowing it to serve as a core switch of a large system.
  • Multicast Non Stop Forwarding is also supported.

Stable High-Functionality Routing

Policy-based routing

  • Helps find the best route for each traffic (IPv4/IPv6).
  • Provides a tracking function for fault detection and auto rerouting (future support).
  • Enables combination of policy-based routing and network partition.

Scalability for Long Product Life Cycle

Flexible upgrade for next-generation services/protocols (future support)

  • The AX8600S series enables addition of new services/protocols without degrading performance.
  • The AX8600S series employs hybrid engine architecture that allows cooperation of a forwarding engine (FE), which is an engine that accelerates the execution of the basic forwarding functionality; a programmable engine (PE), which is an engine that enables flexible functionality enhancement; and a service module card (SMC). With this, you can enhance functionality without degrading forwarding performance.
  • Advanced security and other high-end features can be available by using a service module card (SMC).

Facility migration with minimum capital investment

  • The AX8600S series employs a micro line card structure that allows mixture of different types of interfaces (e.g., mixture of 1G Ethernet currently in use and 10G Ethernet to be used in the future for system upgrade and capacity enhancement).
  • 1/4 slot size enables step-by-step system buildup (reduces idle slots/ports and facility investment cost).

Fault Tolerant Network

Non-stop network

  • STP-free redundancy with full link aggregation prevents trouble associated with system complexity and enhances network stability.

Fault tolerant architecture

  • The AX8600S series employs a dual functionality system that enables failover operation, and architecture that enhances the device's availability to the full (switchover with a minimum of 50 ms).

Protocol accelerator (PA)

  • The AX8600S series employs PA enabling hardware-assisted fast failover.
  • Detection of link-down faults by PA accelerates switching of link aggregations.
  • Fast forwarding of BFD packets by PA accelerates detection of BGP/OSPF faults.

High Reliability, High Availability

ALAXALA Ring

  • ALAXALA proprietary L2 redundancy protocol enables failover with 1 s (minimum time).
  • Multi-ring topologies are also supported (increases flexibility in network configuration).

High reliability features

  • The features, such as link aggregation, STP/VRRP, and Graceful Restart, improve reliability of lines/routes.
  • By making modules redundant, software update without stopping services becomes possible.

Loop detection

  • Detects miscabling to avoid loop faults.

QoS

  • Provides fine-tuning QoS: priority control to give higher priorities to important packets and delay-sensitive packets (e.g., voice packets), bandwidth control to allocate a set amount of bandwidth to ports, and so on.

Hot-swappable power supply

  • The built-in redundant power supply makes it possible to replace a power supply unit without interrupting services.

Network Partition (Virtualization)

Simple low-cost network virtualization

  • Combination of VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) and VLAN (Virtual LAN) logically splits a network.
  • Secure, highly reliable virtual network (partitions) can be configured at low cost.

Virtual router (VRF)

  • Makes it possible to configure a virtual network by having multiple independent routing tables in a single unit.

IPv6

High-speed IPv4/IPv6 routing

  • Hardware-based fast routing for IPv4/IPv6
  • Various IPv6 protocols: Static, RIPng, OSPFv3, BGP4+ and Multicast

Security

Filtering

  • Unauthorized traffic is eliminated by multilayer (L2/L3/L4) ACL (Access Control List).

Simple Operation Management and Maintenance

Unified CLI

  • Supports command line interfaces common to all the models of the AX series (consolidated operation management and maintenance).

Operation script

  • Automates routine operations (improved operating efficiency, less manpower).
  • Supports a script language (Python-based) to customize/automate operations.
  • Enables event-driven operations (e.g., inputting commands/configurations upon log output/elapse of time).

Configuration template

  • The AX8600S series supports macro functions to create a configuration template.

Power-Saving and Eco-Friendly Design

Flexible power saving to conserve power and reduce CO2 (future support)

  • The AX8600S series supports dynamic power saving to feed appropriate amounts of power when and where needed.
  • Possible to fine-tune the amount of power based on a traffic volume.

Power saving design

  • The AX8600S series employs power-saving architecture, circuits and modules.
  • The AX8600S series consumes 1.4 times less power (3W/Gbps) when compared to the AX6700S.

Airflow suited to data centers

  • All the AX8600S models support front-to-back airflow for data centers' cooling systems.

Model AX8608S AX8616S AX8632S
Performance Max. switching capacity (Tbit/s) 1.6 3.2 6.4
Max. packet forwarding rate (Mpacket/s) 240 480 960
PRU slot forwarding rate (full duplex)(Gbit/s) 120 120 120
Slot Basic control unit (BCU) 2 2 2
Switch fabric unit (SFU) Not required 4 4
Packet routing unit (PRU) 2 4 8
Network interface card (NIF)*1 Single size (full) 4 8 16
Single size (half) 8 16 32
Port count 100GBASE-LR4 (CFP) 4 8 16
10GBASE-SR/LR/ER (SFP+) 48/96*2 96/192*2 192/384*2
1000BASE-SX/SX2/LX/BX/LH (SFP) 96 192 384
10BASE-T/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T (SFP) 96 192 384
10BASE-T/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T 96 192 384
Routing protocol IPv4 Unicast Static, RIP, RIP2, OSPF, BGP4, IS-IS *2, Policy-based routing
Multicast PIM-SM, PIM-SSM, IGMPv2/v3
IPv6 Unicast Static, RIPng, OSPFv3, BGP4+, IS-IS *2, Policy-based routing
Multicast PIM-SM, PIM-SSM, MLDv1/v2
Layer 2 features Max. number of MAC entries 512K
VLAN Port VLAN, Tag-VLAN (IEEE 802.1Q), Tag translation
Spanning tree protocol (STP) STP (IEEE802.1D), RSTP (IEEE802.1w), PVST+, MSTP (IEEE802.1s), BPDU filter, Root guard, Loop guard
Cooperation with multicast IGMPv1/v2/v3 snooping *2, MLDv1/v2 snooping *2
Ring protocol Autonomous Extensible Ring Protocol
Other Policy-based switching *2, L2 loop detection, Storm control *2, IEEE802.3ah/UDLD *2, Ether OAM *4
Network functionality Security Filtering (L2/IPv4/IPv6/L4), Subinterface (Tag-VLAN linkage), DHCP snooping *2
QoS Flow detection (L2/IPv4/IPv6/L4), Bandwidth monitoring (UPC(policer)), Marking (DSCP/user priority), Priority control (flow-based, DSCP map),
Discard control, Shaping (port bandwidth control, scheduling (PQ, RR, 4PQ+4WFQ, 2PQ+4WFQ+2BEQ, 4WFQ+4BEQ)), Diff-serv, Hierarchical shaping *2
High reliability Load balancing (IPv4/IPv6), VRRP (IPv4/IPv6), Static polling (IPv4/IPv6), Link aggregation (IEEE802.1AX),
High-speed route switching, Graceful Restart (BGP4, BGP4+, OSPF, OSPFv3, IS-IS *2), Multicast Non Stop Forwarding, BFD
Virtualization (network partition) VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding), Inter-VRF relay
Other IPv4 DHCP relay agent, IPv6 DHCP relay agent, L2-VPN (VLAN tunneling) *2
Operation management Network management SNMPv1/v2c/v3, MIBII, IPv6 MIB, RMON, sFlow, LLDP, Port mirroring, Flow statistics for filtering/QoS
Operation/maintenance CLI, RADIUS, TACACS+, SSH *4, Configuration (commit/rollback/template), uRPF, E-mail notification of log information,
non-stop software update, high-functionality script, syslog, ping, traceroute, telnet, ftp, tftp, NTP (IPv4), SNTP (IPv4/IPv6), DNS Resolver
Operation/maintenance ports Serial (console, AUX), Management port (IPv4/IPv6)
Power saving features Display of the amount of power consumed, Flexible power saving *2
Air flow Front-to-back
Redundancy BCU, SFU (for switches other than AX8608S), Power supply, Link aggregation across PSU, Link aggregation across NIF
Equipment conditions Input voltage AC100 to 120V / AC200 to 240V, DC-48V
Max. input current (per power supply unit) (A) AC100V: 15A x 1, AC200V: 16A x 1
DC-40.5V: 44A x 2, DC-48V: 37A x 2
Max. power consumption (W) AC: 2,520 / DC: 2,610 AC: 5,160 / DC: 5,340 AC: 9,290 / DC: 9,620
Max. heat output (kJ/h) [provisional value] AC: 9,072 / DC: 9,396 AC: 18,576 / DC: 19,224 AC: 33,444 / DC: 34,632
Dimensions: W x D x H (mm) [height:: U]*3 AC: 443 x 734 x 262 (6U)
DC: 443 x 763 x 262 (6U)		 AC: 443 x 734 x 426 (10U)
DC: 443 x 763 x 426 (10U)		 AC: 443 x 734 x 709 (16U)
DC: 443 x 763 x 709 (16U)
Weight (kg) (with full installation) 80 135 220
Environment conditions Permissible operation temperature range 0°C to 40°C (recommended range: 23°C to 28°C)
Non-operating temperature (when powered off) -10°C to 43°C
Storage/transportation temperature -25°C to 65°C
Permissible operation humidity range 5% to 85% (non-condensing) (recommended range: 45% to 55%)
Non-operating humidity (when powered off) 5% to 85% (non-condensing)
Storage/transportation humidity 5% to 95% (non-condensing)
Floating dust Floating dust of about 10 microns or smaller : 0.15mg/m3
  • *1: Shows the number of available slots when installing NIFs of the same size.
  • *2: Planned to be supported.
  • *3: The width does not include the lengths of rack-mounting brackets. The depth includes the lengths of a chassis, the handle of a fan unit, the projection of a power supply unit. The height does not include the length of a rubber foot.
  • *4: SSH function is subject to export control regulations, and may be excluded when exported.
  • # BGP and BGP4+ are software options.