Nexus 7000 Series 8-Port 10-Gigabit Ethernet Module with XL Option, Spare

The Cisco Nexus® 7000 M1-Series 8-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Module with XL Option (Figure 1) is a cost-effective, highly scalable, high-performance module designed for mission-critical Ethernet networks. The module uses two M1-XL forwarding engines that feature a larger Forwarding Information Base (FIB). The module also supports a wide range of X2 optics, allowing deployment flexibility in various types of networking environment.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches are a modular data center-class product line designed for highly scalable 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks, with a fabric architecture that scales beyond 15 terabits per second (Tbps), and is designed to support high-density 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet deployments. Designed to meet the requirements of the most mission-critical network environments, the switches deliver continuous system operation and virtualized pervasive services. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is powered by the proven Cisco® NX-OS operating system, with enhanced features to deliver real-time system upgrades with exceptional manageability and serviceability. Its innovative unified fabric design is purpose-built to support consolidation of IP, storage, and interprocess communication (IPC) networks on a single Ethernet fabric.

Features and Benefits

The Cisco Nexus 7000 M1-Series 8-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Module with XL Option has a number of features that are designed to enable flexible deployment and support for environments requiring the highest performance and a comprehensive feature set. With an optional Scalable Feature License, the module can operate in the enhanced XL mode, which enables use of the full forwarding table, essential for large-scale deployments such as Internet peering environments. This larger FIB table can support multiple copies of the full Internet route table for use in Internet-facing deployments with Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) and virtual device context (VDC) support. The capability to operate in either non-XL or XL mode makes this module extremely flexible for many types of networking environments, without requiring a hardware module change or upgrade, and delivers a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The 8-port module supports a broad range of optics, allowing deployment in various types of situations, from a long-reach intersite deployment over single-mode fiber (SMF) to short and medium reaches over multimode fiber (MMF) for data center and campus environments. The fabric interface on the 8-port module delivers 80 Gbps of bandwidth in each direction.

All Cisco Nexus 7000 M-Series I/O modules contain integrated forwarding engines. The M1-XL forwarding engines on the 8-port module are part of the Cisco Nexus 7000 M1-Series of forwarding engines. The M1-XL forwarding engine is based on the M1 engine, incorporating larger FIB and access control list (ACL) tables. The module is fully compatible with, and offers feature consistency with, all existing M1 modules.