Juniper Networks EX8216 Ethernet Switch

EX8216 Overview:

The EX8216 Ethernet Switch, a member of Juniper Networks EX Series Ethernet Switches product family, delivers the performance, scalability, and high availability required for today’s high-density data center, cloud computing, and Internet exchange environments. The EX8216 modular switch scales to a total capacity of 12.4 terabits per second (Tbps), making it the highly scalable solution required by today’s high-performance networks while providing sufficient capacity to support the most demanding network environments in the future.

The 16-slot Juniper Networks® EX8216 Ethernet Switch, part of the Juniper Networks EX8200 line of Ethernet Switches, offers a high-density, high-performance platform for aggregating access switches deployed in data center top-of-rack or end-of-row applications, as well as for supporting Gigabit Ethernet server access in data center end-of-row deployments. The EX8216 delivers approximately 1.9 billion packets per second (Bpps) of high-density, wire-speed 10-Gigabit Ethernet performance for the largest data center networks.

To maximize network investments, the EX8216 leverages the same EX8200 wire-speed line cards and power supplies used by the eight-slot Juniper Networks EX8208 Ethernet Switch, ensuring consistent performance across the entire product family. Working with the EX8208, as well as Juniper Networks EX4200 and EX3200 lines of Ethernet switches which all run the same Juniper Networks JUNOS® Software operating system, the EX8216 helps reduce capital and operational expenses across the data center infrastructure.

EX8216 Ethernet Switch

The EX8216 modular switch includes an advanced set of hardware features enabled by the Juniper-designed EX-PFE2 ASIC. Working with the carrier-class JUNOS Software, the EX-PFE2 ASICs on each line card deliver the scalability needed to support high-performance data center networks.

The EX8216 switch can accommodate any combination of EX8200 line Ethernet line cards. Options include the following:

• EX8200-48T: a 48-port 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ-45 unshielded twisted pair (UTP) line card
• EX8200-48F: a 48-port 100BASE-FX/1000BASE-X SFP fiber line card
• EX8200-8XS: an eight-port 10GBASE-X SFP+ fiber line card

Fully configured, a single EX8216 chassis can support up to 768 Gigabit Ethernet or 128 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports at wire speed for all packet sizes, delivering one of the highest line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet port densities in the industry.

At 21 rack units (RUs) high, two EX8216 switches can fit in a standard 42 RU rack, enabling up to 1,536 line-rate Gigabit Ethernet or 256 line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single rack. In addition, the EX8216 is just 26.5 inches deep, enabling it to fit into typical data center cabinets and making it ideal for existing infrastructures or in locations where space is at a premium.

The EX8216 switch fabric is capable of delivering 320 Gbps (full duplex) per slot, enabling scalable wire-rate performance on all ports for any packet size. The passive backplane design supports a future capacity of up to 12.4 Tbps, providing a built-in migration path to next-generation deployments.

The base configuration of the EX8216 switch includes two side-mounted, hot-swappable fan trays with variable-speed fans, one Routing Engine module, and eight dedicated switch fabric modules (SFMs). The base EX8216 also ships with two 3,000 watt power supplies, although six power supply bays allow users to provision the chassis to provide the power and redundancy required for any type of deployment. A redundant EX8216 configuration adds a second Routing Engine module to provide hot standby resiliency, as well as a full complement of six power supplies, providing complete redundancy and availability. Except for the switch fabric modules, all components are accessible from the front, simplifying operations, maintenance, and upgrades.

A front-panel chassis level LCD displays Routing Engine status as well as chassis component alarm information for rapid problem identification and resolution. The LCD also provides a flexible, user-friendly interface for performing device initialization and configuration rollbacks, reporting system status and alarm notifications, or restoring the switch to its default settings.

Deployment Scenarios

The EX8216 modular switch is designed for a variety of data center deployments, providing a high-performance, high-density core platform that reduces cost and complexity while improving overall scalability and offering carrier-class reliability.

Populated entirely with 10-Gigabit Ethernet line cards, a single EX8216 Ethernet Switch can accommodate up to 128 high-speed, line-rate uplinks from access-layer devices such as EX4200 switches deployed in Virtual Chassis top-of-rack configurations, delivering a highly scalable solution that can support more servers with fewer actual switches. A single EX8216 chassis can also support up to 768 Gigabit Ethernet ports to serve as a highly effective, end-of-row server access switch.

The high Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet port densities on the EX8216 enable the consolidation of aggregation and core layers, dramatically simplifying data center architectures and reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) while lowering power, space, and cooling requirements.

Features at a Glance:

* Roadmap

Architecture and Key Components:

Juniper Networks EX8200 line of Ethernet switches, including the EX8216 and EX8208, share a number of distinct architectural elements. The Routing Engines employed by these switches run JUNOS Software, which processes all Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols and manages individual chassis components, while the switch fabrics provide the central crossbar matrix through which all data traffic passes.

The EX8200 line cards, which are common across all EX8200 platforms, include ASIC-based packet forwarding engines—the EX-PFE2—that process network traffic at wire rates, as well as a line-card processor that provides scalable local control.

The EX8216 architecture was designed for very large data center deployments, with no head-of-line blocking, a single-tier low-latency switch fabric, efficient multicast replication handling, and deep buffering to ensure performance at scale. The EX8216 chassis midplane distributes the control and management plane signals over independent paths to the various system components and distributes power throughout the system. Data plane signals pass directly from the EX8200 line cards to the EX8216 switch fabric modules via a unique connector system that provides unparalleled signal quality for future generations of fabric technologies.

To maintain uninterrupted operation, the EX8216 switch’s two fan trays cool the line cards, Routing Engine, and switch fabric modules with redundant, variable speed fans. The EX8200 line’s power supplies convert building power to the internal voltage required by the system.

All EX8216 components are hot-swappable, and all central functions are available in redundant configurations, providing high operational availability by allowing continuous system operation during maintenance or repairs.

Routing Engine Module

The EX8216 Routing Engine module supports control and management plane functionality with an integrated Routing Engine that features a 1.2 GHz PowerPC processor with 2 gigabytes of DRAM and 2 gigabytes of flash storage. A dedicated front-panel RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port on the Routing Engine module supports out-of-band system management and monitoring, while an external USB port allows easy uploading and storage of software images, configuration files, and logs. Direct console access is available through a dedicated serial port, while an auxiliary console interface can support remote modem access to the switch.

The EX8216 switch’s Routing Engine is based on the same field-proven hardware architecture used by Juniper Networks routers, bringing the same carrier-class performance and reliability to the EX8216 that Juniper’s routers bring to the world’s largest service provider networks. The Routing Engine’s central CPU performs all system control functions and maintains hardware forwarding table and routing protocol states for the EX8216 switch. Dedicated hardware on the Routing Engine module supports chassis management functions such as environmental monitoring, while communication between Routing Engine modules and individual line cards takes place over a dedicated internal Gigabit Ethernet out-of-band control interface.

EX8216 Switch Fabric

The switch fabric for the EX8216, distributed across eight rear-accessible switch fabric modules, serves as the central non-blocking matrix through which all network data passes. All eight SFMs in the EX8216 are always active, providing ample capacity to deliver line-rate Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching on all ports for packets of any size. If one switch fabric module were to fail, the remaining modules gracefully load-balance the data traffic to maintain line-rate performance on all 10-Gigabit ports without dropping packets. The SFMs are hot-swappable and field-replaceable, enabling failed units to be easily replaced without service interruption.

The eight active, load-sharing switch fabric modules collectively deliver up to 320 Gbps (full duplex) of packet data bandwidth per line-card slot, providing sufficient capacity to support future 100-Gigabit Ethernet deployments without requiring any forklift upgrades or changes to the EX8216 chassis. The EX8216 backplane connector system is designed to support switch fabric bandwidth of more than 12.4 Tbps—enabling the capacity of the EX8216 to potentially more than double in the future.

Power

The EX8216 chassis contains six power supply bays, providing complete flexibility for both provisioning and redundancy. Each EX8200 AC power supply delivers 3,000 watts (W) of power at high-line (16 A at 220 V) to the chassis. The EX8216 also supports a 2,000/1,200 W power supply for high/low-line operation. The EX8200 AC power supplies are more than 90 percent efficient at a wide range of loads, minimizing building power requirements and reducing overall power consumption. These power supplies are interchangeable across the EX8200 line, simplifying maintenance and sparing.

Although only two power supplies are required for basic EX8216 configuration and power-up, the six power supply bays provide the capacity required to power all possible line-card configurations, and to support N+1 or N+N power redundancy to protect against both component and line input failures. The actual number of power supplies required depends on the combination of line cards installed and the desired level of redundancy (see table). For example, 9,600 W is required to support a chassis fully populated with 128 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports, while 9,000 W will support a mix of 10-Gigabit Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet line cards.

Features & Benefits:

High Availability

The EX8216 switch delivers a number of high availability features to ensure uninterrupted, carrier-class performance, and also includes an extra slot to accommodate a redundant Routing Engine module. When a second Routing Engine module is present, it serves as a backup in hot standby mode, ready to take over in the event of a master Routing Engine failure. If the master fails, the integrated Layer 2 and Layer 3 graceful Routing Engine switchover (GRES) feature of JUNOS Software ensures the seamless transfer of control to the backup, maintaining uninterrupted access to applications, services, and IP communications.

Carrier-Class Operating System

The EX8216 runs the same JUNOS Software used by the EX3200 and EX4200 lines of switches, as well as the Juniper Networks routers that power the world’s largest and most complex networks.

By using a common operating system, Juniper Networks delivers a consistent implementation and operation of control plane features across all products. To maintain that consistency, JUNOS adheres to a highly disciplined development process that uses a single source code, follows a single quarterly release train, and employs a highly available modular architecture that prevents isolated failures from bringing down an entire system.

These attributes are fundamental to the core value of the software, enabling all JUNOS-powered products to be updated simultaneously with the same software release. All features are fully regression-tested, making each new release a true superset of the previous version; customers can deploy the software with complete confidence that all existing capabilities will be maintained and operate in the same way.

Simplified Management and Operations

A range of system management options are available for the EX8216 Ethernet switches.

The standard JUNOS CLI provides the same granular management capabilities and scripting parameters found in all JUNOS-powered devices. The EX8216 switches also include the integrated J-Web management tool, an embedded device manager that allows users to configure, monitor, troubleshoot, and perform device-level maintenance on individual switches via a browser-based graphical interface. In addition, integrated JUNOScript Automation tools provide early detection and automatic resolution of potential problems related to the operating system.

Juniper Networks Network and Security Manager provides system-level management across all EX8200, EX4200, and EX3200 lines of Ethernet switches, as well as other Juniper Networks products deployed throughout the network—all from a single console.

Finally, performance data from EX8216 switches can be exported to leading third-party management systems such as HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, and Computer Associates Unicenter, where it can be combined with management data from other network components to provide a complete, consolidated view of network operations.

In addition, the EX8200 line supports Juniper Networks Advanced Insight Solutions (AIS), a comprehensive set of tools that enable Juniper Networks Technical Services to automate the delivery of tailored, proactive network intelligence and support services.

Diagram:

The EX8216 modular switch offers a high-density, scalable solution for aggregating 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks from access-layer devices in the data center, as well as a combined core in consolidated network deployments.

EX8200 Ethernet Line Cards:

The Juniper Networks EX8200 line of Ethernet switches offer powerful, modular platforms that deliver the performance, scalability, and carrier-class reliability required for today’s high-density enterprise data center and campus aggregation and core environments, as well as high-performance service provider interconnects.

EX8200 Ethernet Line Cards
EX8200-48T 48-port 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ-45 line card The EX8200-48T Ethernet line card offers 48 10/100/1000BASE-T ports with RJ-45 copper connectors. Designed for data center end-of-row server access, or campus applications where high densities, high performance, and high availability over copper links up to 100 m are required, the EX8200-48T enables up to 384 line-rate ports in a single EX8208 chassis, or 768 ports in an EX8216 chassis.
EX8200-48F 48-port 100FX/1000BASE-X SFP line card; requires SFP optics sold separately The EX8200-48F is a 48-port 100BASE-FX/1000BASE-X line card with modular small form-factor pluggable transceiver (SFP) interfaces for supporting a wide range of 100 Mbps or Gigabit Ethernet optical connections over multimode fiber, single-mode fiber, or copper cabling. Designed for high-performance enterprise and service provider distribution applications, the EX8200-48F also enables up to 384 line-rate ports in an EX8208 chassis, and 768 ports in an EX8216 chassis.
EX8200-8XS 8-port 10GbE SFP+ line card; requires SFP+ optics sold separately The EX8200-8XS is an eight-port 10GBASE-X line card with compact, modular SFP+ fiber optic interfaces, enabling up to 64 line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports in an EX8208 chassis and 128 ports in an EX8216 chassis. The EX8200-8XS is ideal for enterprise applications such as campus or data center uplink aggregation, core and backbone interconnects, and for service providers requiring high-density, wire-speed 10-Gigabit Ethernet interconnects in metro area networks, Internet exchange points, and points of presence (POPs). The 10-Gigabit Ethernet port densities afforded by the EX8200-8XS line cards also enable EX8200 switches to consolidate aggregation and core layers in the data center, simplifying the network architecture and reducing power, space, and cooling requirements while lowering total cost of ownership (TCO).

Technical Specifications:

EX Series Comparison Matrix:

Documentation:

Download the Juniper Networks EX8216 Ethernet Switch Datasheet (PDF).