Optics & Cables Solution for Juniper QFX3500 Switch

With an increasing demands for higher performance and flexibility, to choose a right and cost-effective cabling solution for data center switch interconnection is very important. In this blog, we are going to talk about the cabling and optics requirements for Juniper QFX3500 switch.

Overview of Juniper Network QFX3500

The Juniper Networks QFX3500 device is a high-speed, multi-purpose switch especially designed for next-generation data centers. The QFX3500 can be configured as a standalone switch, a Node device in a QFabric system, or as a member of a Virtual Chassis. Here is mainly about the QFX3500 switch.

As the picture shown below, QFX3500 switch is designed with 48 access ports (0 through 47) that support small form-factor pluggable plus (SFP+) and small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers, as well as SFP+ direct attach copper cables (DAC cables). In this case, it operate by default as 10GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) interfaces. Optionally, users can choose to configure up to 12 of the ports as 2Gbps, 4Gbps, or 8Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces, and up to 36 of the ports as 1GbE interfaces. In addition, QFX3500 has four uplink ports (Q0 through Q3) that support up to 4 QSFP+ transceivers, as well as QSFP+ DAC or DAC breakout cables ( e.g. QSFP+ to 4 x SFP+ breakout cables to support an additional fifteen 10GbE interfaces).

Data Center Deployments With QFX3500 Switch

Nowadays, data centers are built with high-performance, small form-factor, multi-core blade and rack servers. The greater compute capacity and server densities enabled by these devices is increasing traffic levels, creating the need for a high speed, low latency, storage- and I/O-converged networking solution that can maximize performance for physical servers, virtual servers, and storage in the data center.

The QFX3500 switch is a high-performance, low-latency, feature-rich 10GbE Layer 2 and Layer 3 switch designed and optimized for virtualized data centers. Its compact form factor design supports the high-performance, converged data center access networks. Furthermore, the QFX3500’s low power consumption optimizes the switch’s power use effectiveness (PUE) ratio to reduce data center operating costs, while front-to-back air flow meets hot and cold aisle isolation requirements. According to the data sheet of Juniper Network, the QFX3500 can perform well for many applications, such as high-performance Layer 2 and Layer 3 access for enterprise, HPC (High Performance Computing), cloud and Web-tier data centers, high-performance data center bridging (DCB), storage and I/O convergence environments or L3 aggregation switch etc.

Optics & Cabling Solution for Juniper QFX3500 Switch

As described above, QFX3500 switch can support 1GbE, 10GbE and 40GbE interfaces. Here is mainly introduce the direct connection solution with transceiver modules and DACs between two QFX3500 in details. The more complicated interconnection solution may add the corresponding patch panels and cables. If you are interested in that, please feel free to contact us over sales@fiber-mart.com.

Maintaining Transceivers and Optical Cables

Transceivers and fiber-optic cables must be kept clean and dust free to maintain high signal accuracy and prevent damage to the connectors. Attenuation (loss of light) should be controlled within the standard. In addition, when doing the cabling, the following points should be considered.

• Transceivers are static sensitive. To prevent ESD damage, wear an ESD-preventative wrist strap that is connected to the grounded chassis.
• Do not remove and insert a transceiver more often than is necessary, because repeated removals and insertions can shorten its useful life.
• Keep all optical connections covered when not in use. Clean them before using to prevent dust from scratching the fiber-optic cable ends.
• Do not touch the ends of connectors. Touching the ends can leave fingerprints and cause other contamination.
• Clean the connectors regularly; the required frequency of cleaning depends upon the environment. In addition, clean connectors if they are exposed to dust or accidentally touched.
• Inspect routinely for dust and damage. If you suspect damage, clean and then inspect fiber ends under a microscope to determine if damage has occurred.