Cisco Nexus 9516 data center switch aces a grueling high-density stress test

Article from NetworkWorld

NetworkWorld tested the Cisco Nexus 9516 with 1,024 fully loaded 50G Ethernet ports - the highest density core-switch test ever done by Network World - it was capable of handling the strain without dropping a single packet.How many ports are enough at the core of the data center? How does 1,024 sound?That’s the configuration we used to assess Cisco Systems’ Nexus 9516 data center core switch. In this exclusive Clear Choice test, we assessed the Cisco data center core switch with more than 1,000 50G Ethernet ports. That makes this by far the largest 50G test, and for that matter the highest-density switch test, Network World has ever published.As its name suggests, the Nexus 9516 accepts up to 16 N9K-X9732C-EX line cards, built around Cisco’s CloudScale ASICs. These multi-speed chips can run at 100G rates, for up to 512 ports per chassis and either 25G or 50G rates for up to 1,024 ports. We picked the 50G rate, and partnered with test and measurement vendor Spirent Communications to fully load the switch’s control and data planes.The results were staggering. Among the key takeaways:

Line-rate throughput for all frame sizes in tests involving IPv4, IPv6, and multicast traffic

Support for more than 1 million IPv4 and 1 million IPv6 routes

Support for 10,000 IP multicast groups and 10.2 million multicast routes. Both numbers are the highest levels ever achieved in multicast testing of a single system

Power consumption between 13-22 watts per port

The recurrent theme through all tests is highly scalable performance. The Cisco switch forwarded every single frame we threw at it in every test and never dropped even one.Read the full NetworkWorld article here