Arista DCS-7280CR3-96-R — 96×100GbE Cloud Router with FlexRoute
The
Arista DCS-7280CR3-96-R is a 2RU, 96-port 100 Gigabit Ethernet cloud router delivering
9.6 Tbps of aggregate non-blocking throughput. The R3 non-K variant supports over 2M IPv4 routes via FlexRoute, with
64GB DRAM and
120GB SSD for advanced routing and flexible deployment scenarios. This platform is designed for high-performance data center and service provider networks requiring dense 100G connectivity with carrier-grade routing table scale. The “
-R” suffix denotes
rear-to-front airflow, where cool air enters through the port side and exhausts from the non-port side. For front-to-rear airflow, see the
DCS-7280CR3-96-F.
Key Features at a Glance
- 96 × QSFP28 ports supporting 100G Ethernet (native) or up to 192 × 50G (breakout capable)
- 9.6 Tbps non-blocking throughput with 4 Bpps forwarding rate
- 16 GB packet buffer with VOQ architecture — deep buffering for burst absorption and congestion handling
- 3.8 µs store-and-forward latency with full Layer 2/3 policy enforcement
- 64 GB DRAM and 120 GB SSD for advanced routing scale
- Over 2M IPv4 routes and IPv6 routes via FlexRoute (non-K variant) for full carrier-grade routing table support
- 512-way ECMP for advanced load balancing across equal-cost paths
- Full Layer 3 switch router: BGP with RPKI, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS (LDP, RSVP-TE, BGP LU), SR-TE, EVPN, VXLAN
- IEEE 1588v2 PTP and Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) for precision network timing
- Telemetry: LANZ, Accelerated sFlow, Advanced Event Management (AEM), DANZ, streaming telemetry via gNMI
- CloudVision integration, Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Python/Bash scripting, OpenConfig
- 2RU form factor with redundant PSU and fan trays (N+1)
- BrightStar Systems: Supplied fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty
9.6 Tbps Non-Blocking VOQ Architecture
The DCS-7280CR3-96-R delivers
9.6 Tbps of full-duplex, non-blocking throughput — 96 × 100 Gbps in both directions simultaneously. The
Virtual Output Queue (VOQ) ASIC architecture maintains separate queues for each input-to-output port pair, eliminating head-of-line blocking. With a
4 Bpps forwarding rate, the switch operates at full line rate across all port combinations regardless of traffic mix or packet size distribution. The
16 GB deep packet buffer is distributed across the VOQ structure, providing substantial burst absorption capacity. The VOQ deep buffer architecture handles transient congestion, TCP incast events, and bursty traffic patterns without triggering early packet drops or ECN marking — delivering higher effective throughput in oversubscribed topologies.
3.8 µs Store-and-Forward Latency
The 7280CR3-96-F operates in store-and-forward mode with a measured latency starting from
3.8 microseconds. The ASIC receives the complete packet, performs a full Layer 2/3 lookup, applies ACLs and QoS policies, and forwards the packet — all within 3.8 µs. This design provides the ability to buffer, inspect, and apply policy at every forwarding decision, while maintaining sub-10-microsecond performance suitable for enterprise, service provider, and data center applications.
Port Configuration and Optics
The 7280CR3-96-F provides 96 × QSFP28 uplink ports with flexible breakout options:
- 96 × QSFP28 ports (native 100G): Supporting 100GBASE-SR4, LR4, DR, FR, CWDM4, ZR/ZR+, and DAC/AOC cables. Full-duplex 100 Gigabit Ethernet on all ports.
- Breakout to 50G, 40G, 25G, or 10G: Each QSFP28 port can be broken out to lower speeds via standard breakout cables, supporting up to 192 × 50G or 192 × 25G/10G configurations.
- Management: 1 × 1 Gbps out-of-band management port + 1 × RS-232 RJ-45 console port, independent of the forwarding plane.
- Maximum port configurations: 96 × 100GbE (native), 192 × 50GbE, 96 × 40GbE, or 192 × 25G/10G via flexible breakout.
Layer 2/3 Switch Router Capabilities
The 7280CR3-96-F operates as a unified switch router with full Layer 2 and Layer 3 feature sets:
- BGP Full-Table Routing: Over 2M IPv4 unicast routes and over 2M IPv6 routes (FlexRoute non-K variant) in the hardware FIB. Supports MP-BGP, BGP graceful restart, BGP RPKI, and 512-way ECMP for load balancing across equal-cost paths.
- MPLS: Line-rate MPLS label switching with LDP, RSVP-TE, and BGP Labeled Unicast (BGP LU) for carrier-grade MPLS networks and VPN services.
- Segment Routing: SR-TE (Segment Routing with Traffic Engineering), TI-LFA for fast convergence, OSPF-SR, ISIS-SR, and BGP-SR.
- EVPN and VXLAN: VXLAN Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) and EVPN control plane for multi-tenant overlay networks, data center interconnect, and MAC mobility. Supports EVPN Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB) for seamless L2/L3 overlays.
- Routing Protocols: OSPF, OSPFv3, IS-IS, RIPv2, VRF, BFD, Micro BFD, uRPF, VRRP/VRRPv3, VARP, PBR, BGP FlowSpec, and Prefix-Independent Convergence (PIC).
- Layer 2: 802.1w/s Spanning Tree, RPVST+, 4096 VLANs, Q-in-Q, 802.3ad LACP (256 ports/channel, 2048 groups), MLAG (512 ports per MLAG), Jumbo Frames, IGMP snooping.
- L2/L3 VPN Services: IP-VPN, EVPN over VXLAN and MPLS, LDP pseudowires, VPLS.
Precision Timing
- PTP IEEE 1588v2: Hardware-assisted Precision Time Protocol supporting Boundary Clock and Transparent Clock modes, with PTP profiles G.8275.1, G.8275.2, and G.8261.
- SyncE: Synchronous Ethernet per ITU-T G.8264 for frequency distribution in carrier and 5G environments.
Telemetry, Monitoring, and Analytics
- LANZ (Latency Analyzer): Per-port, real-time microburst detection and queue depth monitoring at microsecond granularity. Records egress port, queue, drop reason, and timestamp for every congestion event.
- Accelerated sFlow: Hardware-accelerated sampled packet telemetry for flow analysis and capacity planning.
- Streaming Telemetry: Real-time counter and state export via gNMI (gRPC) and Arista eAPI (REST). Supports OpenConfig data models for vendor-neutral management.
- Advanced Event Management (AEM): Programmable event-driven automation within EOS — customize alerts and actions, automate routine tasks, and respond to real-time network conditions.
- DANZ: Arista’s telemetry fabric for advanced mirroring, SPAN/TAP aggregation, and L2/3/4 filtering.
- IPFIX: IP Flow Information Export for detailed traffic flow analytics.
- Ethernet OAM: CFM, Loss Measurement (LM), Synthetic Loss Measurement (SLM), Delay Measurement (DM), TWAMP, and Link Fault Signaling.
EOS Automation and Provisioning
The 7280CR3-96-F runs
Arista EOS, a modular operating system built on a standard Linux kernel where each process runs in its own protected memory space and communicates through an in-memory state-sharing database (Sysdb). This architecture enables in-service software updates and self-healing resiliency without data plane interruption.
- CloudVision: Centralized configuration management, network-wide change control, topology visualization, and compliance monitoring across multi-site Arista deployments.
- Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP): Automatic configuration download on first power-up via DHCP — no manual CLI access required for initial deployment.
- Python and Bash: Native on-box scripting with full Linux shell access for custom event handlers and automation workflows.
- eAPI (JSON-RPC): RESTful programmatic interface to all configuration and operational commands. Integrates with Ansible, Terraform, and custom orchestration.
- OpenConfig and gNMI: Vendor-neutral data models and high-performance streaming RPC for configuration and telemetry.
- NETCONF and RESTCONF: Standards-based configuration management interfaces.
Security
- Control Plane Policing (CoPP): Rate-limiting of CPU-destined traffic to protect routing stability
- ACLs: Ingress/egress access control lists at L2, L3, and L4 enforced in the ASIC at line rate. Scalable Algorithmic ACLs supporting over 100,000 rules.
- User-Defined Fields (UDF): Custom packet matching for flexible filtering policies
- TACACS+ and RADIUS: Centralized authentication and accounting for administrative access
- Secure Boot: Cryptographic verification of bootloader and EOS image integrity with hardware trust anchors
- MAC Security, DHCP Relay/Snooping, ARP trapping for Layer 2 security enforcement
Note: MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) is supported on M and MK model variants only. The CR3-96 is not an M or MK model and does not include MACsec.
Quality of Service (QoS)
- Up to 8 queues per port with strict priority, weighted round-robin (WRR), and weighted fair queueing (WFQ)
- 802.1p and DSCP classification and remarking
- ECN (Explicit Congestion Notification) marking for TCP-friendly congestion signaling
- PFC (Priority Flow Control) and DCBX (Data Center Bridging Exchange) for converged traffic
- Hierarchical QoS (H-QoS) for granular traffic management
Physical Specifications
- Form Factor: 2RU — 17.3 × 3.46 × 29.96 inches (43.99 × 8.79 × 76.1 cm)
- Weight: 52 lbs (23.6 kg)
- Power: 1003W typical / 1803W maximum; PWR-2411 AC or DC power supplies
- Redundancy: Dual hot-swappable PSU (1+1) and 4 hot-swappable FAN-7012H fan trays (N+1)
- Storage: 8 GB Flash, 120 GB SSD, 1 × USB port
- System Memory: 64 GB DRAM, 16 GB packet buffer
Scalability and Table Sizes
- MAC Addresses: 384K
- IPv4 Unicast Routes: Over 2M (FlexRoute non-K variant)
- IPv6 Unicast Routes: Over 2M (FlexRoute non-K variant)
- Algorithmic ACLs: Over 100K rules
- ECMP: 512-way
- LACP: 256 ports/channel, 2048 groups, 512 ports per MLAG
- Minimum EOS: 4.24.0
- EOS Feature License: Group 4
Lifecycle and Reliability
- Self-Healing Software: EOS includes Stateful Fault Repair (SFR) for automatic recovery from software faults without data plane impact, and Stateful Fault Containment (SFC) for fault isolation.
- In-Service Software Updates: Dual-partition boot with Smart System Upgrade (SSU) and Accelerated Software Update (ASU) for planned upgrades with minimal disruption.
- Configuration Rollback: Instant rollback to previous configuration snapshots via EOS configuration replace.
- BrightStar Systems 1-Year Warranty: Supplied fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty.
Similar Arista Models to Consider
- DCS-7280CR3K-32P4A-F: 32 × 100GbE + 4 × 400GbE OSFP ports; 4.8 Tbps throughput; 1RU form factor with K-variant FlexRoute
- DCS-7280CR3K-96-F: 96 × QSFP28; 9.6 Tbps throughput; K-variant with over 5M IPv4 route support
- DCS-7280CR3-36S-F: 28 × QSFP100 + 6 × QSFP200 + 2 × QSFP-DD ports; 2.4 Tbps throughput; flexible speed support
- DCS-7280SR3K-48YC8-F: 48 × 25G SFP + 8 × 100G QSFP ports; 2 Tbps throughput; optimized for leaf deployments
Related 7280R3 Series Resources
For comprehensive technical documentation and comparative model information across the Arista 7280 family, visit
Arista 7280 Series Overview.
Summary
The Arista DCS-7280CR3-96-R is a 2RU cloud router combining 96 × QSFP28 ports supporting native 100G Ethernet or flexible breakout to lower speeds, 9.6 Tbps non-blocking throughput, 16 GB VOQ deep packet buffer, and full Layer 2/3 capabilities including BGP with over 2M IPv4 routes via FlexRoute (non-K variant), MPLS, SR-TE, EVPN, and VXLAN. Running Arista EOS with CloudVision integration, ZTP, precision timing (PTP/SyncE), and comprehensive telemetry (LANZ, Accelerated sFlow, AEM, DANZ), the 7280CR3-96-F is available from BrightStar Systems fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty.
