Arista DCS-7280CR3K-32P4-F | 32x100G + 4x400G Switch Router

Arista DCS-7280CR3K-32P4-F — 32×100GbE + 4×400GbE Switch Router with Front-to-Rear Airflow

Key Features at a Glance

• 32 × 100GbE QSFP28 ports supporting breakout to 50GbE, 40GbE (QSFP+), 25GbE, and 10GbE — up to 96 total interfaces
• 4 × 400GbE OSFP ports supporting 400G, 200G, and 100G line rates
• 4.8 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity with 2 Bpps forwarding rate
• 3.8 µs store-and-forward latency with 8 GB VOQ deep packet buffer — eliminates head-of-line blocking
• Full Layer 3 switch router: BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS (LDP, RSVP-TE, BGP LU), SR-TE, EVPN, VXLAN, 512-way ECMP
• K-variant FlexRoute: Over 5M IPv4 unicast routes, over 5M IPv6 routes, 384K MAC addresses, Algorithmic ACLs (100K+ rules)
• Quad-core x86 CPU with 64 GB DRAM and 120 GB SSD running Arista EOS
• IEEE 1588v2 PTP and SyncE hardware-assisted precision timing for 5G and carrier environments
• Telemetry: LANZ, Accelerated sFlow, Advanced Event Management (AEM), DANZ, streaming telemetry via gNMI and eAPI
• CloudVision integration, Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Python/Bash scripting, OpenConfig
• Hot-swappable dual PSU (1+1) and N+1 fan trays; front-to-rear (-F) airflow
• 1RU form factor — 535W typical / 851W maximum power draw
• BrightStar Systems: Supplied fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty

4.8 Tbps Non-Blocking VOQ Architecture

3.8 µs Store-and-Forward Latency

Port Configuration and Optics

• 32 × 100GbE QSFP28: Supporting 100G, 50G, 40G (QSFP+), 25G, and 10G via breakout cables.
• 4 × 400GbE OSFP: Supporting 400G, 200G, and 100G line rates.
• Management: 1 × 100/1000 Mbps out-of-band management port + 1 × RS-232 RJ-45 console port, independent of the forwarding plane.
• Maximum port configurations: Up to 4 × 400G, 48 × 100G, 96 × 50G, 36 × 40G (QSFP+), or 96 × 25G/10G interfaces. Maximum 96 total interfaces.

Layer 2/3 Switch Router Capabilities

• BGP Full-Table Routing: Over 5M IPv4 unicast routes, over 5M IPv6 routes, 384K MAC addresses in the hardware FIB via FlexRoute. 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. 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

• 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

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: 1RU — 17.3 × 1.72 × 22.0 inches (43.99 × 4.37 × 55.83 cm)
• Weight: 27 lbs (12.27 kg)
• Power: 535W typical / 851W maximum; PWR-1011 AC or DC power supplies
• Redundancy: Dual hot-swappable PSU (1+1) and 3 hot-swappable FAN-7011H fan trays (N+1)
• Storage: 8 GB Flash, 120 GB SSD, 1 × USB port
• System Memory: 64 GB DRAM (K-variant standard), 8 GB packet buffer

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.

Scalability and Table Sizes

• MAC Addresses: 384K
• IPv4 Unicast Routes: Over 5M (FlexRoute K-variant)
• IPv6 Unicast Routes: Over 5M (FlexRoute K-variant)
• Algorithmic ACLs: Over 100K rules
• ECMP: 512-way
• LACP: 256 ports/channel, 2048 groups, 512 ports per MLAG
• Minimum EOS: 4.22.1
• EOS Feature License: Group 3

Similar Arista Models to Consider

• DCS-7280CR3-36S-F: 36 QSFP ports with flexible 1/10/25/40/50/100/200/400G breakout capability; 2.4 Tbps throughput
• DCS-7280CR3K-96-F: 96 × QSFP28 ports; 9.6 Tbps throughput; 16 GB packet buffer; 2U form factor
• DCS-7280SR3K-48YC8-F: 48 × 25G SFP + 8 × 100G QSFP ports; 2 Tbps throughput; optimized for leaf deployments

Related 7280R3 Series Resources

Summary

• Ports: 32 x 100GbE QSFP28 ports, 4 x 400GbE QSFP-DD uplinks
• Performance: Up to 12.8 Tbps switching capacity
• Cooling: Front-to-back (F) airflow for optimal cooling in data center environments
• Routing Protocols: Supports advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols, including BGP, OSPF, and EVPN
• Latency: Ultra-low latency for real-time, high-performance applications
• Management: Managed through Arista EOS with support for both CLI and cloud-based management
• Security: Advanced security features including ACLs, encryption support, and secure management access

• Security: Advanced security features ensure robust protection for sensitive data.
• Efficiency: Energy-efficient design combined with front-to-back airflow for optimal cooling.
• Reliability: Hot-swappable components and redundant systems ensure continuous operation.
• Innovation: Powered by Arista EOS, providing advanced features and future-ready network capabilities.
• Flexibility: Wide support for routing and switching protocols across diverse network environments.
• User-Friendly: Managed through Arista’s intuitive EOS system for simplified network control.
• Durability: Designed for long-term, enterprise-level operation in cloud and data center environments.

• 1-Year BrightStar warranty for end user customers
• 90-Day BrightStar Warranty for resellers

• Free FedEx Ground shipping within the United States
• FedEx Overnight shipping available as well
• FedEx International Shipping available for customers outside of the United States

Q1: What type of uplink ports does the DCS-7280CR3K-32P4-F feature?
A1: This switch provides 4 x 400GbE QSFP-DD uplinks, allowing for ultra-fast data transfer and flexible connectivity options.

Q2: Can the switch handle large-scale data center applications?
A2: Yes, with a switching capacity of up to 12.8 Tbps and 32 x 100GbE ports, it is optimized for high-performance, large-scale data center and cloud network applications.

Q3: What cooling configuration does this switch use?
A3: The DCS-7280CR3K-32P4-F features a front-to-back airflow design, making it ideal for data centers with specific cooling requirements.

Q4: Does the switch support advanced routing protocols?
A4: Yes, it supports a wide range of advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 routing protocols, including BGP, OSPF, and EVPN, ensuring robust and dynamic network routing.

Q5: Is it energy-efficient?
A5: Yes, this switch is designed for efficiency, optimizing power usage without compromising performance, which helps to lower operational costs.