Arista DCS-7280SR-48C6-F — 48×SFP+ + 6×100GbE Switch Router with Front-to-Rear Airflow
The
Arista DCS-7280SR-48C6-F is a 1RU switch router in the 7280R Series, delivering
2.16 Tbps of non-blocking switching capacity with
48 × SFP+ fiber access ports (1/10GbE) and
6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplink ports. Built on a deep buffer VOQ ASIC platform with
4 GB of packet buffer memory and
3.8 µs store-and-forward latency, the 7280SR-48C6 provides full Layer 2/3 switch router capabilities — full BGP routing, MPLS, Segment Routing, EVPN, VXLAN, and 128-way ECMP — with SFP+ fiber access interfaces ideal for traditional datacenter and service provider aggregation layers. The “
-F” suffix denotes
front-to-rear (standard) airflow, where cool air enters from the non-port side and exhausts from the port side of the chassis. For rear-to-front airflow, see the
DCS-7280SR-48C6-R.
Key Features at a Glance
- 48 × SFP+ fiber ports (1GbE / 10GbE) supporting 1000BASE-SX, LX, ZX and 10GBASE-SR, LR, ER, ZR, XR — up to 72 × 10GbE via breakout
- 6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplinks supporting 100GBASE-SR4, LR4, DR, FR, CWDM4, ZR/ZR+, and DAC/AOC cables. Breakout to 4×25GbE or 4×10GbE via standard breakout cables.
- 2.16 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity with 720 Mpps forwarding rate
- 3.8 µs store-and-forward latency with 4 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-MPLS, EVPN, VXLAN, 128-way ECMP
- 768K host routes (IPv4 and IPv6), over 1M IPv4 LPM routes, 928K IPv6 LPM routes — full Internet routing table support
- Quad-core x86 CPU with 8 GB DRAM (32 GB optional) running Arista EOS
- IEEE 1588v2 PTP hardware-assisted Precision Time Protocol for network clock synchronization
- Telemetry: LANZ, 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 — 263W typical / 381W maximum power draw
- BrightStar Systems: Supplied fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty
2.16 Tbps Non-Blocking VOQ Architecture
The DCS-7280SR-48C6-F delivers
2.16 Tbps of full-duplex, non-blocking throughput — (48 × 10 Gbps) + (6 × 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
720 Mpps forwarding rate, the switch operates at full line rate across all port combinations regardless of traffic mix or packet size distribution. The
4 GB deep packet buffer is distributed across the VOQ structure, providing substantial burst absorption capacity. Unlike shared-memory switches with smaller buffer pools, 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 and datacenter cluster environments.
3.8 µs Store-and-Forward Latency
The 7280SR-48C6-F operates in store-and-forward mode with a measured latency of
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 trades the sub-microsecond latency of cut-through architectures for 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 7280SR-48C6-F provides 48 × SFP+ fiber access ports and 6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplink ports:
- 48 × SFP+ (1GbE / 10GbE): Multi-rate transceivers supporting 1000BASE-SX, LX, ZX (1 Gbps) and 10GBASE-SR, LR, ER, ZR, XR (10 Gbps). Each port auto-negotiates speed at link-up. SFP+ supports 1G and 10G ONLY — no 25G capability.
- 6 × 100GbE QSFP28: Support for 100GBASE-SR4, LR4, DR, FR, CWDM4, ZR/ZR+, and DAC/AOC cables. Breakout to 4×25GbE or 4×10GbE via standard breakout cables.
- Management: 2 × 100/1000 Mbps out-of-band management ports + 1 × RS-232 RJ-45 console port, independent of the forwarding plane.
- Maximum port configurations: Up to 72 × 10GbE ports (48 SFP+ + 24 via QSFP28 breakout), or 6 × 100GbE + 48 × 10GbE in the base configuration.
Layer 2/3 Switch Router Capabilities
The 7280SR-48C6-F operates as a unified switch router with full Layer 2 and Layer 3 feature sets:
- BGP Full-Table Routing: 768K IPv4 and IPv6 host routes, over 1M IPv4 unicast LPM routes, 928K IPv6 LPM routes in the hardware FIB. Supports MP-BGP, BGP graceful restart, and 128-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-MPLS for simplified traffic engineering without per-path LSP state in the network core.
- EVPN and VXLAN: VXLAN Tunnel Endpoint (VTEP) and EVPN control plane for multi-tenant overlay networks, data center interconnect, and MAC mobility.
- Routing Protocols: OSPF, OSPFv3, IS-IS, RIPv2, VRF, BFD, uRPF, VRRP, VARP, and Policy-Based Routing (PBR).
- Layer 2: 802.1w/s Spanning Tree, RPVST+, 4096 VLANs, Q-in-Q, 802.3ad LACP (64 ports/channel, 224 groups), MLAG (128 ports per MLAG), Jumbo Frames (9216 bytes), IGMP snooping.
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.
- sFlow v5: Industry-standard traffic sampling for flow analysis and capacity planning. Integrates with third-party collectors (Kentik, Splunk, Solarwinds).
- 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 (14 sessions), port mirroring, SPAN/TAP M:N aggregation, and L2/3/4 filtering.
- IEEE 1588v2 PTP: Hardware-assisted Precision Time Protocol for synchronized network timing, supporting Boundary Clock and Transparent Clock modes.
EOS Automation and Provisioning
The 7280SR-48C6-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.
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 — up to 24K ACL entries per forwarding engine
- TACACS+ and RADIUS: Centralized authentication and accounting for administrative access
- Secure Boot: Cryptographic verification of bootloader and EOS image integrity
- 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
- Egress shaping and policing per-interface and per-queue
Physical Specifications and Airflow
The “
-F” airflow configuration provides
front-to-rear (standard) cooling, where cool air enters from the non-port side and exhausts from the port side. Both -F and
-R (rear-to-front) variants are electrically identical.
- Form Factor: 1RU — 19 × 1.75 × 16 inches (48.3 × 4.4 × 40.6 cm)
- Weight: 17.8 lbs (8.1 kg)
- Power: 263W typical / 381W maximum; 500W AC or 500W DC power supplies
- Redundancy: Dual hot-swappable PSU (1+1) and 4 hot-swappable fan trays (N+1)
- Storage: 4 GB Flash, optional SSD, 2 × USB ports
- Compliance: FCC Class A, CE, RoHS, WEEE, NEBS
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: 768K
- IPv4 Host Routes: 768K
- IPv6 Unicast Host Routes: 768K
- IPv4 Unicast LPM Routes: Over 1M
- IPv6 Unicast LPM Routes: 928K
- Multicast Routes: Up to 768K
- ACL Entries per Forwarding Engine: 24K
- ECMP: 128-way
- LACP: 64 ports/channel, 224 groups
- MLAG: 128 ports per MLAG
Similar Arista Models to Consider
- DCS-7280CR-48-F: 48×QSFP28 (100G) + 8×QSFP+ (40G) for ultra-high-density core and spine deployments with 10.24 Tbps throughput.
- DCS-7280TR-48C6-F: 48×10GBASE-T RJ45 copper + 6×100GbE for copper-based access with same 2.16 Tbps switching capacity and routing table support.
- DCS-7280SRA-48C6-F: 48×SFP+ (1/10G) + 6×QSFP28 (100G) with AlgoMatch for advanced policy-based forwarding and packet classification.
Related 7280 Series Resources
For comprehensive technical documentation and comparative model information across the Arista 7280 family, visit
In-depth technical overview of the Arista 7280R series.
Summary
The Arista DCS-7280SR-48C6-F is a 1RU switch router combining 48 × SFP+ fiber access ports with 6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplinks, 2.16 Tbps non-blocking throughput, 4 GB VOQ deep packet buffer, and full Layer 2/3 capabilities including BGP, MPLS, SR-MPLS, EVPN, and VXLAN. Running Arista EOS with CloudVision integration, ZTP, and comprehensive telemetry (LANZ, sFlow, AEM, DANZ), the 7280SR-48C6-F is available from BrightStar Systems fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty.
