Arista DCS-7280SR3E-40YC6-F — 40×SFP25 (1/10/25G) + 6×100GbE Switch Router with Front-to-Rear Airflow
TheÂ
Arista DCS-7280SR3E-40YC6-FÂ is a 1RU switch router in the 7280R3 Series, deliveringÂ
800 Gbps of non-blocking switching capacity withÂ
40 × SFP25 ports (supporting 1GbE, 10GbE, and 25GbE) andÂ
6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplinks. Built on a deep buffer VOQ ASIC platform withÂ
2 GB of packet buffer memory andÂ
3.8 µs store-and-forward latency, the SR3E-40YC6 provides full Layer 2/3 switch router capabilities including BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS (LDP, RSVP-TE, BGP LU), SR-TE, EVPN, VXLAN, and 512-way ECMP. WithÂ
600 Mpps forwarding rate andÂ
over 2M IPv4 routes supported in hardware, it delivers comprehensive routing scale for high-density leaf and aggregation deployments. The “
-F” suffix denotesÂ
front-to-rear airflow, where cool air enters from the non-port side and exhausts from the port side. For rear-to-front airflow, see theÂ
DCS-7280SR3E-40YC6-R.
Key Features at a Glance
- 40 × SFP25 ports supporting 1GbE, 10GbE, and 25GbE speeds over single-mode or multi-mode fiber (LC connector)
- 6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplinks supporting breakout to 4×25GbE or 4×10GbE
- Maximum 52 total interfaces: 6 × 100GbE, 12 × 50GbE, 6 × 40GbE (QSFP+), 52 × 25/10G, or 36 × 1GbE
- 800 Gbps (1600 Gbps non-blocking) non-blocking switching capacity with 600 Mpps forwarding rate
- 3.8 µs store-and-forward latency with 2 GB VOQ packet buffer — eliminates head-of-line blocking
- Full Layer 3 switch router:Â BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS (LDP, RSVP-TE, BGP LU), SR-TE, EVPN, VXLAN, 512-way ECMP, BGP-RPKI
- Over 2M IPv4 unicast routes, 384K MAC addresses in the R3 non-K FIB
- Quad-core x86 CPUÂ with 8 GB DRAM (32 GB optional) running Arista EOS
- IEEE 1588v2 PTP and SyncEÂ hardware-assisted precision timing for 5G and carrier environments
- Accelerated sFlow:Â Hardware-accelerated telemetry for flow analysis and capacity planning
- CloudVision integration, Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP), Python/Bash scripting, OpenConfig
- Hot-swappable dual PSU (1+1) and N+1 fan trays (FAN-7011M); front-to-rear (-F) airflow
- 1RU form factor — 130W typical / 214W maximum power draw
- BrightStar Systems:Â Supplied fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty
800 Gbps (1600 Gbps) Non-Blocking VOQ Architecture
The DCS-7280SR3E-40YC6-F deliversÂ
800 Gbps (1600 Gbps non-blocking) of full-duplex switching throughput. TheÂ
Virtual Output Queue (VOQ)Â ASIC architecture maintains separate queues for each input-to-output port pair, eliminating head-of-line blocking. With aÂ
600 Mpps forwarding rate, the switch operates at full line rate across all port combinations regardless of traffic mix or packet size distribution. TheÂ
2 GB 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 7280SR3E-40YC6-F operates in store-and-forward mode with a measured latency ofÂ
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 7280SR3E-40YC6-F provides 40 × SFP25 ports and 6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplink ports:
- 40 × SFP25 ports: Support for 1GbE (SFP-1G-*), 10GbE (SFP-10G-*), and 25GbE (SFP-25G-*) speeds over single-mode or multi-mode fiber (LC connector). Auto-negotiation between supported speeds.
- 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: 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 6 × 100GbE + 12 × 50GbE, or 6 × 100GbE + 24 × 25GbE, or 52 × 25/10G mixed, or 36 × 1GbE via combinations of native and breakout ports. Maximum 52 total interfaces.
Layer 2/3 Switch Router Capabilities
The 7280SR3E-40YC6-F operates as a unified switch router with full Layer 2 and Layer 3 feature sets:
- BGP Full-Table Routing:Â Over 2M IPv4 unicast routes, 384K MAC addresses in the hardware FIB. Supports MP-BGP, BGP graceful restart, BGP RPKI (Route Origin Validation), and 512-way ECMP for load balancing across equal-cost paths.
- MPLS:Â 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:Â SR-TE (Segment Routing with Traffic Engineering), TI-LFA for fast convergence, OSPF-SR, ISIS-SR, and BGP-SR.
- EVPN and VXLAN:Â 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:Â OSPF, OSPFv3, IS-IS, RIPv2, VRF, BFD, Micro BFD, uRPF, VRRP/VRRPv3, VARP, PBR, and BGP FlowSpec.
- Layer 2:Â 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.
Precision Timing
- PTP IEEE 1588v2:Â Hardware-assisted Precision Time Protocol supporting Boundary Clock and Transparent Clock modes.
- SyncE:Â Synchronous Ethernet per ITU-T G.8264 for frequency distribution in carrier and 5G environments.
Telemetry, Monitoring, and Analytics
- LANZ (Latency Analyzer):Â 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:Â Hardware-accelerated sampled packet telemetry for flow analysis and capacity planning.
- Streaming Telemetry:Â 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:Â Arista’s telemetry fabric for advanced mirroring, SPAN/TAP aggregation, and L2/3/4 filtering.
EOS Automation and Provisioning
The 7280SR3E-40YC6-F runsÂ
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:Â 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:Â Native on-box scripting with full Linux shell access for custom event handlers and automation workflows.
- eAPI (JSON-RPC):Â RESTful programmatic interface to all configuration and operational commands. Integrates with Ansible, Terraform, and custom orchestration.
- OpenConfig and gNMI:Â Vendor-neutral data models and high-performance streaming RPC for configuration and telemetry.
Security
- Control Plane Policing (CoPP):Â Rate-limiting of CPU-destined traffic to protect routing stability
- ACLs:Â Ingress/egress access control lists at L2, L3, and L4 enforced in the ASIC at line rate
- TACACS+ and RADIUS:Â Centralized authentication and accounting for administrative access
- Secure Boot:Â Cryptographic verification of bootloader and EOS image integrity
- MAC Security, DHCP Relay/Snooping, ARP trapping for Layer 2 security enforcement
Note:Â MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) is supported on M and MK model variants only. The SR3E-40YC6 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
- ECNÂ (Explicit Congestion Notification) marking for TCP-friendly congestion signaling
- PFC (Priority Flow Control) and DCBX (Data Center Bridging Exchange) for converged traffic
Physical Specifications and Airflow
The “
-F” airflow configuration providesÂ
front-to-rear cooling, where cool air enters from the non-port side and exhausts from the port side. Both -F andÂ
-R (rear-to-front)Â variants are electrically identical.
- Form Factor: 1RU — 17.3 × 1.72 × 18.46 inches (43.99 × 4.37 × 46.9 cm)
- Weight:Â 21.1 lbs (9.57 kg)
- Power:Â 130W typical / 214W maximum; PWR-511 (AC or DC) power supplies
- Redundancy:Â Dual hot-swappable PSU (1+1) and 2 hot-swappable fan trays (FAN-7011M) supporting N+1
- Storage: 4 GB Flash, optional SSD, 1 × USB port
- Compliance:Â FCC Class A, CE, RoHS, WEEE
Lifecycle and Reliability
- Self-Healing Software:Â 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:Â Dual-partition boot with Smart System Upgrade (SSU) and Accelerated Software Update (ASU) for planned upgrades with minimal disruption.
- Configuration Rollback:Â Instant rollback to previous configuration snapshots via EOS configuration replace.
- BrightStar Systems 1-Year Warranty:Â Supplied fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty.
Scalability and Table Sizes
- MAC Addresses:Â 384K
- IPv4 Unicast Routes:Â Over 2M
- ECMP:Â 512-way
- LACP:Â 64 ports/channel, 224 groups
- MLAG:Â 128 ports per MLAG
- Minimum EOS:Â 4.27.1
- EOS Feature License:Â Group 2
Similar Arista Models to Consider
- DCS-7280SR3-40YC6-F: 40 × SFP25 + 6 × QSFP28 with standard memory (8 GB); same port layout with base configuration for cost-optimized deployments.
- DCS-7280SR3K-48YC8A-F: 48 × SFP25 + 8 × QSFP28 with expanded memory and eight-core CPU; increased port density and routing scale for larger deployments.
- DCS-7280CR3-36S-F: 36 × QSFP ports with flexible 1/10/25/40/50/100/200/400G breakout; higher density for core/spine deployments.
Related 7280R3 Series Resources
For comprehensive technical documentation and comparative model information across the Arista 7280 family, visitÂ
In-depth technical overview of the Arista 7280R3 series.
Summary
The Arista DCS-7280SR3E-40YC6-F is a 1RU switch router combining 40 × SFP25 ports (supporting 1G/10G/25G) with 6 × 100GbE QSFP28 uplinks, 800 Gbps non-blocking throughput, 2 GB VOQ packet buffer, and full Layer 2/3 capabilities including BGP, MPLS, SR-TE, EVPN, and VXLAN. With over 2M IPv4 routes, 512-way ECMP, BGP RPKI support, and precision timing (PTP/SyncE), the SR3E-40YC6 is optimized for high-density leaf and aggregation roles. Running Arista EOS with CloudVision integration, ZTP, Accelerated sFlow, and comprehensive telemetry (LANZ, AEM, DANZ), the 7280SR3E-40YC6-F is available from BrightStar Systems fully tested, reset to factory defaults, and backed by a 1-year in-house warranty.
