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Extreme Networks Data Sheet:
Summit X480 Series
High-Performance and Highly Scalable Switching and Routing
Summit X480 offers core-class intelligent switching and routing with exceptional port density and high-performance
stacking technology powered by the ExtremeXOS modular OS. With its high performance switching and routing,
Summit X480 helps enhance the data center, Carrier Ethernet and enterprise aggregation network.
SummitStack – High-Performance
Stacking
Summit X480 supports SummitStack, which provides 40 Gbps
(VIM2-SummitStack), 80 Gbps (VIM2-SummitStack-V80)
or 128 Gbps (VIM2-SummitStack128) of stacking bandwidth.
High-speed 128 Gbps stacking is ideal for demanding
applications where a high volume of traffic traverses through the
stacking links, yet bandwidth is not compromised through
stacking. High-speed stacking is very useful in applications
such as top of rack when stacked with Summit X480 and
Summit X650 (requires optional conversion cable) and gigabit
aggregation in large enterprise or data center networks. With
the longer stacking cables such as 5-meters, stacking can be
configured through different racks horizontally in a row (see
Figure 3) as opposed to typical stacking system installed
vertically in a rack.
SummitStack-V – Flexible Stacking
Over 10 Gigabit Ethernet
SummitStack-V capability utilizes 10 GbE ports as stacking
ports, enabling the use of standard cabling and optics
technologies used for 10 GbE such as XFP, SFP+, 10GBASE-T
and XENPAK. SummitStack-V provides long-distance stacking
connectivity of up to 40 km while reducing the cable complexity
of implementing a stacking solution. SummitStack-V enabled
10 GbE ports must be physically direct-connected.
SummitStack-V is compatible with Summit X450e, X450a,
X460, X480, X650, X670 and X670V switches running the
same version of ExtremeXOS.
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
ExtremeXOS implementations of OpenFlow APIs allow an
external OpenFlow-based SDN controller to access and control
the forwarding plane of ExtremeXOS network devices.
ExtremeXOS-based switches offer a programming interface
through OpenFlow to enable high degree of automation in
provisioning network services for many upper layer business
critical applications running the OpenFlow-based SDN controller.
Extreme XOS-based switches also allow for integration with the
OpenStack open source cloud computing platform for public
and private clouds through the Extreme Networks Quantum
plugin. The plugin provides a scalable, automated, rich API-
driven system that enables networking-as-a-service model
managing data center interconnect solutions and large
multi-tenant networks.
High-Performance Switching and
Routing
Summit X480 is available in three different port configuration
options: 24-port Gigabit Ethernet and 2-port 10 Gigabit
Ethernet (Summit X480-24x), 48-port copper Gigabit Ethernet
(Summit X480-48t), or 48-port fiber Gigabit Ethernet
(Summit X480-48x). All front panel ports run at non-blocking,
wire-speed performance and can carry wire-rate traffic towards
the Versatile Interface Module-2 (VIM2) slot. Summit X480
offers flexible configuration by using optional VIM2 modules
which are: 4-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Module (VIM2-10G4X),
2-port SummitStack Module (VIM2-SummitStack), 2-port
SummitStack128 Module (VIM2-SummitStack128) or 2-port
SummitStack-V80 Module (VIM2-SummitStack-V80) (see
Figure 1: Port configuration options for Summit X480 switches).
Flexible Port Configuration
Summit X480 offers flexible port configurations from standard
configuration to optional VIM2 modules. For Summit X480-24x,
half of the Gigabit Ethernet ports can handle dual personality—
select from either 10/100/1000BASE-T copper Gigabit Ethernet
or 100/1000BASE-X fiber Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. In the
case of Summit X480-48t, the last four Gigabit Ethernet ports
are configured as dual personality ports to provide flexibility
between copper and fiber Gigabit Ethernet.
Through the VIM2 slot, Summit X480 can add an additional
four 10 Gigabit Ethernet or SummitStack stacking ports. For
stacking, depending upon the needs for bandwidth across the
units in a stack, Summit X480 supports 40 Gbps SummitStack,
80 Gbps SummitStack-V80 or 128Gbps SummitStack128
through VIM2 option modules (See Figure 2: Summit X480-24x
flexible port configuration). A third option, SummitStack-V,
utilizes 10 GbE ports as stacking ports.
Summit X480 supports flexible 10 gigabit optical transceivers
such as 10GBASE-SR, LR, ER and ZR as well as tunable DWDM.
Tunable DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing)
support allows service providers and others to tune XFP 10
Gigabit Ethernet optics to a specific frequency, reducing the
need for additional fiber runs and XFP sparing. Digital
Diagnostics Monitoring Interface support allows service
providers to monitor and diagnose pluggable optics in
real-time.
