Overview:

Today's enterprise network core and aggregation layers are quickly moving to 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switching as enterprises rapidly adopt applications such as High-Definition (HD) video, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which drive the need for resilient, high-bandwidth access networks. To meet these challenges, campus network solutions must provide better performance, port density, reliability, security, Quality of Service (QoS), and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Likewise, data centers are expanding to accommodate data storage growth. Requirements such as application convergence, non-stop operation, scalability, high availability, and power efficiency are placing even greater demands on the network infrastructure.

The RUCKUS ICX 7750 switch delivers industry-leading 10/40 GbE port density, advanced high-availability capabilities, and flexible stacking architecture, making it the most robust RUCKUS aggregation and core distributed chassis switch offering for enterprise LANs. In addition to rich Layer 3 features, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 scales to 12-unit distributed-chassis stacking and serves as the Control Bridge (master brain) for RUCKUS Campus Fabric technology.

Part of the RUCKUS ICX family of switches for campus LAN and classic Ethernet data center environments, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 switch is a 1U high-performance solution that meets the needs of business-sensitive campus deployments and classic data center environments. With a low latency, cut-through, non-blocking architecture, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 provides a cost-effective, robust solution for the most demanding deployments.

Deployed as a standalone switch, a stack, or a network fabric, organizations reap the benefits of a flexible platform and the assurance that their investments are protected.

Leading-Edge Design Flexibility and Reliability

The RUCKUS ICX 7750 switch provides the capabilities of a chassis with the flexibility and cost effectiveness of a stackable switch. RUCKUS ICX 7750 is available in three models: the RUCKUS ICX 7750-48F, ICX 7750-48C, and ICX 7750-26Q. The RUCKUS ICX 7750-48F and ICX 7750-48C both offer 48 10 GbE ports (SFP+ and 10GBASE-T, respectively) and up to 12 40 GbE ports (six optional). The RUCKUS ICX 7750-26Q offers up to 32 40 GbE QSFP+ ports (six optional). All models support stacking, which allows organizations to buy only the ports they need now and expand later by adding switches to the stack where and when they are needed. This eliminates the need for a forklift upgrade and helps avoid provisioning an underutilized, centralized chassis.

Up to 12 RUCKUS ICX 7750 switches can be stacked together using up to 12 fullduplex 40 Gbps standard QSFP+ stacking ports that provide an unprecedented maximum of 5.76 Tbps of aggregated stacking bandwidth with full redundancy, eliminating inter-switch bottlenecks (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Up to 12 RUCKUS ICX 7750 Switches can be stacked using up to 12 standard full-duplex 40 Gbps QSFP+ ports per switch, providing up to 5.76 Tbps of aggregated stacking bandwidth.

RUCKUS ICX switches support a distributed chassis deployment model that uses standards-based optics and cabling interface connections to help ensure maximum distance between campus switches-up to 10 km-and minimum cabling costs-up to 50 percent less than incumbent solutions. The distributed chassis design future-proofs campus networks by allowing networks to easily and cost-effectively expand in scale and capabilities.

Figure 2: The RUCKUS ICX 7750 features hot-swappable redundant power supplies (1+1) and fans (3+1), and an optional 6 40 GbE ports module that can be used for stacking or as additional 40 GbE data ports.

Increased Reliability and Availability Through Redundancy

The RUCKUS ICX 7750 includes dual internal redundant power supplies. These power supplies are hot-swappable and load-sharing with auto-sensing and auto-switching capabilities (see Figure 5). The hot-swappable power supplies (1+1) and fan assembly (3+1) allow organizations to replace components without service disruption. In addition, several high-availability and fault-detection features help in failover of critical data flows, enhancing overall system availability and reliability.

RUCKUS Multi-Chassis Trunking (MCT) supports dual homing of wiring closet access switches, or servers in a rack, to two RUCKUS ICX 7750 switches in an MCT peer group, eliminating the risk of a single point of failure. In conjunction with MCT, VRRP-E (the RUCKUS extension to VRRP for MCT) provides redundancy and sub-second failover for both Layer 2 and Layer 3. For metro or campus deployments in a ring topology, the RUCKUS Metro Ring Protocol (MRP-I and MRPII) prevents Layer 2 loops and enables faster re-convergence than Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) with sub-second failover.

High Availability with Hitless Failover

RUCKUS stacking technology helps provide high availability, performing real-time state synchronization across the stack and enabling instantaneous hitless failover to a standby controller in the unlikely event of a failure of the master stack controller. Organizations also can use hot-insertion/removal of stack members to avoid interrupting service when adding a switch to increase the capacity of a stack or replacing a switch that needs servicing. These features provide another level of availability for the campus wiring closet in a compact form factor. In addition to stack-level high availability, RUCKUS ICX Switches also support stack-level In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU), a unique capability that enables a stack of RUCKUS ICX Switches to go through a software upgrade without service interruption. Additional design features include intake and exhaust temperature sensors and fan spin detection to quickly identify abnormal or failed operating conditions- helping to minimize mean time to repair.

Green Networks Lower TCO

As application data and storage requirements continue to rise exponentially, demand for higher port density and bandwidth grows, along with the number of network devices and power consumption. Organizations seeking to reduce TCO need solutions that can provide higher scalability and density per rack unit, thereby reducing power consumption and heat dissipation.

The RUCKUS ICX 7750 addresses those needs with a state-of-the-art ASIC, reversible airflow, automatic fan-speed control, and powerefficient optics to ensure the most efficient use of power and cooling. For low-cost, low-latency, and low-energy-consuming cabling within and between the racks, the switch supports SFP+ direct-attached copper cables at up to 5 meters. For switch-to-switch connectivity, RUCKUS ICX 7750 supports low-power consuming SFP+ and 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ optical transceivers at up to 100 meters. In high-port-density deployments, these features save significant operating costs.

Advanced QoS Improves Data Traffic Integrity

The RUCKUS ICX 7750 offers superior QoS features designed to ensure high reliability services throughout the data center. It can identify, mark, classify, reclassify, and manage traffic based on specific criteria. This enables organizations to classify bandwidth-critical application traffic, discriminating among various traffic flows and enforcing bandwidth policies. After the traffic is classified, organizations have complete control over the method the system uses to service the queues: Weighted Round Robin (WRR), Strict Priority (SP), or a mix of both. For granular control to regulate bandwidth utilization, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 can also perform ingress rate limiting and egress rate shaping.

Advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 Features

To provide self-healing topologies in Layer 2 configurations, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 supports industry-standard Ethernet protocols, including multiple varieties of STP and link aggregation as well as optic-, link-, and switch-level fault detection and correction features. The advanced Layer 2 and Layer 3 feature set is leveraged from RUCKUS FastIron software that have been field-proven in enterprise and data center networks for more than a decade. With rich Layer 3 features enabled, organizations can utilize the RUCKUS ICX 7750 in multiple applications.

Multicast-Based Applications

The use of video, financial, and other one-to-many applications requires support for scalable multicast services. The RUCKUS ICX 7750 supports IGMPv1/2/3, PIM-SM/SSM/DM, MSDP, Any cast RP, and PIM and IGMP/MLD Snooping for optimized multicast forwarding. In addition, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 provides storm-control features to contain and intelligently switch rather than broadcast multicast traffic.

Security Capacbilities

RUCKUS ICX 7750 provides robust security through a wide range of advanced features. Organizations can use both regular and extended Access Control Lists (ACLs) to control access to and through data center networks. Organizations can use control policies that permit or deny traffic based on a wide variety of identification characteristics- such as source/destination MAC addresses, source/destination IP addresses, TCP/UDP ports/sockets, and well-known port numbers- further protecting and restricting network access.

For maximum security, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 leverages 802.1x security, MAC authentication, port MAC security, and MAC filter enhancements. The RUCKUS ICX 7750 implements hardware-based ACL, so security does not adversely affect switching performance. In addition, the RUCKUS ICX 7750 provides hardware-based protection against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks (ICMP flood and TCP SYN) as well as hardware-based private VLAN attacks-with no impact on CPU utilization. BPDU Guard and Root Guard can be used to prevent rogue hijacking of the spanning tree root and maintain a contention-free-and loop-free-environment, especially during dynamic network deployments.

Data Center Top-of-Rack Server Connecivity

The RUCKUS ICX 7750 is designed to fit in server racks, consuming only one rack unit. To simplify cabling, the 10 GbE Network Interface Cards (NICs) in the servers connect to the ICX 7750 10 GbE ports by using fiber and SFP+ optical transceivers, SFP+ direct-attached copper cable, or standard copper Ethernet twisted pair cables with 10GBASE-T. If any servers in the rack have only 1 GbE-capable NICs, organizations can connect them to the same ICX 7750 switch by using a 10 GbE port as a 1 GbE port through an SFP or copper port. The RUCKUS ICX 7750 ToR switch can connect to the data center middleof-row/end-of-row aggregation chassis with either 10 GbE or 40 GbE, usually through link aggregation.