Juniper Networks EX4500 10 GbE Switch

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Highlights

  • Virtualises the data centre with Virtual Chassis (VC) - delivers 128 Gigabit (Gb) of east–west traffic that outperforms traditional stacking solutions
  • Virtualises economically - VC across an EX4500 10 Gb Ethernet (GbE) switch and an IBM J48E 1 GbE switch to enable price and performance optimised solutions
  • Simplifies configuration, administration and diagnostics - VC presents multiple switches to appear as one switching entity
  • Simplifies upgrades, configuration and support - a single Junos operating system across all networking tiers
  • IBM three-year warranty includes next business day-replacement, with telephone support and software fixes.

In today’s virtualised data centre, 70 percent of server network traffic travels in the east-to-west direction. This places a new design requirement on network engineers. Stacking technologies do not address the bandwidth requirements that are needed within a high performance computing (HPC) environment. To solve this problem, network designers turn to the Juniper Networks EX4500 10 GbE Switch.

The Juniper Networks EX4500 simplifies your network design in an increasingly complex virtualised data centre. It is positioned for top-of-rack applications with sizable east/west virtual machine (VM) server traffic and data centre environments that desire an easy/non-disruptive migration path from 1 GbE to 10 GbE while maintaining the manageability of a single switch.

It is a 40-port 10 GbE small form factor pluggable (SFP+) switch with server-friendly airflow options that include front-to-back and back-to-front air flow. As your network grows, it supports field-installable expansion modules (two of them) that each hold four ports of 10 GbE SFP+, increasing the switch’s capacity to a maximum of 48 ports of 10 GbE. Operating at wire speed, the EX4500 switches deliver 714 Mpps throughput and a data rate of 960 Gb per second (Gbps) (full duplex) for both Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols. The EX4500 is also environmentally conscious, drawing less than 8 W per port under maximum load.

Its most significant feature is the standard 128 Gb VC Module. It is purpose-built to simplify the design of networking your virtualised servers. The 128 Gb VC module delivers exceptional performance for east-west direct-attached IBM servers, eliminating the need for an aggregation network tier. This capacity greatly exceeds the capacity of most currently marketed solutions. The VC module enables simultaneous connectivity to another EX4500 and up to eight IBM J48E 1 GbE switches. This provides a price-optimised solution for 1 GbE and 10 GbE server connectivity and an easy migration path to 10 GbE while maintaining a single-switch presence.


Product features

  • Full Layer 2 and Layer 3 Ethernet switching
  • VC technology enables up to two EX4500 and eight J48E/EX4200 switches to be interconnected as a single logical device with 128 Gb connectivity to accommodate east-west traffic in a virtualised data centre
  • EX4500 is multipurpose; delivering data centre top-of-rack and aggregation-level switching
  • Interconnected switches in a VC configuration share a single management and control plane and automatically assign master (active) and backup (hot-standby) Routing Engines

Hardware summary

  • Up to 48×1/10 GbE ports in a compact form factor (2U)
  • 40×1/10 GbE ports in the base unit
  • Optional 4×1/10 GbE ports in expansion module. Each EX4500 supports two modules
  • Scalable to 96×10 GbE ports managed as a single switch and 128 GbE connections for Virtualised (east-west) server traffic
  • Redundant, internal hot-swappable power supplies (optional)
  • Redundant fans in the standard fan tray
  • Liquid crystal display (LCD) to enable fast access to display system status, perform basic setup and assist with diagnostics
  • Front-to-back and back-to-front airflow options provide flexible and server-optimised deployments
  • Integrated application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-based Packet Forwarding Engine and integrated Routing Engine (RE) deliver switching and routing functionality at wire rates

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