Cisco SPA-2X10GE Full Official Technical Specification Document

1. Product Overview

Official Full Designation

Core Definition

SKU Naming Breakdown

1. SPA: Shared Port Adapter, Cisco I-Flex modular expansion interface architecture
2. 2X10GE: Two independent physical 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports
3. No suffix: Native dual-mode LAN/WAN-PHY configurable operation (distinguished from single-PHY SPA-1X10GE-L-V2 LAN-only variant)
4. =: Standard spare part suffix for factory-new standalone replacement kits (SPA-2X10GE=)
5. -RF: Cisco Refresh certified refurbished spare SKU variant (SPA-2X10GE-RF)

Product Lifecycle Notice

• Official Global Release Year: 2010
• End-of-Sale (EoS) Status: Discontinued; Cisco ceased manufacturing new SPA-2X10GE hardware
• Direct Upgrade Replacement Models: SPA-2X10GE-V3 revised low-power variant, SFP+ based dual-port 10G SPAs for modern ASR 1000-X and Catalyst 8000 platforms
• Minimum Supported IOS/IOS XR Software Version: IOS 12.0(33)S for Cisco 12000 Series, IOS-XE 3.10S for ASR 1000 Series, IOS-XR 4.2 for CRS Carrier Routing Systems
• Software Maintenance Status: Only critical security vulnerability patches are provided for customers with active Cisco SMARTnet or DNA Advantage service contracts; no new interface feature enhancements are developed for this legacy SPA
• Legacy Status: End-of-life legacy hardware; certified refurbished SPA units, validated IOS/IOS XR firmware images and 24×7 Cisco TAC engineering support remain available through authorized Cisco distribution partners

Supported Router & Switch Platform Compatibility

1. Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASR1002-X, ASR1004, ASR1006, ASR1009-X)
2. Cisco 7600 Series Service Routers and Catalyst 6500 Series Switches (7600-SIP-400/600 interface processors supporting double-height SPA slots)
3. Cisco 12000 / XR 12000 Series Internet Routers
4. Cisco CRS Series Carrier Routing Systems
5. Cisco 10000 Series Edge Routers

Deployment Restrictions

1. OIR operational requirement: Full zero-impact Online Insertion and Removal functionality requires compliance with the minimum supported IOS/IOS XR software releases; outdated firmware versions may trigger temporary traffic outages during SPA or XFP hot-swap operations.
2. Double-height slot limitation: This SPA occupies two single-height SPA bays on a SIP processor card; it cannot be installed in single-height SPA slots.
3. XFP transceiver lock-in: Only Cisco-certified 10G XFP optical transceivers are fully validated and supported; third-party uncertified XFP modules may trigger compatibility, performance or monitoring telemetry failures.
4. SIP slot resource sharing: Multiple SPAs installed on a single SIP share the interface processor’s internal packet fabric bandwidth; simultaneous full line-rate 10G traffic across multiple SPAs on the same SIP may introduce minor forwarding latency under extreme aggregate load.
5. VLAN resource ceiling: Each SPA supports a maximum of 8000 total VLAN logical interfaces, with a hard limit of 4000 unique 802.1Q tagged VLANs per individual 10G physical portCisco.

Standard Factory Complete Bundle Contents

1. SPA-2X10GE double-height dual-port 10G LAN/WAN-PHY Shared Port Adapter expansion card
2. Anti-static ESD protective storage bag and custom foam shock-absorbent packaging
3. Quick-start hardware installation guide covering ESD static discharge prevention protocols, SIP slot OIR insertion/removal procedures, XFP transceiver installation best practices, IOS/IOS XR SPA interface configuration command reference examples
4. Global product regulatory compliance, electrical safety, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) certification documentation packet

Core Integrated Functional Capabilities

1. Two Independent Hot-Swappable XFP 10-Gigabit Ethernet Ports with Configurable LAN/WAN-PHY: The SPA provides two separate line-rate 10Gbps physical ports via field-replaceable XFP transceiver slots, fully compliant with IEEE 802.3ae 10-Gigabit Ethernet standards. Each port supports dynamic reconfiguration between LAN-PHY (pure standard Ethernet framing for data center and campus aggregation) and WAN-PHY (SONET/SDH-compatible framing for carrier circuit transport interworking). All XFP optics support real-time digital optical monitoring (DOM) telemetry for optical power, laser bias and temperature tracking via IOS CLI/SNMPCisco.
2. Full Line-Rate Wire-Speed Packet Processing Hardware Offload: Dedicated on-board multi-channel packet processing ASIC offloads all Layer 2 switching, Layer 3 IP routing, MPLS label switching, QoS traffic prioritization and ACL packet filtering tasks from the host router’s main route processor CPU, sustaining full non-oversubscribed 10Gbps bidirectional throughput per port with zero packet loss under maximum concurrent traffic load. The ASIC supports hardware acceleration for IP header checksum calculation, VLAN tag insertion/removal and hierarchical MPLS label stack manipulation.
3. Comprehensive Layer 2 Ethernet Feature Suite: Native hardware and software support for enterprise and service provider-grade L2 bridging functions: IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging and trunking, 802.1ad QinQ stacked VLAN termination, 802.3x full-duplex pause frame flow control, jumbo frame support up to 9188-byte payloads, MAC address-based L2 access control lists (ACLs), BPDU/CDP/VTP filtering and Layer 2 protocol tunneling for Metro Ethernet E-Line/E-Tree carrier servicesCisco.
4. Advanced Layer 3 & MPLS Carrier-Grade Service Feature Support: Fully integrated carrier-grade Layer 3 routing and MPLS transport capabilities, including static/dynamic IP routing (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP), policy-based routing (PBR), NAT address translation, EoMPLS Ethernet over MPLS pseudowires, VPLS virtual private LAN service, MPLS traffic engineering (TE) and segment routing. The SPA supports up to 5000 source/destination MAC accounting entries for ingress/egress traffic metering per SPA card, and up to 2000 destination MAC address filtering entries across the SPA’s two portsCisco.
5. Rich Hardware-Accelerated QoS Traffic Prioritization: On-board multi-queue QoS ASIC enables per-port, per-VLAN and per-flow traffic classification, marking, policing and queuing at wire speed without CPU intervention. Supported QoS mechanisms include 802.1p CoS marking, DSCP IP precedence marking, weighted fair queuing (WFQ), low-latency queuing (LLQ) for real-time VoIP/video streams, traffic shaping and hierarchical policing for service provider bandwidth tiering and SLA enforcement.
6. Zero-Disruption Online Insertion and Removal (OIR): Full OIR compliance supports hot-swap maintenance for both the entire SPA card within the SIP slot and individual XFP optical transceivers on the SPA front panel. Network traffic on other SPA interfaces hosted on the same SIP processor remains completely unaffected during hot-swap operations, eliminating costly multi-hour planned maintenance windows for production carrier and enterprise networks.
7. Unified IOS / IOS-XE / IOS-XR Single-Pane CLI Management: All SPA interface configuration, traffic monitoring, fault troubleshooting and optical telemetry functions are fully managed via the host chassis’s native Cisco IOS, IOS-XE or IOS-XR command-line interface (CLI). Network operators can view SPA hardware status, per-port link state, real-time throughput statistics, packet error counters, XFP DOM optical metrics and hardware fault alarms alongside all other router SIP/SPA interfaces within a single consistent management environment.
8. Comprehensive Real-Time Diagnostics & Remote SNMP Monitoring Toolset: Built-in IOS diagnostic utilities for 10G port troubleshooting: real-time link up/down state reporting, bidirectional ingress/egress byte/packet traffic counters, granular error frame logging (CRC errors, runt/jumbo frames, collision drops, policy discard packets), per-VLAN traffic metering and XFP DOM optical link health monitoring. The SPA implements standard Cisco SPA/Ethernet interface SNMP MIBs for remote network monitoring, with automatic SNMP trap generation triggered for critical port link failures, SPA hardware faults and XFP optical power threshold violations.

2. Hardware & Performance Specifications

Core Dual 10G XFP Port Technical Specifications

XFP 10-Gigabit Ethernet Interface (Dual Configurable LAN/WAN-PHY)

• Standard Compliance: IEEE 802.3ae 10-Gigabit Ethernet, XFP Multi-Source Agreement (MSA)
• Operating Mode: Per-port configurable LAN-PHY (10G Ethernet) or WAN-PHY (9.2946Gbps SONET/SDH compatible framing)
• Supported Transceiver Types: All Cisco-certified XFP optics (10GBASE-SR multimode, 10GBASE-LR single-mode, 10GBASE-LRM extended reach, 10GBASE-ZX long-haul, 10GBASE-CU direct attach copper)
• Digital Optical Monitoring (DOM): Full real-time telemetry support for transmit/receive optical power, laser bias current, transceiver internal temperature
• Duplex Operation: Full-duplex only; half-duplex operation not supported for 10G Ethernet
• Flow Control: IEEE 802.3x pause frame flow control (configurable ingress/egress enable/disable per port)
• Jumbo Frame Support: Maximum configurable MTU payload size of 9188 bytes
• VLAN Capacity: Max 8000 total VLAN logical interfaces per SPA; hard limit of 4000 unique 802.1Q tagged VLANs per physical port

Layer 2 / Layer 3 Forwarding Performance Metrics

• Line-Rate Throughput: Full 10Gbps bidirectional non-oversubscribed wire-speed packet forwarding per individual port
• MAC Address Table Capacity: Up to 2000 destination MAC address filtering entries per SPA; maximum 1000 MAC filter entries per individual port
• MAC Accounting Entries: Up to 5000 source/destination MAC traffic metering entries per SPA card
• Supported L3 Encapsulations: IPv4, IPv6, MPLS (all label stack depths), EoMPLS pseudowires
• Supported QoS Queues: Per-port multiple egress priority queues with LLQ low-latency real-time traffic support

Front Panel LED Indicator Definitions

1. STATUS LED (Global SPA Hardware Operational State)
   • Off: No power delivered to the SPA card, improperly seated SPA within the SIP slot, or catastrophic on-board ASIC hardware failure rendering the SPA non-functional
   • Solid Green: SPA card powered, fully recognized by the host SIP/route processor, all on-board packet processing ASICs initialized and operational, both 10G ports ready for traffic forwarding
   • Blinking Green: SPA undergoing IOS/IOS XR hardware initialization sequence during chassis boot or post-OIR hot-swap reactivation
   • Solid Amber: Critical SPA hardware fault detected (ASIC error, power supply anomaly, thermal over-limit alarm) or persistent port-level link failure triggering system fault logging
2. Port 1 LINK/ACT LED (First 10G XFP Port Link & Traffic Activity)
   • Off: No XFP transceiver installed in the SPA slot, no valid optical/copper physical layer link detected, or XFP transceiver hardware failure
   • Solid Green: Stable error-free full-duplex 10G physical layer link established with remote connected network device (switch, router, firewall)
   • Blinking Green: Active bidirectional data traffic transmitting and receiving over Port 1’s 10G XFP link; blink frequency proportional to aggregate traffic load
3. Port 2 LINK/ACT LED (Second 10G XFP Port Link & Traffic Activity)
   • Off: No XFP transceiver installed in the SPA slot, no valid optical/copper physical layer link detected, or XFP transceiver hardware failure
   • Solid Green: Stable error-free full-duplex 10G physical layer link established with remote connected network device (switch, router, firewall)
   • Blinking Green: Active bidirectional data traffic transmitting and receiving over Port 2’s 10G XFP link; blink frequency proportional to aggregate traffic load

Electrical & Thermal Specifications

Power Consumption

• Typical idle power draw (SPA powered on, no XFP transceivers installed, zero traffic): ~24 Watts typical total module power dissipation
• Typical medium-load power draw (two standard LR XFPs installed, moderate mixed 10G traffic flow on both ports): ~29 Watts typical total power dissipation
• Maximum full-load power consumption (both ports running full line-rate 10G bidirectional traffic, DOM telemetry continuously active): ≤33 Watts maximum peak thermal dissipation
• Power Delivery: 3.3V DC power supplied exclusively via the SIP slot internal backplane bus; no external auxiliary power connectors on the SPA hardware

Thermal & Environmental Operating Parameters

• Certified Continuous Operating Temperature Range: 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F) standard enterprise datacenter equipment room ambient environment
• Extended Short-Term Operating Temperature Range: -5°C to 70°C (23°F to 158°F) temporary commercial wide-temperature operating range
• Non-operating Storage Temperature Range: -40°C to 85°C (-40°F to 185°F) unpowered long-term storage conditions
• Operating Relative Humidity: 10% to 85% RH, non-condensing ambient humidity
• Storage Relative Humidity: 5% to 95% RH, non-condensing unpowered storage humidity
• Operating Altitude: Certified operational altitude range from -150m to 2000m (-500ft to 6500ft); extended validated altitude support up to 3000m (10,000ft)
• Cooling Design: Fully passive thermal dissipation architecture with integrated stamped aluminum heatsink mounted on the SPA PCB; no onboard rotating cooling fans. Chassis horizontal forced airflow from the host router’s internal cooling fans provides continuous convection cooling across the SPA heatsink under full peak dual-port 10G traffic load.

Physical Form Factor & Weight

• Form Factor: Standard double-height Shared Port Adapter (SPA) form factor, occupies two single-height SPA bays on compatible SIP processor cards
• Bare SPA Module Net Weight (excluding XFP transceivers, cabling and retail packaging): Approximately 460 grams (0.46 kg)
• Physical External Dimensions (H × W × D): 20mm (0.8in) × 172mm (6.75in) × 185mm (7.28in)

3. Regulatory & Compliance Certifications

1. Electrical Safety Standards: UL 60950-1, CSA C22.2 No. 60950-1, EN 60950-1, IEC 60950-1, GB 4943 Chinese national IT equipment safety standard
2. Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC/EMI) Standards: FCC CFR Title 47 Part 15 Class A, VCCI Class A ITE, EN55022 Class A, CISPR 22 Class A, ICES-003 Class A, CISPR 24, EN 61000 series surge, ESD and radiated immunity standards
3. Ethernet & SPA Architecture Compliance: IEEE 802.3ae 10-Gigabit Ethernet, XFP MSA Multi-Source Agreement, Cisco I-Flex SPA/SIP modular interface architecture specifications
4. Environmental Compliance Directives: EU RoHS Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive full compliance, EU WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling directive compliant

4. Core Deployment Advantages

1. Modular I-Flex SPA/SIP Dual-Port High-Density Architecture Delivers Unmatched Network Deployment Flexibility: The SPA-2X10GE leverages Cisco’s industry-standard I-Flex modular SPA/SIP design, enabling network architects to mix and match dual-port 10G Ethernet, single-port 10G Ethernet, POS, ATM and other SPA interface types within a single SIP processor card. This eliminates the need to deploy dedicated fixed-port router line cards for multi-port 10G connectivity, allowing customized, scalable interface deployments tailored to exact site bandwidth and service requirements, drastically reducing upfront capital expenditure and eliminating hardware over-provisioning for enterprise and service provider network edge and aggregation points.
2. Per-Port Configurable LAN/WAN-PHY Operation Enables Unified Packet/Circuit Carrier Network Convergence: Each of the SPA’s two independent 10G ports can be dynamically switched between LAN-PHY native Ethernet framing and WAN-PHY SONET/SDH-compatible transport framing, eliminating the requirement to deploy separate dedicated LAN-only and WAN-only 10G SPAs for mixed packet/circuit carrier network environments. It provides seamless interoperability with standard 10G Ethernet switches, firewalls and storage networking devices in data center environments, while also supporting legacy SONET/SDH carrier transport interworking for metro aggregation and long-haul backbone deployments.
3. Full Wire-Speed Hardware Offload Eliminates Host Router CPU Performance Bottlenecks: All Layer 2 switching, Layer 3 IP routing, MPLS label switching, QoS traffic prioritization and ACL packet filtering operations are fully offloaded to the SPA’s dedicated multi-channel on-board packet processing ASIC at line-rate 10Gbps throughput per port. This removes all CPU-intensive packet manipulation workloads from the host router’s main route processor, preserving critical CPU resources for core control-plane tasks including BGP/OSPF routing protocol adjacencies, device management and system logging, preventing routing protocol churn, packet latency spikes or service outages during peak dual-port aggregate 10G traffic loads.
4. Zero-Disruption OIR Hot-Swap Maintenance Minimizes Production Network Downtime: Complete Online Insertion and Removal (OIR) functionality supports hot-swap replacement of both the entire SPA card within the SIP slot and individual XFP optical transceivers on the SPA front panel without power cycling the host router chassis. All other active SPA interfaces hosted on the same SIP processor continue forwarding traffic without interruption during hot-swap maintenance procedures, eliminating costly multi-hour planned maintenance windows for production carrier and enterprise networks, drastically improving mission-critical high-bandwidth WAN service availability and reducing operational maintenance overhead for network operations teams.
5. Comprehensive Carrier-Grade L2/L3/MPLS/QoS Feature Suite Supports Full Converged Service Deployments: The SPA integrates a complete portfolio of enterprise and service provider-grade networking features fully implemented in hardware acceleration, eliminating reliance on slow software-only packet processing. Native support for QinQ stacked VLAN trunking, jumbo frames, MAC ACLs, MPLS pseudowires, VPLS, segment routing, hierarchical QoS and LLQ real-time voice/video prioritization enables operators to deploy fully converged unified communications, broadband residential carrier services, enterprise VPNs and data center interconnection workloads over dual-port 10G SPA interfaces, removing the requirement for separate dedicated interface hardware for distinct network service types and further reducing total network hardware TCO.
6. Passive Fanless Heatsink Thermal Architecture Delivers Superior Long-Term Hardware Reliability and Low Lifecycle Maintenance Costs: The SPA-2X10GE utilizes a fully passive convection cooling design with a solid integrated aluminum heatsink, containing no onboard rotating cooling fans. This completely eliminates all mechanical hardware failure risk vectors associated with fan motor wear, dust accumulation, fan power supply faults and airflow blockages, enabling stable 24/7 continuous unattended operation in remote unmanned central office equipment closets, data center aggregation racks and off-site regional network edge locations with minimal long-term on-site maintenance requirements. Low idle and peak full-load power consumption reduces overall router chassis energy draw and enterprise/carrier datacenter cooling operational energy costs over multi-year hardware service lifecycles, delivering substantial long-term total cost of ownership savings for large-scale distributed multi-site network deployments.
7. Unified IOS/IOS-XE/IOS-XR Single-Pane CLI Management Simplifies Multi-Platform Network Operations and Troubleshooting: All SPA hardware configuration, port VLAN/QoS/ACL provisioning, real-time traffic throughput monitoring, packet error counter analysis and XFP optical DOM telemetry tracking operations are fully managed through the host chassis’s native Cisco IOS, IOS-XE or IOS-XR command-line interface. Network administrators can monitor the SPA’s operational status, link health and traffic statistics alongside all other router SIP/SPA interfaces within a single consistent unified management environment, eliminating the need for separate standalone interface management software or dedicated out-of-band monitoring infrastructure for dual-port 10G SPA line cards. This drastically reduces network administrator training overhead, streamlines network change management workflows and accelerates critical high-bandwidth WAN service fault resolution troubleshooting for distributed enterprise and carrier network environments.

Supplementary Product Specification Notes

UNSPSC Classification Code

K9 Security Compliance Note

Factory Hardware Warranty Terms