Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9316D-GX

1. Part Number Naming Breakdown

Model: N9K-C9316D-GX

N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud-scale fixed data center switch family
C9316D: High-capacity compact spine chassis with 16 × QSFP-DD high-speed optical ports
D: QSFP-DD dual-density port interface supporting native 400G / backward compatible 100G
GX: Next-generation GX Cloud Scale ASIC platform, 400G-native silicon, enlarged 80MB shared packet buffer, ultra-large L2/L3 TCAM scale, optimized RoCEv2 lossless transport for AI/HPC, dual operational modes: standalone NX-OS and ACI intent-based fabric mode

2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)

Cisco Nexus N9K-C9316D-GX, 1RU rack-mount compact high-performance 400G spine data center switch, 16 universal QSFP-DD 100G/400G non-breakout optical ports, 6.4 Tbps full non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable 1100W Platinum-efficiency redundant power supplies and six 5+1 redundant variable-speed fan trays, dual-mode standalone NX-OS or ACI fabric operation, purpose-built for leaf-spine fabric core spine interconnection, AI/ML GPU cluster aggregation, hyperscale multi-tenant cloud core, media streaming networks and 5G edge NFV deployments.

3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph

The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9316D-GX is a space-saving 1RU fixed-port Layer 2/3 all-optical core/spine switch built on the latest GX Cloud Scale ASIC, engineered for terabit-scale modern data center leaf-spine architectures, AI training clusters, hyperscale cloud, professional media networking and 5G edge virtualization workloadsCisco. Equipped with 16 dedicated QSFP-DD dual-density high-speed ports, this chassis delivers full wire-rate non-blocking forwarding with total switching bandwidth of 6.4 Tbps and forwarding throughput of 4.8 Bpps for minimum 64-byte Ethernet frames, capable of supporting up to 64 × 100G logical fabric links via native 4-lane QSFP-DD 100G transceivers without breakout support (port breakout is disabled on this model)Cisco.

Each QSFP-DD port natively supports 400GBASE optical modules and is fully backward compatible with 100G QSFP-DD transceivers; breakout to lower speeds (25G/40G) is not supported on this platform, optimized purely for high-speed core inter-switch fabric linksCisco. Powered by GX-series advanced Cloud Scale silicon, the switch features an 80MB large shared dynamic packet buffer to absorb massive burst traffic from GPU and parallel computing workloads, industry-leading expanded MAC and IPv4/IPv6 LPM route table capacity, native hardware acceleration for EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing, full-port wire-rate 128/256-bit MACsec encryption, and deeply tuned RoCEv2 lossless congestion control for ultra-low-latency AI/HPC environments. High-performance unsampled streaming telemetry is fully integrated with Cisco Tetration Analytics for end-to-end full-fabric observability, alongside expanded VRF, multicast and policy TCAM scaling for hyperscale multi-tenant isolation.

The chassis integrates dual independent out-of-band management interfaces: dedicated RJ45 1G Ethernet and SFP multi-rate fiber management uplink ports, plus mini-USB RS232 console and single USB Type-A port to support POAP zero-touch provisioning, offline configuration backup and firmware upgrades. Dual hot-swappable 1100W power supplies and six N+1 redundant fan trays eliminate single points of hardware failure, with unified bidirectional airflow options (PI port-side intake / PE port-side exhaust) selectable at order time; all power and fan modules must deploy identical airflow directions during operation to avoid overheatingCisco. This switch supports two independent operating modes: modular standalone Cisco NX-OS for traditional routed core data center architectures, or native ACI fabric mode for policy-driven automated multi-tenant cloud infrastructure. Its ultra-compact 1RU 400G spine design maximizes rack density for terabit core interconnections and high-speed GPU cluster aggregation.

4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications

Universal QSFP-DD High-Speed Ports (16 × Non-breakout Multi-Rate Slots, all MACsec-capable)

Native supported speeds: 100GBASE, 400GBASE
Critical hardware limitation: Port breakout to 10G/25G/40G is NOT supported on N9K-C9316D-GX
Compatible transceivers & cables: QSFP-DD 400G SR4/LR4/FR4, QSFP-DD 100G SR4/LR4, short-reach passive QSFP-DD DAC twinax cables
Lane selector button & LEDs available for transceiver lane status indication, no breakout mapping functionality

Management & Auxiliary Ports

1 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management port
1 × SFP multi-rate fiber out-of-band remote management uplink port
1 × Mini-USB RS232 console port for local CLI access
1 × USB 2.0 Type-A port for firmware upload, configuration backup and POAP deployment

Power & Cooling

Dual hot-swappable power supply options: 1100W AC, 1100W DC, 1200W HVAC/HVDC (1+1 load-sharing redundancy, live hot-swap without traffic interruption)
Six variable-speed fan trays (5+1 N+1 redundancy), two airflow variants:
- NXA-FAN-35CFM-PI: Port-side intake (burgundy label)
- NXA-FAN-35CFM-PE: Port-side exhaust (blue label)
Power efficiency: 80Plus Platinum certified, ≥90% efficiency across 20–100% load range
Typical AC power consumption: 420W; maximum full-load AC draw: 1010W
Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C full load; non-operating storage range: -40°C ~ 70°C
Humidity tolerance: 5%–90% non-condensing operating; max operating altitude: 4000 meters

Physical Form Factor

Dimensions: 1RU standard 19-inch rack chassis

Height: 4.37 cm (1.72 in), Width: 43.94 cm (17.2 in), Depth: 64.50 cm (25.4 in) with fans installed
Weight: 9.43 kg empty chassis (no PSUs/fans); 12.34 kg fully populated with dual PSUs + full fan tray set
Compliance: RoHS-6, NEBS Level 3, global safety, EMC and telecom regulatory certifications

Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks

Total switching capacity: 6.4 Tbps full duplex non-blocking
Forwarding rate: 4.8 Bpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
Shared dynamic packet buffer: 80MB for cross-port burst traffic absorption
MAC address table size: Massively expanded GX-scale MAC forwarding entries
IPv4 / IPv6 unicast LPM route table capacity: Ultra-large TCAM scale for hyperscale core fabrics
VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
Maximum isolated VRF instances: 16,000 multi-tenant virtual routing tables
System memory: 32GB DRAM + 128GB high-capacity onboard SSD storage
Typical cut-through switching latency: Less than 1 microsecond for minimum-size Ethernet frames

5. Core Software Feature Suite (Dual NX-OS / ACI Operating Modes)

Layer 2 & Layer 3 Routing

Static routing, RIP, OSPFv2/v3, EIGRP, full BGP routing suite, VRRP, PIM sparse/dense multicast; FCoE not supported on this pure high-speed core spine chassis

Cloud Fabric Overlay

Hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN symmetric & asymmetric routing, multi-tenant VXLAN segmentation, fabric multicast optimization, advanced lossless RoCEv2 congestion control for GPU/AI/HPC low-latency workload clusters

Enterprise & Fabric Security

802.1X port authentication, MAB MAC bypass authentication, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, CoPP control-plane policing, hardware 128/256-bit MACsec encryption on all 16 QSFP-DD fabric ports, TrustSec SGT zero-trust micro-segmentation for core fabric isolation

Monitoring & Telemetry

High-performance sampled/unsampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN/VSPAN, real-time per-port/per-queue buffer utilization visibility, full Cisco Tetration flow export compatibility for end-to-end fabric analytics

Automation & DevOps

POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML APIs, embedded Linux Bash shell, native Python scripting, Ansible/Puppet/Chef full integration, containerized application hosting, hot patching and ISSU in-service software upgrade without core fabric traffic downtime

High Availability

Modular fault-isolated process architecture, stateful process restart, redundant control plane, hot-swappable power supply and fan FRUs for non-disruptive field maintenance

6. Typical Deployment Use Cases

Primary core spine switch for large-scale 100G/400G leaf-spine data center fabrics
Low-latency aggregation spine for AI GPU virtualization and large-scale machine learning training clusters
Inter-pod border core switch connecting multiple independent ACI multi-pod fabric domains
Dedicated high-bandwidth core node for hyperscale IaaS/PaaS multi-tenant cloud environments
Professional media network core switch for 4K/8K streaming and large media asset workloads
5G edge NFV aggregation switch supporting high-speed backhaul 100G/400G optical links

7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph

The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9316D-GX is a compact 1RU GX-generation 400G all-optical core spine cloud data center switch equipped with 16 non-breakout universal 100G/400G QSFP-DD high-speed fabric ports, delivering 6.4 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual 1100W Platinum redundant power and six 5+1 redundant fan trays. Supporting both standalone modular NX-OS and native ACI intent-based fabric operational modes, it features the latest GX Cloud Scale ASIC with 80MB large packet buffer, ultra-expanded L2/L3 TCAM routing scale, full-port wire-rate MACsec encryption and optimized RoCEv2 lossless transport, serving as a high-density terabit core spine aggregation switch for hyperscale cloud, AI/GPU HPC, multi-pod ACI fabrics and professional media/5G edge networking built around 100G/400G high-speed optical fabric infrastructure.


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