Cisco N3K-C3016Q-40GE Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• Core SKU definition:-40GEindicates the base 16×40G QSFP+ port hardware variant; this bare model excludes power supplies and fan trays, which must be ordered separately for deploymentCisco Russ....
• Key competitive strengths: Ultra-low forwarding latency optimized for latency-sensitive financial workloads, compact 1RU rack footprint, 1.28 Tbps full switching capacity, universal QSFP+ port compatibility with SR/LR/ER/BiDi/AOC/Twinax transceivers, and unified management alongside Nexus 2000 FEX family.

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown

1. N3K: Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Layer 2/3 data center switch product family
2. C3016Q: Hardware model identifier
   • 3016: Base switch platform with 16 high-speed fabric ports
   • Q = Integrated 40G QSFP+ interface slots
3. -40GE: Standard base variant with all 16 ports natively supporting 40 Gigabit Ethernet; bare chassis without bundled PSUs/fans
4. No fixed airflow lock: Separate forward (port exhaust) / reverse (port intake) power and fan FRUs can be selected to match hot/cold aisle rack designs.

Factory Bare Chassis Included Hardware

1. 1RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack-mount passive switch chassis
2. Rear port panel: 16 universal 40G QSFP+ slots for leaf/spine uplinks, storage interconnections or server breakout downlinks
3. Front management panel integrated I/O subsystem:
   • Dual 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band management Ethernet ports
   • RS232 RJ45 serial console port
   • USB Type-A flash storage port for firmware upload and config backup
4. Full status LED array: Global system health, PSU fault, fan fault, per-QSFP port link/activity, UID locator beacon for maintenance identification
5. Standard 19-inch rack mounting rails, cable management brackets, hardware installation guide and global safety compliance documentation
6. No transceivers, power supplies or fan trays pre-installed (all FRUs sold separately)

Items Not Included (Must Be Ordered Separately)

1. Hot-swappable AC/DC redundant power supplies (400W rating, forward or reverse airflow variants optional; 1+1 redundancy recommended)
2. Single hot-swappable fan tray with redundant internal fans (choose matching airflow direction to PSUs)
3. 40G QSFP+ transceivers: SR4, LR4, ER4, BiDi, passive Twinax DAC, active AOC, and 40G-to-4×10G breakout splitter modules
4. Optional accessories: Serial console rollover cable, out-of-band management patch cords, lockable front door, air filter panel

Supported Topology & Parent Compatibility

• Standalone leaf/spine aggregation switch
• Works with Cisco Nexus 2000/2300 series FEX devices for unified LAN/FCoE fabric
• Interoperable with Nexus 5000/6000/7000/9000 aggregation and core switches
• NX-OS minimum required version: 6.0(2)U6(1) and above for full feature support

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Rear Panel 40G QSFP+ Universal Ports

1. Native 40GE mode: Direct 40G fabric uplink for high-bandwidth leaf-spine inter-switch connections
2. Breakout mode: With dedicated QSFP-to-4×SFP+ splitter transceivers, each port expands to four independent 10GE channels for downlink server/storage access
   All ports support jumbo frames up to 9216 bytes, IEEE 802.3ae standards, and all compatible Cisco 40G optical/cable transceivers.

Front Panel Redundant FRU Slots & Management Interfaces

1. Dual hot-swappable power supply bays (supports 1+1 redundant AC or DC power inputs)
2. Single hot-swappable fan tray slot with multiple internal redundant fans; airflow direction determined by matching fan/PSU FRU selection
3. Out-of-band management block: Dual 1G MGMT Ethernet, serial console, USB flash port for offline firmware and configuration management

Front Panel LED Status Array

• Global health LED: Green = normal, Amber = critical fault
• Independent fault LEDs for each power supply and fan tray
• Per-port link/activity LEDs for all 16 rear QSFP+ ports
• Blue UID beacon LED for remote rack asset identification during maintenance

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Total port capacity: 16 × 40G wire-speed ports, aggregate 640 Gbps full-duplex host bandwidth
2. Total switching fabric bandwidth: 1.28 Tbps non-blocking full-duplex switching capacity
3. Packet forwarding throughput: 960 Mpps at minimum 64-byte Ethernet frames (line-rate L2/L3 across all ports)Cisco Russ...
4. Latency: Ultra-low deterministic microsecond-level forwarding latency, optimized for HFT low-delay requirements
5. MAC address table: 128,000 MAC entry capacity
6. VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
7. Jumbo frame MTU: Configurable up to 9216 bytes
8. Spanning tree scale: 64 MSTP instances, 512 RSTP instances
9. Zero-touch POAP provisioning: Automatic firmware download and config deployment via DHCP on first boot
10. Hardware traffic offload features:
    • Four-level hardware QoS priority queues per port with WRR/DRR scheduling
    • Port-channel LACP load balancing, vPC dual-active Layer 2 multipathing
    • PFC/ETS DCB lossless transport for FCoE unified SAN/LAN workloads
    • UDLD, storm control, PVLAN isolation, CoPP control-plane policing
    • ERSPAN, local SPAN traffic mirroring for monitoring

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 1 RU (43.7 mm height) standard 19-inch rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 43.7 mm × 439.4 mm × 500 mm (1.72 × 17.3 × 19.7 inches)
• Bare chassis weight (no PSUs, fans, transceivers): ~6.5 kg (14.3 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (dual PSUs + fan tray + full transceivers): ~9.2 kg (20.3 lbs)
• Operating temperature: 0°C ~ 40°C (32°F ~ 104°F); certified altitude up to 3,000 meters
• Storage temperature: -40°C ~ 70°C (-40°F ~ 158°F)
• Operating relative humidity: 10%–85% non-condensing; storage humidity 5%–95% non-condensing
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, GR63 seismic compliance, RoHS 6 validated

Power Supply FRU Specifications (Sold Separately)

• AC PSU input: 100–240 VAC, 50/60 Hz, typical efficiency 89–91%
• DC PSU input: -40 to -72 VDC negative DC
• Typical full system power draw: 227W peak with all 16 ports populated
• Hot-swappable OIR replacement without switch reboot

5. NX-OS Software Feature Set (Centrally Managed CLI/DCNM)

Layer 2 Core Data Center Features

• IEEE 802.1Q trunking, PVLAN private VLAN isolation, VTP transparent mode
• MSTP/RSTP, STP port guard, BPDU guard, UDLD standard & aggressive mode
• LACP static/dynamic port-channels, vPC dual-active high availability to eliminate STP blocking links
• DHCP snooping, ARP inspection, MAC address security, storm control
• IEEE 1588 PTP boundary clock for financial low-latency time synchronization
• DCB PFC/ETS lossless Ethernet for FCoE unified storage convergence

Layer 3 Routing Features (Requires N3K-BAS1K9 Base License)

• Unicast routing: Static routes, OSPFv2, EIGRP, RIPv2, BGP-4, ECMP multi-path load balancing
• Multicast routing: IGMPv2/v3, PIM-SM, MSDP for video/storage replication workloads
• First-hop redundancy: HSRP, VRRP for gateway failover
• IP ACLs, route redistribution, prefix lists, route maps for traffic segmentation

Security & Management Tools

• AAA authentication (TACACS+/RADIUS/Local), SSHv2 encrypted management
• SNMP v1/v2c/v3, syslog remote logging, RMON statistics collection
• Cisco DCNM single-pane graphical fabric monitoring, provisioning and REST API automation
• GOLD online hardware diagnostics, real-time streaming telemetry for port latency, buffer and error metrics
• Bulk firmware upgrade via single CLI command for uniform fabric fleets

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N3K-C3016Q-40GE Bare Chassis

1. High-frequency trading (HFT) low-latency leaf switch: Ultra-deterministic forwarding latency minimizes transaction delay; 16×40G ports support direct 40G server connectivity or breakout 10G downlinks to trading hosts, with standardized airflow FRUs for large co-location rack fleets.
2. Leaf-spine data center aggregation layer: High-density 40G QSFP+ ports build scalable spine-leaf fabric, delivering mild 2:1 oversubscription for virtualization server racks connected via Nexus 2300 unified FEX devices, consolidating LAN and FCoE storage traffic on a single switch tier.
3. Enterprise cloud & HPC cluster interconnection: Breakout 4×10G mode reduces optic costs by expanding port density without extra rack switches, supporting high-volume parallel compute and storage cluster east-west traffic.
4. Data center interconnect (DCI) edge switch: Long-reach LR4/ER4 QSFP+ transceivers enable cross-facility 40G inter-switch links, with full Layer 3 routing feature set for inter-site segmentation and traffic policy control.
5. Standardized mass data center uniform fabric rollout: Bare chassis SKU allows customers to select airflow-matched power/fan FRUs based on rack hot/cold aisle design, separating hardware inventory management of chassis and cooling/power modules for flexible large-scale deployment.

7. Standard Package Contents of N3K-C3016Q-40GE Bare Chassis SKU

Separately Mandatory Components (Not Included in Base Chassis)

1. One or two hot-swappable AC/DC power supplies (forward or reverse airflow variant selected to match fan trays; dual PSUs recommended for 1+1 redundancy)
2. One matching airflow hot-swappable fan tray (required for system cooling; mismatched airflow triggers thermal protection shutdown)
3. 40G QSFP+ transceivers, BiDi optics, Twinax/AOC DAC and 40G-to-4×10G breakout splitter cables for all 16 fabric ports

• Optional feature software licenses: N3K-BAS1K9 base license required to unlock full Layer 3 routing capabilities; Layer 2 functions enabled by default without license
• Auxiliary accessories: RJ45 serial console rollover cable, out-of-band management Ethernet patch cords, lockable front door, air filter panel

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation