Cisco N3K-C3064PQ-10GE Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• Suffix definition breakdown:
  • PQ= 48 SFP+ copper-free downlinks + 4 QSFP+ uplink slots
  • 10GE= Base 10G fiber optimized bare chassis, no bundled power/fan/optics
  • Distinguished from-10GXpre-populated variants;-10GEis pure bare chassis for customers to select airflow FRUs separatelyCisco
• Core advantages: Compact 1RU footprint, 1.28 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, long-reach fiber optic compatibility, unified fabric interoperability with Nexus 2000/2300 FEX series, POAP zero-touch provisioning and single-pane DCNM management.

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown & Cross-Model Comparison

Full PN Breakdown

1. N3K: Cisco Nexus 3000 Series low-latency data center switch family
2. C3064PQ-10GE: 1RU all-fiber leaf switch bare chassis
   • 3064: Base high-density 64-port aggregate platform
   • PQ= 48 SFP+ host ports + 4 universal 40G QSFP+ fabric uplink ports
   • 10GE: Bare chassis variant optimized for 10G fiber access, no pre-installed power, fans or transceivers
3. Airflow flexibility: Two separate FRU options available: forward airflow (port-side exhaust) and reverse airflow (port-side intake). Mismatched airflow PSU/fan modules trigger thermal protection shutdown.

Hardware Comparison Table

Factory Bare Chassis Included Hardware

1. 1RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack-mount passive switch chassis

   

   Front Port Panel

   

   Rear FRU Panel
2. Rear port panel:
   • 48 × SFP+ multi-speed host ports for blade servers, all-flash storage, virtualization hosts
   • 4 × 40G QSFP+ uplink ports for leaf-spine inter-switch fabric connections, compatible with BiDi, SR4, LR4, ER4, Twinax/AOC and 4×10G breakout FET transceivers
3. Front integrated out-of-band management subsystem:
   • RJ45 hybrid RS232 serial console port
   • Dedicated 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band MGMT Ethernet port
   • USB Type-A flash storage port for offline firmware upload, config backup and POAP files
4. Full front-panel LED status array: Global system health, PSU fault alarm, fan tray fault, per-port link/activity, blue UID locator beacon for rack asset identification
5. Standard 19-inch rack mounting rails, front cable management brackets, hardware installation guide and global safety regulatory compliance documentation
6. No power supplies, fan trays or transceivers 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 options; dual PSUs recommended for 1+1 power redundancy)
2. Single hot-swappable fan tray with dual redundant internal fans; airflow direction must fully match installed power supply modules
3. SFP+ transceivers for 48 downlink ports: 1G/10G SR/LR/ER, passive Twinax DAC, active AOC fiber cables
4. 40G QSFP+ transceivers for uplinks: SR4, LR4, ER4, BiDi optics, 40G-to-4×10G breakout splitter modules
5. Optional accessories: Serial console rollover cable, out-of-band management patch cords, lockable front door, air filter panel

Supported Fabric & Parent Compatibility

• Full unified fabric (Ethernet + Lossless FCoE): Nexus 5500 / 5600 / 6000 Series
• Layer 2/Layer3 Ethernet only: Nexus 7000 / 7700 / 9000 Series
• Compatible with Nexus 2000/2300 blade & rack FEX devices for end-to-end LAN/SAN convergence
• Minimum NX-OS version: 6.0(2)U6(1) for full feature activation

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Rear Panel 48 SFP+ Downlink & 4 QSFP+ Uplink Ports

1. 48 × SFP+ Multi-Speed Host Ports
   Auto-sensing 1G/10G SFP+ interfaces compliant with IEEE 802.3ab/ae standards, supporting SR/LR long-reach optical transceivers, Twinax/AOC short-range cables. All ports support jumbo frames up to 9216 MTU and DCB PFC/ETS lossless FCoE transport for unified storage workloads. All Layer 2 switching, ACL and QoS policies are enforced locally on the switch hardware.
2. 4 × 40G QSFP+ Universal Fabric Uplink Ports
   Two configurable operation modes:

• Native 40GE: Direct high-bandwidth inter-switch leaf-spine connections
• Breakout mode: With FET-10G split transceivers, each QSFP+ expands to four independent 10GE channels to multiply uplink port density
  All four uplinks can be bundled into LACP port-channels to support vPC dual-active high-availability fabric topologies.

Front Panel Redundant FRU Slots & Management Interfaces

1. Dual hot-swappable AC/DC power supply bays (supports 1+1 redundant power inputs for non-disruptive live PSU replacement)
2. Single hot-swappable fan tray slot with dual redundant internal fans; airflow determined by matching fan/PSU FRU selection
3. Dedicated out-of-band management block: Serial console, MGMT Ethernet port and USB flash port for offline configuration independent of data plane traffic.

Front Panel LED Status Array

• Global health LED: Green = normal operation, Amber = critical hardware fault
• Separate fault indicator LEDs for each power supply and fan tray assembly
• Per-port dual-color link/activity LEDs for all 48 SFP+ downlinks and 4 QSFP+ uplink ports
• Blue UID beacon LED remotely activated via CLI to locate the switch rack unit during maintenance.

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Total downlink bandwidth: 48 × 10G wire-speed ports, aggregate 480 Gbps full-duplex host bandwidth
2. Total uplink bandwidth: 4 × 40G full-duplex QSFP+ ports, aggregate 160 Gbps upstream fabric bandwidth
3. Fixed oversubscription ratio: 2:1 (480G host bandwidth / 160G uplink bandwidth)
4. Total non-blocking switching fabric capacity: 1.28 Tbps full-duplex
5. Wire-speed forwarding throughput: 950 Mpps at minimum 64-byte Ethernet frames (full line-rate L2/L3 across all ports)
6. Latency: Ultra-low deterministic microsecond-level forwarding latency, optimized for HFT low-delay financial workloads
7. MAC address table capacity: 128,000 MAC entry storage
8. VLAN scaling: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
9. Jumbo frame MTU: Configurable up to 9216 bytes for storage replication and big-data workloads
10. Spanning tree scale: 64 MSTP instances, 512 RSTP instances
11. Port-channel scaling: Max 52 EtherChannels, up to 16 physical ports per LACP port-channel / vPC trunk
12. Zero-touch POAP provisioning: Automatic firmware sync and configuration download via DHCP on first boot
13. Hardware lossless DCB & traffic offload features (NX-OS controlled):
    • IEEE 802.1Qbb PFC and 802.1Qaz ETS lossless transport for FCoE unified LAN/SAN convergence
    • vPC, FEX vPC and Enhanced vPC (EvPC) redundant Layer 2 multipathing
    • Four-tier hardware QoS priority queues per port with WRR/DRR scheduling
    • PVLAN private VLAN isolation, UDLD link monitoring, broadcast/multicast storm control
    • IEEE 1588 PTP boundary clock for precise time synchronization in financial co-location environments
    • Expanded buffer monitoring counters to eliminate FCoE packet loss under storage traffic bursts

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 × 505 mm (1.72 × 17.3 × 19.7 inches)Cisco
• Bare chassis weight (no PSUs, fans, transceivers): ~8.8 kg (19.4 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (dual PSUs + fan tray + full transceivers): ~9.3 kg (20.5 lbs)
• Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C (32°F ~ 104°F); certified altitude up to 3,000 meters
• Storage temperature range: -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

AC 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 telecom DC
• Typical full system power draw: 230W peak with all 48 downlink ports active
• Hot-swappable OIR replacement without full switch reboot

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

Layer 2 Core Data Center Features

• IEEE 802.1Q trunking, PVLAN private VLAN isolation, transparent VTP mode
• MSTP/RSTP spanning tree with BPDU guard, root guard, UDLD standard & aggressive mode
• Static/dynamic LACP EtherChannels, vPC dual-active high availability to eliminate STP blocked links
• DHCP snooping, dynamic ARP inspection, port security MAC locking, broadcast storm control
• DCB PFC/ETS lossless Ethernet for FCoE unified storage convergence
• IEEE 1588 PTP precision time synchronization for low-latency trading deployments

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

• Unicast routing: Static routes, OSPFv2, EIGRP, RIPv2, BGP-4, 32-way ECMP multi-path load balancing
• Multicast routing: IGMPv2/v3, PIM-SM, MSDP for video streaming and storage replication workloads
• First-hop redundancy protocols: HSRP, VRRP for gateway failover
• Hardware IP ACLs, route redistribution, prefix lists and route-map traffic segmentation policies
• Maximum routing table capacity: 16,000 IPv4 prefix entries, 8,000 multicast routes

Security, Monitoring & Automation Tools

• AAA authentication (TACACS+/RADIUS/Local), SSHv2 encrypted management sessions
• SNMP v1/v2c/v3, remote syslog logging, RMON traffic statistics collection
• Cisco DCNM single-pane graphical fabric monitoring, automated provisioning and REST API integration
• GOLD online non-disruptive hardware diagnostics for continuous switch health validation
• Bulk fleet-wide firmware upgrade via single parent switch CLI command for uniform fabric rollouts
• Real-time streaming telemetry for port latency, buffer utilization and error counter visibility

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N3K-C3064PQ-10GE Bare Chassis

1. Low-latency HFT financial co-location leaf switch: Deterministic microsecond latency minimizes trading transaction delay; 48×10G SFP+ downlinks connect directly to fiber-based trading hosts, while 4×40G QSFP+ uplinks build high-bandwidth leaf-spine fabric. Bare chassis allows facility teams to select matching airflow FRUs aligned with cold/hot aisle rack standards.
2. Enterprise all-fiber leaf-spine data center access layer: High-density 10G SFP+ ports consolidate virtualization server racks connected via Nexus 2300 unified FEX devices, merging LAN and lossless FCoE storage traffic on a single leaf switch tier with mild 2:1 oversubscription balanced for general enterprise virtualization workloads.
3. HPC & big-data cluster rack aggregation: Breakout 4×10G mode reduces optic costs by expanding fabric port density without extra rack switches, supporting massive east-west parallel compute and storage replication traffic.
4. Standardized mass data center uniform fabric rollout: Bare chassis SKU separates chassis and cooling/power spare part inventory, eliminating thermal fault incidents caused by mismatched airflow FRUs during large-scale facility deployment.
5. Mid-market unified LAN/FCoE small data center edge: Compatible with Nexus 2000 blade FEX devices for mixed blade + rack server consolidation, supporting lossless FCoE over fiber to eliminate standalone SAN access switches for mid-sized storage environments.

7. Standard Package Contents of N3K-C3064PQ-10GE 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 power redundancy)
2. One matching airflow hot-swappable fan tray (required for system cooling; mismatched airflow modules trigger thermal protection shutdown)
3. SFP+ transceivers for all 48 downlink ports: 1G/10G SR/LR/ER optical transceivers, passive Twinax DAC, active AOC fiber cables
4. 40G QSFP+ transceivers, BiDi optics and 40G-to-4×10G breakout splitter cables for four fabric uplink QSFP+ ports

• Optional feature software licenses: N3K-BAS1K9 base license required to unlock full Layer 3 routing capabilities; Layer 2 switching 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