Cisco N3K-C3132Q-V Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• Suffix breakdown definition:
  • Q= 32 × universal 40G QSFP+ fabric ports + four multiplexed SFP+ 1/10G auxiliary ports
  • -V= Fixed port-side exhaust (PE / back-to-front) airflow integrated chassis, factory preloaded with matching PE power supply and fan tray FRUs (cannot use port-intake PI FRUs)
• Core differentiators vs bare N3K-C3132Q-40GE / X-series bare chassis: Fully integrated factory redundant power and cooling hardware, native hardware-offloaded VXLAN/BGP EVPN (not software-only VXLAN), larger 16MB deep buffer, built-in SSD storage, fixed standardized PE airflow for cold-aisle rack deployments, and pre-qualified for cloud multi-tenant EVPN workloadsCisco.

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown & Cross-Model Comparison

Full PN Breakdown

1. N3K: Cisco Nexus 3000 Series low-latency programmable data center Layer 2/3 switch family
2. C3132Q-V: 1RU integrated all-fiber VXLAN leaf switch chassis
   • 3132: High-performance 3100-V generation platform with total 36 combined downlink + auxiliary ports
   • Q: 32 × multi-speed 40G QSFP+ fiber fabric ports + four internal multiplexed SFP+ 1/10G auxiliary ports
   • -V: Fixed port-side exhaust (back-to-front / PE) airflow integrated chassis, factory pre-equipped with dual PE AC power supplies and PE fan tray
3. Airflow lock: All power supply and fan tray FRUs must be port-exhaust (PE) type; mismatched port-intake (PI) FRUs trigger thermal protection shutdown.

Hardware Comparison Table

Factory Integrated Chassis Included Hardware

1. 1RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack-mount fixed switch chassis
2. Rear port panel interface bank:
   • 32 × universal 40G QSFP+ bidirectional ports for leaf-spine inter-switch uplinks, all-flash IP SAN, virtualization compute hosts
   • 4 × SFP+ 1/10G auxiliary ports multiplexed with QSFP+ port 1, dedicated for low-speed storage replication, secondary management links or sparse small server downlinks
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, configuration backup and POAP zero-touch provisioning files
4. Front-panel LED status array: Global system health (green normal / amber critical fault), independent fault LEDs for each power supply and fan tray, per-port dual-color lane link/activity indicators, blue UID locator beacon for rack asset identification during maintenance
5. Dual hot-swappable NXA-PAC-650W-PE port-exhaust AC power supplies factory pre-installed (1+1 redundant power architecture)
6. Hot-swappable redundant fan tray assembly with 3+1 redundant internal fans (port-side exhaust airflow pre-matched to PSU FRUs)
7. Onboard system hardware: Quad-core x86 CPU, 16 GB system DRAM, 64 GB SSD persistent boot media
8. 19-inch rack mounting rails, front cable management brackets, hardware installation guide and global safety regulatory compliance documentation
9. No optical transceivers pre-installed (all QSFP+/SFP+ optics sold separately as spare parts)

Items Not Included (Must Be Ordered Separately)

1. QSFP+ transceivers for all 32 fabric primary ports: 40G SR4/LR4/ER4, BiDi optical modules, passive Twinax DAC, active AOC fiber cables, and QSFP-to-4×SFP+ breakout splitter modules
2. SFP+ transceivers for four multiplexed auxiliary ports: 1G/10G SR/LR/ER optical transceivers, Twinax/AOC DAC fiber cables
3. Optional accessories: Serial console rollover cable, out-of-band management Ethernet patch cords, lockable front door, air filter panel
4. Software licenses: N3K-BAS1K9 base license unlocks full Layer 3 routing functionality; hardware-offloaded VXLAN/EVPN multi-tenant virtualization features included without extra license fees

Supported Fabric & Parent Switch Compatibility

• Full unified fabric + hardware VXLAN/BGP EVPN + lossless DCB FCoE: Cisco Nexus 5600 / 7000 / 7700 / 9000 Series (minimum NX-OS 7.0(3)I7(8))Cisco
• Native interoperability with Nexus 2000 blade & 2300 rack FEX devices for end-to-end consolidated LAN/SAN data center architecture
• SDN automation compatibility: OpenFlow 1.3, NX-API REST/JSON APIs, embedded Linux containers, Ansible/Puppet/Chef DevOps toolchain integration

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Rear Panel 32 QSFP+ 40G Fabric Ports & 4 Multiplexed SFP+ Auxiliary Ports

1. 32 × Universal 40G QSFP+ Bidirectional Fiber Ports
   IEEE 802.3ba compliant multi-rate 40G fiber interfaces with two configurable operation modes:
2. Native 40GE mode: Direct high-bandwidth 40G inter-switch leaf-spine uplinks for scalable enterprise and cloud fabric core interconnections
3. Breakout mode: With QSFP-to-4×SFP+ splitter transceivers, each port expands to four independent 10GE downlink channels to multiply port density and reduce optical hardware procurement costs for dense 10G virtualization server racks
   All ports support jumbo frames configurable up to 9216-byte MTU, long-reach LR4/ER4 transceivers for cross-facility DCI interconnections, and IEEE DCB PFC/ETS lossless Ethernet standards for FCoE unified IP SAN storage workloads. All Layer 2 switching, ACL, MAC security and QoS traffic scheduling policies are enforced locally on the switch ASIC with full hardware VXLAN encapsulation/decapsulation offloadCisco.
4. 4 × Multiplexed SFP+ 1/10G Auxiliary Ports
   Shared multiplexed interfaces tied exclusively to QSFP+ port 1 hardware lane group, supporting auto-negotiation of 1G or 10G line rates for low-speed out-of-band replication links, secondary management uplinks or small-scale edge server downlinks. Separate SFP+ transceivers must be purchased to activate these auxiliary ports.

Front Panel Redundant FRU Slots & Out-of-Band Management Interfaces

1. Dual hot-swappable NXA-PAC-650W-PE port-exhaust AC power supplies (1+1 redundant power design enables non-disruptive live PSU replacement without full switch reboot)
2. Single hot-swappable fan tray assembly with 3+1 redundant internal fans; fixed port-side exhaust airflow matched to factory PE power supply FRUs
3. Dedicated independent out-of-band management block: Serial console port, 1G MGMT Ethernet port and USB flash storage port for offline firmware upgrade and configuration management, fully isolated from production data plane traffic.

Front Panel LED Status Array

• Global health LED: Solid green = normal operational state, solid 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 32 rear QSFP+ fabric ports and four multiplexed front SFP+ auxiliary ports
• Remote-activatable blue UID beacon LED for fast rack asset identification during maintenance windows

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Total downlink bandwidth: 32 × 40G wire-speed ports, aggregate 1280 Gbps full-duplex host bandwidth
2. Total uplink bandwidth: 32 × 40G bidirectional fabric ports (all ports function as flexible uplink/downlink), aggregate 1280 Gbps upstream fabric bandwidth
3. Fixed oversubscription ratio: 2:1 (1280 Gbps total host downlink bandwidth / 1280 Gbps total fabric uplink bandwidth)
4. Non-blocking full-duplex switching fabric capacity: 2.56 TbpsCisco
5. Wire-speed forwarding throughput: 1.4 Bpps (billion packets per second) at minimum 64-byte Ethernet frames (all ports operate full line-rate L2/L3 simultaneously)Cisco
6. Forwarding latency: Ultra-low deterministic ~650 nanosecond store-and-forward latency, optimized for low-jitter financial HFT and parallel HPC workloadsCisco
7. Dynamic shared packet buffer: 16 MB large deep unified buffer pool to mitigate packet loss under heavy bursty virtualization and storage replication traffic
8. MAC address table capacity: 288,000 MAC entry storageCisco
9. VLAN scaling: Up to 4096 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANsCisco
10. Jumbo frame MTU: Configurable up to 9216 bytes for storage replication and large-scale big-data workloadsCisco
11. Spanning tree scale: 64 MSTP instances, 512 RSTP instancesCisco
12. Port-channel scaling: Maximum 64 EtherChannels, up to 32 physical ports per LACP fabric port-channel / vPC trunk
13. Zero-touch POAP provisioning: Automatic firmware synchronization, full configuration download and fleet-wide bulk upgrades triggered via a singleinstall allCLI command on the parent aggregation switch
14. Hardware lossless DCB & traffic offload features (fully controlled by NX-OS software):
    • IEEE 802.1Qbb PFC and 802.1Qaz ETS lossless Ethernet for FCoE unified storage transport
    • Native full line-rate hardware-offloaded VXLAN and BGP EVPN for scalable multi-tenant cloud fabric virtual machine mobility
    • vPC, FEX vPC and Enhanced vPC (EvPC) redundant Layer 2 multipathing high availability
    • Four independent hardware priority queues per port with WRR/DRR traffic scheduling
    • PVLAN private VLAN isolation, UDLD link failure monitoring, broadcast/multicast storm control
    • IEEE 1588 PTP boundary clock for precise sub-microsecond time synchronization in financial co-location environments
    • Expanded SAN-specific debug counters to track FCoE pause frames and storage buffer credit loss

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 1 RU (43.7 mm height) standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 43.7 mm × 439.4 mm × 566 mm (1.72 × 17.3 × 22.3 inches)
• Integrated chassis weight (dual factory PSUs + fan tray, no transceivers): ~9.0 kg (19.8 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (dual PSUs + fan tray + fully populated QSFP+/SFP+ transceivers): ~11.5 kg (25.3 lbs)
• Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C (32°F ~ 104°F); certified altitude up to 3,000 meters (10,000 ft)
• 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 (NXA-PAC-650W-PE Port-Exhaust, Factory Pre-Installed Dual Redundant PSUs)

• AC input range: 100–240 VAC, 50/60 Hz, typical energy efficiency 89–91%
• DC input option: -40 to -72 VDC negative telecom DC power supply (sold as separate PE airflow FRU variant)
• Typical full-system power consumption: 225W with all 32 QSFP+ ports fully populated; maximum peak power draw 460W
• Hot-swappable OIR replacement capability; no full switch reboot required during live PSU hardware swap
• MTBF: 291,523 hours under nominal operating conditions

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

Layer 2 Core Data Center Fabric Features

• IEEE 802.1Q trunking, PVLAN private VLAN isolation (max 4096 VLANs), transparent VTP mode
• RSTP/MSTP spanning tree suite with BPDU guard, root guard and aggressive UDLD link monitoring
• Static & dynamic LACP EtherChannels, vPC dual-active high availability to eliminate STP blocking links and maximize uplink bandwidth utilization
• DHCP snooping, dynamic ARP inspection, port security MAC address locking, broadcast/multicast storm control
• DCB PFC/ETS lossless Ethernet for Fibre Channel over Ethernet unified storage convergence
• IEEE 1588 PTP precision time synchronization optimized for low-latency high-frequency trading environments

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

• Unicast routing protocols: Static routes, OSPFv2, EIGRP, RIPv2, BGP-4, 64-way ECMP multi-path load balancing
• Multicast routing suite: IGMPv2/v3, PIM-SM, MSDP for video streaming and inter-rack storage replication workloads
• First-hop redundancy protocols: HSRP, VRRP for gateway failover redundancy
• Hardware-accelerated IP ACLs (16,000 ingress / 1,000 egress entries), route redistribution, prefix lists and route-map traffic segmentation policies
• Native line-rate hardware VXLAN routing and BGP EVPN control plane for large-scale multi-tenant cloud virtual machine mobility

Security, Monitoring & DevOps Automation Tools

• AAA authentication stack (TACACS+/RADIUS/Local user database), SSHv2 encrypted out-of-band management sessions
• SNMP v1/v2c/v3 remote monitoring, centralized syslog logging, RMON traffic statistics collection
• Cisco DCNM single-pane graphical fabric monitoring, automated provisioning and REST API integration for data center automation
• NX-API REST/CLI APIs, Python scripting, Embedded Event Manager (EEM) for custom automation workflows
• Native integration with Puppet, Chef, Ansible DevOps toolchains for infrastructure-as-code deployments
• GOLD Generic Online Diagnostics for continuous non-disruptive hardware health validation
• Unified bulk fleet-wide firmware upgrade via single parent switch CLI command for uniform fabric fleets
• Real-time streaming telemetry for port latency, buffer utilization and granular error counter visibility

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N3K-C31108TC-V Integrated Chassis

1. Modern cloud leaf-spine fabric leaf switch: Fixed port-exhaust airflow complies with standardized cold-aisle data center rack cooling design rules, factory pre-equipped dual redundant PSUs and fan trays eliminate separate cooling FRU procurement at deployment time; hardware-offloaded VXLAN/BGP EVPN delivers scalable multi-tenant virtualization isolation, 32×40G QSFP+ ports build balanced 2:1 oversubscription leaf tiers for dense virtualization server racks connected via Nexus 2300 unified UPQ FEX devices.
2. Low-latency financial co-location trading leaf switch: Sub-650ns consistent deterministic forwarding latency minimizes market transaction jitter, deep 16MB shared buffer eliminates peak trading burst packet loss, all-fiber QSFP+ ports connect directly to fiber-based trading hosts, redundant hot-swappable FRUs guarantee non-stop trading fabric uptime, standardized back-to-front airflow meets co-location facility cooling specifications.
3. Enterprise unified LAN/FCoE storage edge aggregation switch: DCB lossless Ethernet supports FCoE storage transport over fiber cabling, interoperable with Nexus 2000 blade FEX devices for mixed blade enclosure + standalone fiber server rack consolidation, eliminating separate dedicated SAN aggregation switches for mid-sized enterprise storage deployments.
4. HPC and big-data parallel compute cluster rack aggregation: Massive burst absorption via large 16MB shared buffer stabilizes east-west parallel compute and storage replication traffic, compact 1RU rack footprint saves valuable rack space for high-density compute farms, breakout 4×10G QSFP+ mode reduces optical hardware capital expenditure for large cluster fleets.
5. Standardized mass cold-aisle data center uniform fabric rollout: Integrated factory pre-populated power and cooling FRUs simplify spare part inventory management, fixed port-exhaust airflow removes airflow compatibility planning overhead for uniform cold-aisle rack layouts, single-pane DCNM management unifies configuration across all leaf/spine switch fleets.

7. Standard Package Contents of N3K-C3132Q-V Integrated Factory SKU

Separately Mandatory Components (Not Included in This Bundle)

1. QSFP+ transceivers for all 32 fabric primary ports: 40G SR4/LR4/ER4/BiDi optical modules, QSFP-to-4×SFP+ breakout splitter modules, Twinax/AOC fiber cables
2. SFP+ transceivers for four multiplexed auxiliary ports: 1G/10G SR/LR/ER optical transceivers, Twinax/AOC DAC fiber cables
3. Optional feature software licenses: N3K-BAS1K9 base license required to unlock full Layer 3 routing functionality; VXLAN/EVPN Layer 2 virtualization features enabled without additional license activation

• 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