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Introduction to Huawei Cloud Engine 12800 series datacenter switches

Today I am going to talk about Huawei Datacenter switch model Huawei Cloud Engine 12800 series datacenter switches in which we are going to discuss about the various models and the capacity  throughput with the features supported by these switches.

Huawei Cloud Engine CE12800 series switches are next-generation, high-performance core switches proposed for data centers and high-end campus networks. They deliver committed, trustworthy, protected, and constant L2/L3 switching services and help construct an elastic, virtual, agile, and high-quality network. 

These datacenter switches use a strict front-to-back airflow design and provides industrial-grade reliability as well as complete virtualization abilities and a diversity of data center service qualities. Particularly proposed with numerous energy maintenance technologies, this core switch helps to greatly decrease equipment power consumption

Let’s see how many models there in CE12800 series are. There are 6 different models and these models are CE12804S, CE12808S, CE12804, CE12808, CE12812 and CE12816.

Fig 1.1- Huawei CE12800 Series Datacenter Switches
Huawei CE12804S: Huawei CE12804S has a switching capacity of 40/80Tbps and having performance of 17280 pps. This model has 4 LC slots and 2 fabric modules.
Huawei CE12808S: Huawei CE12808S has a switching capacity of 80/160Tbps and having performance of 34560 pps. This model has 8 LC slots and 4 fabric modules.
Huawei CE12804: Huawei CE12804 has a switching capacity of 40/80Tbps and having performance of 17280 pps. This model has 4 LC slots and 6 fabric modules.
Huawei CE12808: Huawei CE12808 has a switching capacity of 80/160Tbps and having performance of 34560 pps. This model has 8 LC slots and 6 fabric modules.
Huawei CE12812: Huawei CE12812 has a switching capacity of 120/240Tbps and having performance of 51840 pps. This model has 12 LC slots and 6 fabric modules.
Huawei CE12816: Huawei CE12816 has a switching capacity of 160/320Tbps and having performance of 69120 pps. This model has 16 LC slots and 6 fabric modules.

Other Specifications of Huawei Cloud Engine 12800 series datacenter switches
  • Routing Protocol: RIP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, RIPng, OSPFv3, ISISv6, BGP4+
  • Multicast: IGMP, PIM-SM, MSDP, MBGP, Multicast VLAN, IGMP Snooping, IGMP Proxy
  • QoS: Classification, Policing, PQ/WFQ/PQ+WFQ, WRED/Tail-drop, Traffic Shaping
  • Fabric Architecture: Clos architecture, cell switching, VoQ and distributed deep buffer.
  • Airflow Design: Strict front-to-back airflow design
  • Network Virtualization: M-LAG, VXLAN, QinQ
  • Converged Ethernet: FCoE, DCBX, PFC and ETS
  • Traffic Analysis: Netstream, sFlow
  • DCI/SDN: EVN, MPLS, MPLS VPN/VPLS/VPLSoGRE and OPS (Open Programmability System), embedded in VRP8 (Linux based), Open-API for 3 parties software/controller
  • Device Virtualization: VS (1:16 virtualization) and Cluster Switch System (CSS)
  • Programmability: Ansible-based automatic configuration and open-source module release
  • High Availability: Hot Patch, ISSU


Comparing with Cisco Technologies
  • VS used in Huawei and Cisco uses VDC
  • Huawei uses TRILL while Cisco uses FabricPath
  • Huawei uses EVN while Cisco uses OTV
  • Huawei uses OPS (Open Programmability System) while Cisco uses NX-API (NX- Cisco Datacenter operating systems)
  • Huawei uses SVF while Cisco uses FEX