S6720S-26Q-LI-24S-AC

The Huawei S6720S-26Q-LI-24S-AC is a sophisticated 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) fixed switch that belongs to Huawei’s S6720-LI and S6720S-LI series. This model is particularly noteworthy for its blend of high-density 10GE access ports and integrated 40GE uplink capabilities, making it a versatile and powerful option for the access or aggregation layer in modern enterprise campus networks and data centers.

Here’s an introduction to its key features and applications:

Key Features:

• Mixed Port Configuration:
  • 24 x 10GE SFP+ Ports: These ports provide high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, ideal for connecting a large number of high-bandwidth devices such as servers, high-performance workstations, or for acting as an aggregation point for other access layer switches. These ports typically support auto-negotiation down to 1GE speeds for flexibility.
  • 2 x 40GE QSFP+ Ports: These two 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports serve as high-bandwidth uplinks, enabling the switch to connect to the core or aggregation layer of the network with significant throughput. Crucially, each 40GE QSFP+ port can usually be split into four 10GE SFP+ ports using breakout cables, effectively providing up to 8 additional 10GE ports if needed, bringing the total theoretical 10GE ports to 32 (24+8).
• Built-in AC Power Supply: The “-AC” suffix indicates that the switch is equipped with an integrated AC power supply, allowing for direct connection to standard electrical outlets.
• Redundant Power Supply (RPS) Support: To ensure high availability and continuous operation, the switch supports an external Redundant Power Supply (RPS) unit (e.g., Huawei RPS1800). This provides power redundancy, safeguarding against power module failures.
• High Performance:
  • Switching Capacity: 1.28 Tbit/s (terabits per second). This substantial switching capacity ensures wire-speed, non-blocking forwarding across all ports, even under heavy traffic loads.
  • Packet Forwarding Rate: 240 Mpps (million packets per second). This metric highlights its efficient processing of a large volume of network packets.
• Comprehensive Security Features: The switch is designed with robust security measures to protect the network from various threats:
  • Defense against DoS, ARP, and ICMP Attacks: Protects against common network attacks.
  • DHCP Snooping: Prevents unauthorized DHCP servers and IP/MAC spoofing attacks.
  • 802.1X Authentication and MAC Address Authentication: Provides strong user and device access control.
  • Port Security: Limits the number of MAC addresses learned on a port to prevent MAC address table exhaustion.
• Advanced Quality of Service (QoS): It offers sophisticated QoS capabilities to ensure the performance of critical applications:
  • Traffic Classification: Based on various criteria (e.g., 5-tuple, IP preference, DSCP, VLAN ID).
  • CAR (Committed Access Rate): Flow-based two-rate three-color CAR for bandwidth control.
  • Queue Scheduling Algorithms: Supports multiple algorithms (WRR, DRR, PQ, WRR+PQ, DRR+PQ) to prioritize voice, video, and data traffic effectively.
• High Reliability: The switch incorporates various mechanisms to ensure network uptime and resilience:
  • STP/RSTP/MSTP: Standard Spanning Tree Protocols for loop prevention.
  • RRPP, Smart Link, SEP, G.8032 ERPS: Advanced Ethernet protection technologies that provide fast (millisecond-level) switchover in ring or tree topologies, minimizing service interruption.
  • E-trunk: Enhanced Trunk for inter-device link aggregation and load balancing.
• Flexible Management and Maintenance:
  • iStack Technology: Allows multiple physical switches to be virtualized into a single logical switch, simplifying management and providing greater scalability. Any 10GE SFP+ port can be configured as a stack port.
  • Multiple Management Interfaces: Supports CLI, Web NMS, and SNMPv1/v2/v3.
  • Automated Deployment: Features like automatic configuration, plug-and-play, USB-based deployment, and batch remote upgrades streamline operations.
• Layer 3 Routing Capabilities: Provides essential IPv4 routing (Static, RIP, OSPF, VRRP, policy-based routing) and IPv6 routing (Static, RIPng, OSPFv3) for network segmentation and efficient inter-VLAN communication.

Typical Applications:

• 10GE Access Layer in Campus Networks: A perfect fit for providing high-bandwidth access to servers and high-performance user groups within large enterprise or educational campus environments, with the 40GE ports providing robust uplinks to the distribution or core layers.
• Data Center Access Layer: Ideal for connecting racks of 10GE servers in a data center, with the 40GE uplinks providing high-capacity connections to spine or aggregation switches, facilitating efficient east-west and north-south traffic flow.

The “S” in S6720S-26Q-LI-24S-AC generally denotes a slightly simplified or specific variant compared to the non-“S” models in the same series, but often they share very similar core functionalities and performance characteristics. This model specifically offers an excellent balance of port density and uplink capacity for high-performance network deployments.