The Arista 7500 delivers unmatched throughput, and leverages the unique combination of performance, density, and deep buffering to build larger flatter networks optimized for data centers, virtualization, and cloud computing.

Wirespeed Throughput

The Arista 7500 can forward on all ports at Layer-2 and Layer-3 at wirespeed while simultaneously switching and routing unicast and multicast traffic. There are eight linecard modules in the system and each linecard provides 720 Mpps of throughput. Aggregated together, the system can forward 5.76Bpps. The linecard modules are always non-blocking. The ports forward at full line rate in all scenarios, at all packet sizes - small and large.

• Port-pairs: With up to 192 pairs, all ports can send to each other without affecting performance.
• Full-Mesh: Performance is not impacted based on full-mesh traffic patterns in the Arista 7500. Even with a full mesh, any-to-any workload the Arista 7500 forwards without dropping any frames.

Low Latency

The low-latency virtual output queue fabric (VOQ) and an advanced traffic scheduler results in minimal delay in forwarding. All packets are received and stored on the ingress packet processor, which is equipped with very deep buffers. In parallel, while storing the packets, a forwarding decision is made by the scheduler as quickly as possible and the packet is divided and sent across the fabric to the egress port(s). The packet is re-assembled and transmitted out in most cases without any delays. This results in a very low latency - under 5 microseconds on average, for standard Ethernet frame sizes.

10 Terabit Lossless Fabric / Deep Buffer Congestion Management

With 384 MB of packet buffer for every eight ports, data gets queued when the egress interfaces are experiencing wide fan-in of traffic, or when supporting 10Gb to 1Gb transitions. The deep buffers ensure that congestion is absorbed and the egress interfaces are always working at their most efficient. This minimizes retransmission and results in much better performance at the application level. This ability to handle congestion, along with hardware support for Priority Flow Control (PFC), makes the system well suited for all applications that require a lossless fabric such as IP Storage, NAS, and video origination services.

The Arista 7500 switch comes with 6 fabric modules. Each fabric provides 1.66 Tbps of switching capacity. Only 5 fabrics are needed at any given time to provide full non-blocking performance.

Arista commissioned the European Advanced Network Test Center to validate the performance of the Arista 7500 Series. A complete report showing the performance and results of this in-depth testing can be accessed here.