Make your network more agile and service-oriented

• The high-speed ENP chip used in the S12700 series is tailored for Ethernet. The chip's flexible packet processing and traffic control capabilities can meet current and future service requirements, helping build a highly scalable network.
• In addition to providing all the capabilities of common switches, the S12700 series provides fully programmable open interfaces and supports programmable forwarding behaviors. Enterprises can use the open interfaces to develop new protocols and functions independently or jointly with other vendors to build campus networks that meet their needs.
• The ENP chip uses a fully programmable architecture, on which enterprises can define their own forwarding models, forwarding behaviors, and lookup algorithms. This architecture speeds up service innovation and makes it possible to provision a customized service within six months, without replacing hardware. In contrast, traditional ASIC chips use a fixed forwarding architecture and follow a fixed forwarding process. For this reason, new services cannot be provisioned until new hardware is developed to support the services, which can take 1 to 3 years.

Deliver abundant services more agilely

• The native ACs of the S12700 series allow enterprises to build a wireless network without additional AC hardware. Each S12700 switch can manage 4K APs and 64K users. It is the first core switch that provides T-bit AC capabilities, which avoid the performance bottleneck on independent AC devices. The native T-bit AC capabilities help you better cope with challenges in the high-speed wireless era.
• The native BRAS on the S12700 series authenticates both wired and wireless users, delivering the same user experience no matter they connect to the network through wired or wireless access devices. The native BRAS supports various authentication methods, including 802.1X, MAC, and Portal authentication, and is capable of managing users based on user groups, domains, and time ranges. These functions visualize management of users and services and enable the transformation from device-centered management to user-centered management.

Provide fine granular management more agilely

• iPCA, Packet Conservation Algorithm for Internet, changes the traditional method of using simulated traffic for fault location. iPCA technology can monitor network quality for any service flow at any network node, at any time, and without extra costs. It can detect temporary service interruptions within 1 second and can identify faulty ports accurately. This cutting-edge fault detection technology turns "extensive management" into "fine granular management."
• The Super Virtual Fabric (SVF) technology can not only virtualize fixed-configuration switches into line cards of an S12700 switch but also virtualize APs as ports of the switch. With this virtualization technology, a physical network with core/aggregation switches, access switches, and APs can be virtualized into a "super switch," offering the simplest network management solution.

Industry-leading line cards

• Using Huawei advanced ENP chips, the S12700 series supports several million hardware entries, leaving traditional switches far behind. The S12700 series provides 1M MAC address entries and 3M FIB entries, meeting requirements of route-intensive scenarios, such as the metropolitan area network (MAN) for a television broadcasting network or education network. The capability to provide 1M NetStream entries enables the S12700 series to provide fine granular traffic statistics on collage campus networks and large-scale enterprise campus networks.
• The S12700 series provides a 1.5 GB buffer on each line card to prevent packet loss upon traffic bursts, delivering high-quality video services. Traditional switches only provide 4 MB buffer per card, which cannot ensure high-quality video stream transmission.
• The S12700 series supports high-density line-speed cards, such as 48*10GE and 8*100GE line cards. Each S12700 chassis can provide a maximum of 576 10GE ports and 96 100GE ports. This large port capacity fully meets the requirements of bandwidth-consuming applications, such as multimedia video conferencing, well protecting customer investments.

End-to-end reliability design

Device-level reliability: CSS2 switch fabric hardware clustering technology

• Based on back-to-back clustering technology that has been widely used on high-end core routers, the S12700 series employs the second generation switch fabric hardware clustering technology, CSS2, an enhancement to CSS switch fabric clustering technology.
• CSS2 technology connects cluster member switches through hardware channels of switch fabric units. Therefore, control packets and data packets of a cluster only need to be forwarded once by the switch fabric units and do not go through service cards. Compared with traditional service port clustering technologies, CSS2 minimizes the impact of software failures, reduces the risk of service interruption caused by service cards, and also significantly shortens the transmission latency.
• CSS2 supports 1+N backup of MPUs. This means a cluster can run stably as long as one MPU of any chassis in the cluster is working normally. In a cluster connected by service ports, each chassis must have at least one MPU working normally. Therefore, CSS2 is more reliable than traditional service port clustering technologies.
• CSS2 prevents a cluster from splitting. Control packets and data packets of a cluster are transmitted over independent channels. Even if all links between switch fabric units fail, the cluster will not split because these packets can still be transmitted over the control channels between MPUs. In a cluster connected by service ports, control packets and data packets are forwarded through links between service cards. Once a link between member devices fails, control packets and data packets will be lost, causing the cluster to split.

Network-level reliability: end-to-end hardware protection switching

• The S12700 uses a series of link detection and protection switching technologies, such as hardware Eth-OAM, BFD, G.8032, and Smart Ethernet Protection (SEP), to realize 50 ms end-to-end protection switching. These technologies help build a campus network that responds quickly to topology changes and provides the most reliable services.

*: The S12700 supports the NGFW, which is the next-generation firewall card, and the IPS card. For more specification information, see the brochures of the cards.

* The X1E series cards use ENP chips and provide native AC and unified user management functions.

** The OSP card supports the CheckPoint IPS and F5 ADC load balancer, and can run Windows, SUSE, and VMware operating systems.

*** Each ACU2 card can manage 2K APs. An S12708 switch can have a maximum of 7 ACU2 cards installed and can manage up to 14K APs. An S12712 switch can have a maximum of 11 ACU2 cards installed and can manage up to 22K APs.

In an enterprise campus network

S12700 series switches are deployed on the core layer of an enterprise campus network. Native ACs provided by the S12700 enable customers to build wireless networks without additional AC hardware, reducing network construction costs. The S12700 is the first core switch that provides T-bit AC capabilities, avoiding the performance bottleneck on independent ACs. The native T-bit AC capabilities help customers migrate their wireless networks to 802.11ac. The S12700 series realizes wired and wireless convergence and delivers consistent experience to wired and wireless users through uniform device management, user management, and service management.

In a college campus network

S12700 series switches are deployed on the core layer of a college campus network. The native BRAS on the S12700 reduces network construction costs by removing the need to purchase new BRAS hardware. Each S12700 switch supports 65536 users, allowing a large number of concurrent access users. Its 5-level H-QoS feature implements fine granular user and service management. The S12700 series realizes wired and wireless convergence and delivers consistent experience to wired and wireless users through uniform device management, user management, and service management.

In a bearer network for video conferencing, desktop cloud, and video surveillance applications

The S12700 series has a 1.5 GB buffer to prevent packet loss upon traffic bursts, delivering high-quality video streams. The S12700 series supports up to 1M MAC address entries and 3M FIB entries, which allow access from a large number of terminals and help evolution to IPv6 and the Internet of Things. Employing end-to-end hardware reliability technologies and iPCA technology, the S12700 series offers a highly reliable, high-quality, scalable video conferencing and surveillance solution.

On the core/aggregation layer of a MAN

S12700 series switches are used as core or aggregation switches on the MAN of a television broadcasting network or education network. The 3M FIB entries provided by the S12700 series are sufficient for large-scale routing on the MAN. CSS2 switch fabric hardware clustering technology, originating from clustering technology for high-end core routers, delivers carrier-class reliability on the MAN. Additionally, the S12700 series supports comprehensive L2/L3 MPLS VPN features, providing a highly reliable, secure, and scalable metropolitan bearer network solution.

In an enterprise data center

S12700 series switches are deployed on the core or aggregation layer of an enterprise data center network. The S12700 series has high-density line cards, such as 2*100GE and 48*10GE cards, meeting the requirements for large data throughput on core/aggregation nodes of a data center. Using CSS2 switch fabric hardware clustering technology, the S12700 series provides up to 1.92 Tbps cluster bandwidth and shortens the inter-chassis forwarding latency to 4 μs. This technology helps customers build a data center network with high- performance, high reliability, and low latency.