Arista DCS-7280CR3AK-48D6-R | 7280R3A 48-Port 100G Switch, 6x 400G QSFP-DD

Q: What is the difference between the R3A, R3AM, and R3AK models?
A: The 7280R3A provides standard Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding. The R3AM adds TunnelSec encryption capabilities for wire-speed MACsec. The R3AK model includes both TunnelSec encryption and large-scale routing tables supporting over 5 million routes with FlexRoute, making it ideal for internet peering and MPLS applications.

Q: What does the -R suffix indicate in the model number?
A: The -R suffix indicates rear-to-front airflow direction, where cool air is drawn from the rear and exhausted from the front. This is designed for data centers with rear-aisle cooling configurations. The -F variant provides front-to-rear airflow for cold-aisle intake.

Q: Can the 100GbE QSFP ports operate at lower speeds?
A: Yes, the QSFP ports support breakout configurations and can operate at 40GbE, 25GbE, and 10GbE speeds using appropriate transceivers and breakout cables, providing deployment flexibility across mixed-speed environments.

Q: What use cases is the DCS-7280CR3AK-48D6-R designed for?
A: This switch is optimized for hyperscale data center leaf-spine architectures, AI and machine learning workloads requiring deep buffers and predictable low latency, internet peering with large BGP tables, MPLS service provider networks, and secure high-bandwidth applications requiring wire-speed encryption.

Q: Does this switch support network virtualization and overlay protocols?
A: Yes, the 7280R3AK fully supports VXLAN for network virtualization, EVPN for overlay control plane, MPLS for carrier-grade networking, and advanced telemetry features including sFlow, IPFIX, and Inband Network Telemetry for modern data center and service provider environments.