Arista DCS-7280DR3A-54-DC-F | 7280R3A 54-Port 400G QSFP-DD Switch, 21.6Tbps, DC

Q: What optics are supported on the DCS-7280DR3A-54-DC-F?
A: The switch supports a wide range of 10G to 400G pluggable optics in QSFP-DD form factor, including 400G-DR4, 400G-FR4, 400G-LR8, 400G-ZR, as well as breakout cables for 100G, 50G, 25G, and 10G connectivity. The QSFP-DD ports are also backward compatible with QSFP28 100G and QSFP+ 40G modules.

Q: What is the difference between the DC-F and standard DC models?
A: The DC-F suffix indicates the switch ships with DC power supplies and front-to-rear airflow. The DC-F model includes 2x PWR-3001-DC redundant DC power supplies (3000W each) and fans that draw air from the port side and exhaust toward the rear, suitable for hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center deployments.

Q: Is this switch suitable for internet peering and service provider environments?
A: Yes, the DCS-7280DR3A-54-DC-F is designed for service provider and internet peering applications. It features Arista FlexRoute for large routing tables, supports MPLS, Segment Routing, L2/L3 VPN services, and includes DC power for telecom/carrier environments. The deep buffers handle congestion typical in peering scenarios.

Q: Does this model support stacking or chassis clustering?
A: The 7280R3A Series does not support traditional stacking. Instead, it uses MLAG (Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation) for Layer 2 redundancy and ECMP (Equal Cost Multi-Path) for Layer 3 scale-out architectures, typical of modern spine-and-leaf data center designs.

Q: What software features are included with Arista EOS?
A: Arista EOS includes comprehensive Layer 2 and Layer 3 routing protocols, EVPN-VXLAN for network virtualization, MPLS and Segment Routing for traffic engineering, advanced telemetry with sFlow and IPFIX, PTP for precision timing, zero-touch provisioning, and CloudVision integration for centralized management and automation.