Juniper Networks EX4650
Multicloud-ready enterprise campus aggregation and core switch.

Overview:

The EX4650 line of Ethernet switches delivers high scale, high availability, and high performance for campus distribution deployments. The EX4650 offers fixed 1GbE/10GbE/25GbE ports with 40GbE/100GbE uplinks that support advanced campus environments, allowing them to provide the onramp to multicloud, to deploy cutting edge cloud applications, and to embrace IoT technology. It is also flexible enough for use in enterprise on-premises top-of-rack and service provider aggregation deployments.

Product Description

The Juniper Networks® EX4650 Ethernet Switch delivers 2 Tbps of Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity to networked devices such as secure routers, servers, and other switches. Featuring 48 wire-speed 10GbE/25GbE small form-factor pluggable and pluggable plus transceiver (SFP/SFP+/SFP28) ports and 8 wire-speed 40GbE/100GbE quad SFP+ transceiver (QSFP+/QSP28) ports in a compact 1 U platform, the EX4650 provides the flexibility to support mixed 1GbE, 10GbE, 25GbE, 40GbE, and 100GbE environments. Four models are available: two featuring AC power supplies with front-to-back or back-to-front airflow, and two featuring DC power supplies with front-to-back or back-to-front airflow. All models include dual power supplies.

Key Components

The EX4650 switch includes native 25GbE (fiber only) and either 40GbE or 100GbE fixed-configuration options with rich L2, L3, Ethernet VPN (EVPN), and MPLS features. The EX4650 switches run the same reliable, high-performance Juniper Networks Junos® operating system used by Juniper Networks EX Series and QFX Series Ethernet Switches, SRX Series Services Gateways,and Juniper routers, ensuring a consistent control plane feature implementation and user experience across the entire Juniper infrastructure.

EX4650 Switch Models

The EX4650 switch is a compact, 1 U platform that provides high throughput, very low latency, and a rich set of Junos OS features. The performance of the EX4650’s control plane is further enhanced with a powerful 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel CPU with 16 GB of memory and 64 GB SSD storage.

The EX4650-48Y is a 25GbE/100GbE campus distribution switch offering 48 SFP28 transceiver ports and eight QSFP28 ports that can be configured as 8x40GbE or 8x100GbE ports, with an aggregate throughput of 2 Tbps or 1.49 Bpps per switch. For added flexibility, each QSFP28 port can also be configured as 4x25GbE ports using breakout cables, increasing the total number of supported 25GbE ports to 80 per switch.

EX4650-48Y Highlights

The EX4650-48Y switch features the following:

• Support for high-density, multispeed 1GbE/10GbE/25GbE downlinks and 40GbE/100GbE uplinks for access and aggregation configurations, with up to 48 25GbE ports and up to eight 100GbE uplink ports in a 1 U platform
• Throughput of up to 2 Tbps L2 and L3 performance, with latency as low as 550 nanoseconds
• A 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel CPU with 16 GB memory and 64 GB SSD storage
• Feature-rich automation capabilities with support for Python and Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)
• Support for virtualization protocols such as Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN)
• Advanced Junos OS features such as EVPN, BGP add-path, MPLS, L3 VPN, and IPv6 6PE

Architecture and Key Components:

EVPN-VXLAN Technology

The EX4650 embraces open standards and extends the industry-standard EVPN-VXLAN technology already supported in both the data center and campus. With enterprise applications moving to the cloud, it has become necessary to deploy IP fabrics as enterprise fabrics with L2 extensions using VXLAN. The EX4650 is capable of both L2 and L3 VXLAN gateway services, allowing customers to deploy networks that provide L2 adjacencies for applications over L3 fabrics. EVPN-VXLAN offers a scalable way to build and interconnect multiple campuses, data centers, and public clouds, delivering the following benefits:

• Greater network efficiency
• Based on industry standards
• Scalable at all network layers
• Faster convergence
• Flexible and secure architecture

Junos OS

The high-performance EX4650 runs Junos OS, Juniper’s powerful and robust network operating system that powers all Juniper switches, routers, and firewalls. Key Junos OS features that enhance the functionality and capabilities of the EX4650 include:

• Software modularity, with process modules running independently in their own protected memory space and with the ability to do process restarts
• Commit and rollback functionality that ensures error-free network configurations
• A powerful set of scripts for on-box problem detection, reporting, and resolution

Junos OS Software License

The software features supported on the EX4650-48Y switch are categorized in three tiers: Base, Premium, and Advanced.

• Base software features include basic L2 switching, basic L3 routing, multicast, automation, programmability, ZTP, and basic monitoring. A Base software feature license comes with the purchase of the hardware and does not require any explicit license keys.
• Premium software features include all Base license functionality, plus BGP, IS-IS, and EVPN-VXLAN to explicitly address the needs of enterprise customers. To enable these features, customers must purchase the EX4650-PFL license, generate unique license keys, and install them on the switch. The license is not portable across devices.
• Advanced software features include all Premium license functionality plus MPLS to explicitly address the needs of enterprise interconnect and edge use cases. To enable these features, customers must purchase the EX4650-AFL license, generate unique license keys, and install them on the switch. The license is not portable across devices.

EX4650 Campus Deployment Options

The EX4650 switch is designed primarily for the following use cases:

1. Collapsed Campus Core/Distribution: A pair of interconnected EX4650 switches can be deployed to provide EVPN multihoming (ESI-LAG) or multichassis link aggregation (MC-LAG) in a collapsed core/distribution configuration. This eliminates the need for Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) across the campus network by providing multihoming capabilities from the access to the distribution layer, while distribution to core is an L3 IP fabric. ESI-LAG also supports horizontal scaling with more than two devices in the distribution layer and can extend EVPN to the core.



2. Campus Distribution or Core Switch Supporting IP Clos: A pair of interconnected EX4650 switches can provide EVPN L2 and L3 VXLAN gateway support. This eliminates the need for STP across the campus network by providing a multihoming capability from the access to the distribution layer, while distribution to the core is an L3 IP fabric using EVPN technology. The IP fabric can also extend to connect multiple enterprise buildings, while VXLAN allows stretching L2 across buildings. An IP Clos network between the distribution and the core layers can exist in two modes, both of which are supported by the EX4650:
   • Centrally routed bridging overlay: Integrated Routing and Bridging (IRB) interface placed at a central location in the fabric (in this case, a core device)
   • Edge routed bridging overlay: IRB interface placed at the edge of the fabric (in this case, a distribution device)



3. Enterprise On-Premises Server Connectivity: Data centers are demanding more high-speed, low-latency, storageand I/O-converged networking solutions to maximize the performance of their physical servers, virtual servers, and storage. The EX4650 addresses these needs with low-latency, lossless, high-density 10GbE and 25GbE interfaces, as well as 100GbE uplinks to the core network. Furthermore, the EX4650 offers EVPN-VXLAN L2 and L3 gateway support, making it an ideal solution for overlay deployments in the enterprise onpremises data center.

The EX4650 also offers flexible airflow options, enabling them to support back-to-front and front-to-back cooling to ensure consistency with server designs for hot-aisle or coldaisle deployments. Support for tri-speed 1GbE/10GbE/25GbE make the EX4650 ideal for enterprise server access; 48 ports of native 10GbE/25GbE for server connectivity and up to eight 40GbE or 100GbE ports for uplink connectivity provide very low oversubscription of 1.5:1 from access to aggregation. Each 40GbE port can be broken out into four 10GbE ports, providing additional options for server connectivity.

The EX4650 operates in both cut-through and store-andforward modes, delivering sustained wire-speed switching with sub-microsecond latency and low jitter for any packet size (including jumbo frames) in both modes. With features such as EVPN multihoming (ESI-LAG) and MC-LAG, the EX4650 supports active/active server dual homing and can utilize full bisectional bandwidth from server to switch.

Features and Benefits:

Automation

The EX4650 supports a number of network automation and plug-and-play features, including ZTP and event scripts, automatic rollback, and Python scripting.

Flexible Forwarding Table

The EX4650 includes a Unified Forwarding Table (UFT), which allows the hardware table to be divided into configurable partitions of L2 media access control (MAC), L3 host, and longest prefix match (LPM) tables. In a pure L2 environment, the EX4650 supports up to 288,000 MAC addresses; in L3 mode, the table can support up to 168,000 host entries; in LPM mode, the table can support up to 360,000 prefixes. Junos OS provides configurable options through a CLI to optimize the EX4650 for various deployment scenarios.

Intelligent Buffer Management

The EX4650 features a total of 32 MB of shared buffers. While 25% of the total buffer space is dedicated, the rest is shared among all ports and is user configurable. The intelligent buffer mechanism in the EX4650 effectively absorbs traffic bursts while providing deterministic performance, significantly increasing performance over static allocation.

MPLS

A broad set of MPLS features, including L3 VPN, IPv6 provider edge router (6PE), RSVP traffic engineering, and LDP, support standards-based network segmentation and virtualization, allowing the EX4650 to be deployed as a low-latency MPLS label-switching router (LSR).

VXLAN Overlays

The EX4650 is capable of both L2 and L3 VXLAN gateway services. Customers can deploy overlay networks to provide L2 adjacencies for applications over L3 fabrics. The overlay networks utilize VXLAN in the data plane and EVPN or OVSDB for programming the overlays, which can operate without a controller or be orchestrated with an SDN controller like OpenContrail.

Junos OS

Running Junos OS, which features the most advanced and robust routing capabilities in the industry, the EX4650 supports RIP and OSPF for both IPv4 and IPv6, as well as advanced routing capabilities such as IS-IS and BGP. With additional capabilities such as 64-way equal-cost multipath (ECMP) and BGP add path, the EX4650 is an ideal building block for deploying the most robust L3 underlay for SDN.

EVPN-VXLAN

Many proprietary campus architectures are built on traditional L2 Ethernet-based architectures that address the desire to eliminate Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). With the increase of IoT devices in the enterprise, these networks will be expected to scale rapidly without adding complexity and resources. Some of these IoT devices, however, have limited networking capabilities and require L2 adjacency across buildings or campuses. To address this problem, traditional solutions extend VLANs across buildings and campuses using data plane flood-and-learn. Unfortunately, this solution is inefficient and difficult to manage. The increasing number of network endpoints, coupled with rapidly changing business needs, demands an open, standards-based network that is simple, scalable, and programmable across both the campus and the data center.

Modern enterprise networks need a campus architecture that decouples the overlay network from the underlay network with technologies such as VXLAN, which enables network administrators to create logical L2 networks across different L3 networks. The EX4650 satisfies these requirements by supporting EVPN-VXLAN L2 and L3 gateway capabilities, providing the following benefits:

• Improved network and host mobility efficiency
  • Control plane MAC learning to reduce unknown-unicast flooding
  • Reduced Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) flooding due to MAC-to-IP binding in control plane
  • Multipath traffic over multiple core switches (VXLAN entropy)
  • Multipath traffic to active/active dual-homed access layer switches
• Fast convergence
  • Faster reconvergence when linked to dual-homed access switches fail (aliasing)
  • Faster reconvergence when endpoints move
• Scalability
  • Scalable BGP-based control plane
  • Seamless expansion of the core, distribution, and access layers as business needs grow
  • Seamless expansion of campuses as business needs grow
• Flexibility
  • Easy integration with L3 and L2 VPNs
  • BGP-based control plane functionality that allows application of fine-grained policies
• Nonproprietary
  • Standards-based protocols that support multivendor core, distribution, and access layers

EX4650 Switch Specifications:

Hardware

Switching Capacity

• 2 Tbps/1.49 Bpps

Weight

• 23.7 lb (10.75 kg)

Dimensions (HxWxD)

• 1.72 x 17.36 x 20.48 in (4.37 x 44.09 x 52.02 cm)
• Switching mode: Cut-through and store-and-forward
• Front-to-back (airflow out) for hot aisle deployment
• Back-to-front (airflow in) for cold aisle deployment
• Management and console port connections

Power Consumption

• Max load 450 W; typical load 260 W; idle load 160 W

Interface Options

• 1GbE SFP: 48 (24 copper 1GbE)
• 10GbE SFP+: 48/80 (with breakout cable)
• 25GbE SFP28: 48/80 (with breakout cable)
• 40GbE QSFP+: 8
• 100GbE QSFP28: 8
• Each QSFP+ port can be configured as a 4 x 10GbE interface or as a 40 Gbps port
• Each QSFP28 port can be configured as a 4 x 25GbE interface or as a 100 Gbps port
• 1 USB 2.0 port
• 1 RS-232 console port
• 2 management ports: 2 x RJ-45 ports
• Supported transceiver and direct attach cable (DAC)
• SFP 1GbE optical and copper module
• SFP+ 10GbE optical modules
• SFP+ DAC cables: 1/3 m twinax copper and 1/3/5/7 m active twinax copper
• SFP28 DAC cables: 1 m twinax copper
• SFP28 optics: SR, LR
• QSFP+ DAC cables: 1/3 m twinax copper
• QSFP+ optics: SR4, LX4, ESR4, ER4, LR4
• QSFP+ to SFP+ 10GbE direct attach breakout copper (1/3 m twinax copper cable)
• QSFP28 to SFP28 25GbE direct attach breakout copper (1 m twinax copper cable)
• QSFP28 optics: SR4, ER4, PSM4, CWDM4, LR4

Rack Installation Kit

• Versatile four-post mounting options for 19-in server rack or datacom rack

Airflow

• Redundant (N+1) and hot-pluggable fan modules for frontto-back and back-to-front airflow
• Redundant variable-speed fans to reduce power draw

Power Supply and Fan Modules

• Dual redundant (1+1) and hot-pluggable 650 W AC/DC power supplies
• 110-240 V single phase AC power
• -44 to -72 V DC power supply
• Redundant (4+1) and hot-pluggable fan modules for frontto-back or back-to-front airflow

Performance Scale (Unidimensional)

• Layer 2
  • MAC addresses per system: 288,000
  • VLAN IDs: 4093
  • Number of link aggregation groups (LAGs): 80
  • Number of ports per LAG: 64
  • Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) instances: 64
  • VLAN Spanning Tree Protocol (VSTP) instances: 509
  • Jumbo frame: 9216 bytes
• Firewall filters
  • Ingress filters: 1500
  • Egress filters: 512
• Layer 3
  • IPv4 unicast prefixes: 360,000
  • IPv4 unicast routes: 208,000
  • IPv4 multicast routes: 104,000
  • ECMP paths: 64
  • IPv6 unicast prefixes: 170,000
  • Ipv6 unicast routes: 104,000
  • IPv6 multicast routes: 52,000
  • ARP entries: 64,000
• Traffic mirroring
  • Mirroring destination ports per switch: 4
  • Maximum number of mirroring sessions: 4
  • Mirroring destination VLANs per switch: 4

Software Features Supported:

Documentation:

Download the Juniper Networks EX4650 Data Sheet (PDF).