Cisco Cisco IE 3000-AC Industrial Ethernet Switch Power Module Getting Started Guide

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Cisco, Intel, and Panduit Joint 10GBASE-T Solution
At-A-Glance
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10GBASE-T Ecosystem
Technology leaders in their respective product systems of server adapters, physical 
media infrastructure, and switching fabric have joined together to provide an end-to-end 
10-Gbps networking system solution. The Cisco, Intel, and Panduit solution offers users 
a cost-effective, high-performance, and highly available 10 Gigabit Ethernet network. 
Cisco 10GBASE-T Solution
The Cisco
®
 10GBASE-T solution for the Cisco Catalyst
®
 platform is an industry-first 
10GBASE-T solution that brings together the market leaders in enterprise switching, 
network adapters, and structured cabling to deliver high-performance, cost-effective, 
and efficient next-generation RJ-45-based server connectivity. It is available in both 
top-of-rack (ToR) and end-of-row (EoR) form factors and is optimized to provide 10 Gbps 
throughput for distances of up to 330 feet (or 100 meters) over Cat6 shielded twisted 
pair (STP) and Cat6A or 7 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) and STP, and up to 181.5 feet 
(or 55 meters) over Cat6 UTP copper cabling, using the Intel 10 GbE Ethernet Server 
Adapters and Panduit TX6A 10Gig Copper Cabling System with MaTriX Technology.
Based on the IEEE 802.3an standard, 10GBASE-T is a crucial technology for designing 
next-generation data center architectures. It is: 
Simple to understand because of the familiar and well-understood RJ-45 cabling
Simple to procure because of the upcoming introduction of 10GBASE-T on LAN-
on-motherboard (LOM) devices
Simple to deploy because of existing structured cabling infrastructure
The Cisco 10GBASE-T solution provides these main benefits: 
Support for virtualization over 10GBASE-T-enabled servers and storage devices
Investment protection through use of existing chassis and power supply
Easy transition path to 10GBASE-T
Proven and tested ecosystem of leading network interface card (NIC), switching, 
and cabling vendors
Intel Server Adapters
The Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-T2 and Intel 10 Gigabit AT2 Server Adapter 
deliver easy-to-deploy, high-volume 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity over existing 
copper infrastructure. They include Intel Virtual Machine Device Queues for optimized 
I/O virtualization, support unified data and storage networking, and provide reliable, 
consistent performance across a broad range of virtualized and nonvirtualized operat-
ing systems. These adapters deliver advantages in cost, power, and server slot savings 
compared to use of multiple Gigabit Ethernet adapters. Support for unified networking 
further increases consolidation savings by eliminating the need for dedicated storage 
adapters. Backward compatibility with 1000BASE-T infrastructures helps ensure easy 
deployment and upgrading.
The Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-T2 is Intel’s third-generation 10GBASE-T 
adapter and includes new features to support high-volume 10 Gigabit Ethernet:
Dual-port design for redundancy and greater throughput
Send and receive offloads to accelerate Small Computer System Interface over IP 
(iSCSI) traffic, and optimizations for multicore processors to improve efficiency
Intel Virtualization Technology for Connectivity; virtual machine device queues 
and single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) support boost throughput and reduce 
latency to improve overall system performance 
PCI Express Generation 2–compliance for dual-port, line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet 
throughput
Panduit Copper Cabling Technology
Panduit TX6A 10Gig UTP Copper Cabling System offers an innovative cable design 
and advanced connector compensation techniques to reduce cable size without com-
promising internal and alien crosstalk performance. Panduit TX6A 10GIG UTP Copper 
Cabling Systems are available in 100m and now in new SD 70m versions. The new 
TX6A-SD version offers a very small cable diameter of 0.24 inch, which is sized similarly 
to Cat6 cable and allows reuse of existing pathways and cable managers, optimizing 
cost-effective 10 Gigabit Ethernet deployments in data centers.
Key benefits of the advanced next-generation UTP cabling system include:
Risk mitigation: 
Advanced connectivity and cable design provides significant 
headroom over the Cat6A and Class Ea standards, eliminating the need to field 
test for alien crosstalk.
Agility and flexibility: 
Scalable and modular system provides a clear migration 
path to meet next-generation application demands. A wide range of data center 
architectures and applications (long and short channels) are supported, and 
bundling and comingling of other copper category cables is allowed. 
Reduced capital expenditures (CapEx): 
Space utilization is increased through 
high-density physical infrastructure solutions combined with leading data center 
reference architectures. QuickNet pre-terminated solutions are also available, 
reducing installation time by up to 75%.