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Cisco Nexus switches are another key

component of the 10GbE SFP+ network-

ing solution. Designed to use standard

SFP+ connectors, Cisco Nexus 5000

Series Switches support SFP+ direct

attach Intel 10GbE copper server adapters

for in-rack or adjacent-rack use. They inte-

grate transceivers with twinaxial cables

into an energy-efficient, cost-effective,

low-latency solution, and are designed to

use only 0.1 W of power per transceiver—

which typically introduces only 0.25 micro-

seconds of latency per link.

Dell PowerEdge servers with dual- and

quad-core Intel Xeon® processors form the

foundation for the solution. Intel supports

the 10GbE SFP+ server adapter on the

PowerEdge R900, a four-socket, quad-

core 4U rack server; the PowerEdge 2900

III, a two-socket, quad-core 5U rack-

mountable tower server; the PowerEdge

2950 III, a two-socket, quad-core 2U rack

server; and the PowerEdge 1950 III, a two-

socket, quad-core 1U rack server.

optimizing in-rack connections

with 10gbe adapters

Intel 10GbE adapters can provide a range

of benefits for enterprise data centers.

Network interface cards (NICs) come

with support for both Microsoft®

Windows® and Linux® operating systems.

In addition, the SFP+ form factor is typi-

cally used for fiber connections, where

the optical connector is plugged into the

cage to which the cable is connected.

Direct attach twinaxial cables

feature a factory-terminated

connector that slides directly into

the cage and offers up to a 10 m length

for rack-mounted servers connecting to

the top-of-rack switch.

Intel 10GbE adapters can also extend

significant cost benefits to enterprise data

centers. Because the direct attach cables

do not exceed 10 m in length (compared

with 100 or 300 m for stand-alone cables)

and are already terminated, they are typi-

cally not as costly as traditional fiber

options—often approaching the same

price point as GbE cabling. In addition,

dual-port SFP+ direct attach server adapt-

ers help reduce per-port energy consump-

tion and costs.

Intel Virtualization Technology for

Connectivity (Intel VT-c) supports Intel

10GbE adapters by providing a set of

virtualization-specific enhancements

designed to accelerate network I/O per-

formance and reduce processor utiliza-

tion. Intel VT-c incorporates two key

technologies that help reduce latency,

accelerate I/O throughput, and offload

network overhead tasks for virtualized

servers: Intel I/O Acceleration Technology

(Intel I/OAT) and Intel VMDq.

Intel I/OAT is available on Dell

PowerEdge servers, and it offers a suite of

features that help enhance data accelera-

tion across a platform that is independent

of the OS on the server. Intel I/OAT includes

features such as checksum and segmenta-

tion offloads, Message-Signaled Interrupts

Extended (MSI-X), receive-side scaling,

receive-side coalescing, Intel QuickData

Technology, and low-latency interrupts.

The Intel VMDq networking hardware

feature on Intel server adapters provides

further acceleration by assigning packets

to different virtual machines (VMs) in a

virtualized server. The received packets

are sorted and collected into queues for

the appropriate VM and are then trans-

ferred up to the hypervisor, helping

enhance performance by offloading I/O

packet sorting from the hypervisor to the

network silicon. This in turn helps optimize

performance in virtualized environments

by releasing processor cycles for

application processing

rather than network I/O processing to

make efficient use of available resources.

Intel VMDq can also handle transmission

of packets from the VMs on the host server

to enable timely and fair delivery to the

network, which helps further enhance

speed and throughput.

consolidating network

enVironments with cisco

nexus 5000 series switches

The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series, part of the

Cisco Nexus family of data center–

class switches, is part of an innovative

architecture designed to enable a high-

performance, low-latency, and cost-

effective standards-based Ethernet

unified fabric. Cisco Nexus 5000 Series

Switches facilitate consolidation and

enhanced utilization of previously sepa-

rate infrastructure and cabling, and are

designed to reduce the number of adapt-

ers and cables by up to 50 percent while

helping avoid redundant switches. In this

manner, these switches can help simplify

cable management and contribute sig-

nificantly to power usage efficiency and

cost-effective cooling—especially for

rack-optimized servers.

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches

also help create a consistent set of net-

work and storage services across the

data center, allowing hosts to connect

to network or storage

resources through a

The Intel 10 Gigabit AF DA dual-port server adapter provides

a low-proﬁle PCIe form factor for slot-constrained environments

Reprinted from

Dell Power Solutions,