Help us improve your experience.

Let us know what you think.

Do you have time for a two-minute survey?

 
ON THIS PAGE
 

QFX5250 Overview

Learn about the hardware features and benefits of the QFX5250 Switch.

Meet the QFX5250 Switch

The Juniper Networks® QFX5250 switch is a 64-port, high-density switch designed to deliver scalable Ethernet connectivity up to 1600G. It can be deployed as either a leaf or spine component within modern IP fabric architectures, making it well suited for data center environments. This platform supports high-speed interfaces, including 100G, 400G, 800G, and 1600G, enabling flexible deployment in spine-leaf topologies. For example, QFX5250 switch can connect 200G leaf nodes directly to 200G servers. It supports native IP fabric routing in lean or collapsed spine designs.

The QFX5250 switch enhances performance and scalability through flexible port breakout capabilities, low-latency operation, and advanced routing support such as IPv4, IPv6, and GRE. As a core component in IP fabric data center networks, it incorporates intelligent routing features such as rapid link failover to optimize traffic distribution and network resilience.

Additionally, the QFX5250 switch provides robust Data Center Interconnect (DCI) capabilities, enabling seamless connectivity between geographically distributed data centers. This improves deployment flexibility while simplifying overall network management and operations.

Figure 1: Front View of the QFX5250 Liquid-Cooled Switch Front View of the QFX5250 Liquid-Cooled Switch
Figure 2: Rear View of the QFX5250 Liquid-Cooled Switch Rear View of the QFX5250 Liquid-Cooled Switch
Table 1: 64-Port QFX5250 Switch: Key Specifications
Characteristics QFX5250
Data transmission capability 1600 Gbps
Rack units (U)

2 OU—For liquid-cooled model.
Form factor

  • Octal small form-factor pluggable (OSFP)—64 OSFP ports with speeds of up to 1600 Gbps for QFX5250-64OE-L liquid-cooled switch.

  • Small form-factor pluggable 28 (SFP28)—2 SFP28 ports with speeds of 10G/25G.
Ports

  • 64 OSFP ports (1600 Gbps)

  • 2 SFP28 ports (10G/25G)

  • 1 Type-A USB 3.0 port

  • 1 RJ-45 console port

  • 1 management port

  • 2 DIN connectors:

    • 1 pulse per second (PPS) output, and

    • 1 10-MHz clock output
Throughput 102.4 terabits per second (Tbps)
Chipset High-radix class TH6 BCM78914 chipsets
Processor Intel 6-core 2.8-GHz Ice Lake D processor with 32 GB DRAM
Operating system (OS) Junos OS Evolved software
Solid-state Drive (SSD) Two internal 200-GB Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) SSDs store the Junos OS Evolved software image.

The QFX5250 switch has the following regulatory models:

  • Liquid cooled: QFX5250-64OE-L

This QFX5250 switch has the following models:

  • QFX5250-64OE-L—64-port switches with 1600-Gbps data transmission capability, OSFP form factor, liquid-cooling design, and installation of the switch on the ORv3 racks. The switch draws power from the ORv3 racks and is cooled using the liquid coolant from the ORv3 rack manifolds. The QFX5250 switch supports octal small form factor pluggable with riding heat sink (ORHS) transceivers. It is a variant of the OSFP transceiver that has a riding heat sink on top of the transceiver module. The riding heat sink provides better thermal management.

QFX5250 provides flexible power and cooling options that ensure operational efficiency. The QFX5250 switch utilizes the following cooling mechanism:

  • QFX5250 liquid-cooled model (QFX5250-64OE-L) is 100 percentage liquid-cooled. The ORv3 racks on which the liquid-cooled QFX5250 switches are installed, consist of inlet and outlet manifolds. The inlet and outlet UQDB06 plugs on the switch mate with the corresponding inlet and outlet sockets on the ORv3 rack manifold. This ensures smooth inflow and outflow of the coolant through the QFX5250 switch.

The QFX5250 switch utilizes the following power configurations:

  • ORv3 Racks—The ORv3-compliant models of the switch draw power from the busbar on ORv3 rack. The QFX5250 switch converts the 46 V to 56 V voltage on the ORv3 standard rack to produce a maximum power output of 4300 W.

Where can you use the QFX5250 Switch?

The primary use of the QFX5250 switch is in the data center as a high density 200G, 400G, 800G, or 1600G spine or leaf switch.

Few of the applications of the QFX5250 switches are:

  • 200 Gbps, 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps TOR IP Fabric

  • 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, or 1600 Gbps spine

  • Data Center Interconnects

  • Universal spine switch

  • 400 Gbps, 800 Gbps, 1600 Gbps AI/ML cluster switch

Benefits of the QFX5250 Switch

  • Maximize throughput—Support up to 102.4 Tbps of switching capacity on a single-chip architecture with ultra-low latency. These switches accommodate 200G, 400G, 800G, and 1600G port configurations to meet evolving data center bandwidth requirements.

  • Increase port density—Leverage up to 512 breakout ports for high-density, performance-focused designs. By channelizing 1.6T interfaces into lower-speed ports, you can easily configure interfaces for 200G, 400G, 800G, or 1600G operation.

  • Enhance network performance—Optimize operations for AI, machine learning, and cloud computing workloads using low latency and advanced routing capabilities.

  • Improve reliability—Facilitate efficient congestion management and path re-balancing through cognitive routing features. These advanced capabilities improve overall network uptime and ensure consistent service delivery.

  • Reduce operational costs—Lower energy consumption and operational expenses using versatile power and cooling solutions. These energy-efficient designs contribute to a more sustainable and cost-effective data center environment.

  • Simplify Data Center Interconnect (DCI)—Streamline the interconnection of multiple data center locations to reduce network complexity. Integrated DCI functionality provides greater deployment flexibility across distributed environments.

  • Standardize management—Ensure consistent management and compute capabilities across product models with the integrated Ice Lake CPU.