ULTRA-LOW LATENCY PACKET BUFFERING ENGINE FACTSHEET: ZTE ZXR10 5960 SERIES ALL-FLASH SWITCH INTERFACE LATENCY PERFORMANCE SHEET

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The ZTE ZXR10 5960 Series represents a paradigm shift in data center Top-of-Rack (ToR) switching, engineered specifically to unlock the full performance potential of all-flash storage arrays and latency-sensitive financial applications. As the industry transitions towards NVMe-over-Fabrics and high-frequency trading environments, network latency has emerged as the primary bottleneck. The ZXR10 5960 Series addresses this challenge with a purpose-built, ultra-low latency forwarding architecture, delivering deterministic sub-microsecond switching performance without compromising on throughput or carrier-class reliability. This document provides a detailed technical overview and interface latency performance datasheet for the ZXR10 5960 Series All-Flash Switch portfolio.

HARDWARE ARCHITECTURE & SILICON

The ZXR10 5960 Series is built upon a next-generation, programmable forwarding engine designed for line-rate, non-blocking performance across all port densities. The core of the platform is a high-efficiency switching fabric that leverages advanced memory architectures to minimize serialization and queuing delays. Key architectural components include:

- **High-Performance ASIC:** Utilizes a custom-designed silicon chip that integrates packet forwarding, security, and quality-of-service (QoS) functions. This ASIC is optimized for low-latency cut-through switching, enabling immediate packet forwarding decisions.

- **On-Chip Packet Buffer:** Employs a sophisticated, dynamically allocated on-chip buffer mechanism that significantly reduces the latency incurred by traditional external memory lookups. This ensures predictable performance even under micro-burst traffic conditions typical of all-flash environments.

- **Low-Latency SerDes:** Integrates high-speed Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) technology with optimized signal integrity, minimizing the physical layer transmission delay across the backplane and front-panel ports.

KEY FEATURES & ROUTING LOGIC

The platform is designed not just for speed but for intelligent, low-latency traffic management:

- **Ultra-Low, Deterministic Latency:** Provides sub-microsecond switching latency for 10GE, 25GE, 40GE, and 100GE interfaces, crucial for NVMe and RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) deployments. The architecture guarantees minimal jitter, ensuring predictable application performance.

- **Non-Blocking Forwarding:** Supports full line-rate forwarding on all ports simultaneously, ensuring that bandwidth and latency are not compromised when the switch is operating at maximum capacity.

- **Advanced Data Center Features:** Fully supports Data Center Bridging (DCB) protocol family, including Priority-based Flow Control (PFC), Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS), and Quantized Congestion Notification (QCN). These protocols are essential for building lossless, low-latency Ethernet fabrics required for storage traffic .

- **RoCE and NVMe-oF Ready:** The switch architecture is optimized for remote direct memory access (RDMA) traffic, supporting RoCEv2 to enable efficient, low-latency communication between servers and all-flash storage systems.

COMPLIANCE & STANDARDS

The ZXR10 5960 Series is designed to meet the rigorous demands of modern data centers, complying with a comprehensive set of industry standards:

- **IEEE Standards:** Fully complies with IEEE 802.1Q (VLAN), IEEE 802.1p (QoS), IEEE 802.3ad (Link Aggregation), IEEE 802.1Qbb (PFC), IEEE 802.1Qaz (ETS), and IEEE 802.1Qau (QCN) .

- **IETF Standards:** Supports MPLS, LDP, VPLS, VPWS, and MPLS L3 VPN, providing the flexibility to be deployed in carrier-grade MPLS metro networks .

- **RoCE/DCB:** Optimized to support RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) and DCB protocol family, confirming to the requirements for lossless Ethernet in data center networks .

- **Security:** Adheres to stringent security standards including 802.1x, Radius, TACACS+ for user authentication, and features advanced CPU protection mechanisms .

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

The following table details the key technical specifications and interface latency performance characteristics of the ZXR10 5960 Series. The values represent typical performance achieved under laboratory conditions.

ORDERING SKU INFORMATION

Below is a non-exhaustive list of available models and associated port configurations. For a complete ordering guide, please refer to the official ZTE Price List and Product Catalogue.

- **ZXR10 5960-56QU-HC:** 8 x 100GE QSFP28 and 48 x 25GE SFP28 ports with 2 x 10GE SFP+ ports. Switching capacity: 4 Tbps, Forwarding Rate: 2,000 Mpps .

- **ZXR10 5960-32LC-H:** 32 x 40GE QSFP+ ports. Switching capacity: 2.56 Tbps, Forwarding Rate: 1,440 Mpps .

- **ZXR10 5960-64DL-H:** 48 x 10GE SFP+ and 4 x 40GE QSFP+ ports. Switching capacity: 1.28 Tbps, Forwarding Rate: 960 Mpps .

- **ZXR10 5960-72NL-H:** 48 x 10GE BASE-T and 6 x 40GE QSFP+ ports. Switching capacity: 1.44 Tbps, Forwarding Rate: 1,080 Mpps .

- **ZXR10 5960-4M-HC:** Modular switch supporting up to 5 line cards with flexible 25GE, 40GE, and 100GE interfaces. Switching capacity: 6.4 Tbps, Forwarding Rate: 3,200 Mpps .

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

As all-flash arrays proliferate, the network infrastructure must evolve to eliminate latency bottlenecks. The ZTE ZXR10 5960 Series is positioned as a critical component in this evolution, offering the ultra-low latency, high reliability, and advanced feature set required to build next-generation data centers. It delivers a future-proof architecture that supports emerging technologies like NVMe-oF, ensuring that enterprises can harness the full potential of their storage investments. For detailed deployment guides and network ROI matrices, please contact your local ZTE representative.