C1-N9K-C93108-B18Q Cisco Nexus 93108TC-Ex One 2 8 QSFP-40G-SR-BD

Product Overview

The Cisco C1-N9K-C93108-B18Q Nexus 93108TC-EX is a high-performance enterprise network switch engineered for modern data centers. Designed for scalability, reliability, and speed, this Layer 3 switch supports advanced Ethernet technologies and flexible expansion, making it ideal for cloud, virtualization, and high-density networking environments.

General Product Information

Manufacturer Details

• Brand: Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Product Line: Cisco Nexus
• Series: 9300-EX

Identification & Model

• SKU / Part Number: C1-N9K-C93108-B18Q
• Device Type: Layer 3 Network Switch

Interfaces and Port Configuration

Network Port Overview

This Cisco Nexus switch delivers high port density to support demanding workloads and fast data transfer across the network.

• Total Ports: 48 Ethernet ports
• Downlink Ports: 48 × 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• Uplink Support: Yes

Expansion Slots & Connectivity

• Expansion Slots: 6 × 100 Gigabit Ethernet
• Slot Interface: QSFP+
• Modular Architecture: Supported
• Stacking Capability: Not available

Performance and Ethernet Technologies

Supported Media Types

• Optical Fiber
• Twisted Pair Cabling

Ethernet Standards

• 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBase-T)
• 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GBase-X)

I/O Expansion Capabilities

Scalable Expansion Design

The Nexus 93108TC-EX offers flexible input/output expansion, allowing organizations to adapt their network infrastructure as bandwidth requirements increase.

• Total Expansion Slots: 6
• High-speed QSFP+ interfaces

Network Management & Layer Support

Advanced Network Control

• Layer Support: Layer 3 routing
• Manageability: Fully manageable for enterprise environments

Power and Reliability Features

Power Supply Specifications

• Power Source: Internal Power Supply
• Redundant Power: Supported for high availability

Ideal Use Cases

• Enterprise data centers
• High-density server environments
• Cloud and virtualization networks
• High-performance core and aggregation layers

Architectural Design and Core Hardware Specifications

Built on a purpose-built Cisco ASIC, the Nexus 93108TC-EX is designed for performance and predictability. Its hardware architecture is optimized for the mixed east-west and north-south traffic patterns of modern applications, ensuring consistent low latency and lossless operation.

Chassis and Form Factor

The switch features a compact 2-rack-unit (2RU) form factor, balancing port density with space efficiency. It is designed for front-to-back or back-to-front airflow with port-side exhaust or port-side intake configurations, allowing flexible integration into various data center cooling schemes. The robust chassis houses dual, hot-swappable power supplies and fan trays, ensuring high availability and seamless serviceability.

Switching Capacity and Performance

At its core, the switch provides a non-blocking architecture with a substantial aggregate switching capacity of 2.4 Tbps. This ensures all ports can operate at line rate simultaneously, preventing internal bottlenecks. A key differentiator is its deep buffer memory, which is essential for handling bursty traffic, preventing packet loss during microbursts, and maintaining performance in storage or converged network scenarios.

Comprehensive Port Configuration and Connectivity

The "93108TC-EX" nomenclature reveals its port philosophy: 48 fixed downlink ports and 8 fixed uplink ports, with the "TC" indicating a mix of copper and fiber capabilities.

Downlink Port Details: 48 x 1/10/25G Ethernet

The switch offers 48 downlink ports that provide exceptional flexibility for server and FEX connectivity:

Ports 1-36: 10GBASE-T (RJ-45) ports supporting 1 GbE and 10 GbE speeds via Category 6a/7 cabling.
Ports 37-48: SFP28 ports supporting 1 GbE, 10 GbE, and 25 GbE speeds via SFP/SFP+/SFP28 modules.

This hybrid design allows for cost-effective 10GBASE-T connectivity for nearby servers while providing the higher performance and lower latency of SFP28 optics for critical 25G workloads or connections to storage arrays.

Uplink Port Details: 8 x 40/100G QSFP28

For upstream connectivity to the network core or spine, the switch is equipped with eight QSFP28 ports. These ports offer tremendous flexibility:

Native 40 Gigabit Ethernet using QSFP+ optics (e.g., 40G-SR-BD, as bundled).Native 100 Gigabit Ethernet using QSFP28 optics (e.g., 100G-SR4).
Breakout capability to 4 x 10G or 4 x 25G using splitter cables or modules, effectively transforming a single uplink into four independent connections for high-density aggregation.

The inclusion of eight such high-speed uplinks provides ample bandwidth headroom for oversubscription ratios that meet specific application and redundancy requirements.

Primary Use Case: Fabric Extender (FEX) Aggregation

A defining role for the Nexus 93108TC-EX is as an aggregation switch for Cisco's Fabric Extender technology. This architecture, known as "FEX," centralizes management and control on the parent switch (the 93108TC-EX) while extending data plane ports across low-cost, simple remote modules.

Benefits of the FEX Model with the 93108TC-EX

Deploying the 93108TC-EX as a FEX aggregator simplifies large-scale server deployments. It presents a single management domain for potentially hundreds of server ports distributed across multiple racks, drastically reducing operational complexity. The switch's deep buffers are particularly beneficial here, absorbing traffic bursts from numerous FEXs before uplink transmission. It supports a large number of FEX instances, such as the Nexus 2348TQ, allowing for a highly scalable and cost-effective server access layer.

Deployment Topologies

The switch supports all standard FEX topologies, including Direct Attach (single-homed), vPC (dual-homed), and even stretch fabric across rows. Its high uplink density is perfect for creating redundant, high-bandwidth connections from each FEX to multiple parent switches in a virtual Port Channel (vPC) pair, ensuring both high availability and load balancing.

Software and Feature Set: Cisco NX-OS

Running the mature and resilient Cisco NX-OS software, the 93108TC-EX delivers carrier-class reliability, security, and operational efficiency. The software provides a comprehensive suite of features for the modern data center.

Virtualization and Network Segmentation

NX-OS offers robust virtualization capabilities essential for multi-tenant environments and security zoning.

VRF-Lite: Provides network layer segmentation for routing tables, enabling separation of production, development, and management traffic.
Cisco TrustSec: Delivers policy-based access control through security group tags (SGTs), enabling micro-segmentation far beyond traditional VLANs.
VXLAN Bridging & Routing: While not an ACI-mode switch, it can function as a VXLAN Layer 2 Gateway (L2GW) or Layer 3 Gateway (L3GW) in EVPN-based overlay networks, extending Layer 2 domains and enabling network virtualization across a routed underlay.

High Availability Features

The platform is built for non-stop operation. Key features include:

Virtual Port Channel (vPC): Allows a server or FEX to be dual-homed to two separate switches, which appear as a single logical device. This eliminates Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) blocked ports and enables full utilization of all available uplinks.
In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU): Enables software upgrades with no disruption to data plane traffic, maximizing network uptime.
Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR): Allows an administrator to take a switch out of service for maintenance without causing network reconvergence.

Comparison and Positioning in the Nexus 9000 Family

The Nexus 93108TC-EX occupies a specific niche. It is distinct from the "FX" and "FX2" platforms that offer higher 25G/100G density, and from the "GX" platforms focused on 100G/400G. Its strength lies in its unique port mix and FEX aggregation role.

Versus the Nexus 93180YC-EX

The 93180YC-EX offers 48 x 25G SFP28 downlinks and 6 x 100G QSFP28 uplinks. The 93108TC-EX, with its 10GBASE-T ports, is better suited for environments with a significant installed base of 10G copper or where 25G server adoption is still ramping up. The TC model also provides two additional uplink ports.

Versus the Nexus 9332C

The 9332C is a 32-port 100G/400G spine switch. The 93108TC-EX is not a spine switch but an access/aggregation device. They are complementary, with the 93108TC-EX often serving as the high-density access layer feeding into a spine like the 9332C in a leaf-spine Clos architecture.

Ideal Deployment Scenarios

The Cisco Nexus 93108TC-EX is the optimal choice for several specific data center scenarios.

Enterprise Data Center Server Access

For enterprises refreshing aging 1G/10G server fleets, its hybrid ports allow a gradual transition. Existing 10GBASE-T NICs can connect directly, while new servers with 25G SFP28 NICs can use the higher-speed ports. The deep buffers protect business-critical applications from congestion.

Private Cloud and Virtualization Host Aggregation

In hypervisor clusters (VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V), the switch provides high throughput and low latency for VM traffic. Features like VXLAN routing enable the creation of flexible, scalable overlay networks for tenant isolation, crucial for cloud providers or large enterprise IT departments.

Storage Area Network (SAN) Connectivity

With support for Data Center Bridging (DCB) protocols—Priority Flow Control (PFC), Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS), and Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX)—the 93108TC-EX is an excellent platform for converged Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) deployments, carrying both IP and storage traffic on a unified network fabric.

Mid-Tier Collapsed Core

In smaller or medium data centers, a pair of 93108TC-EX switches in a vPC configuration can serve as a collapsed core, acting as both the access layer for servers/FEXs and the core layer for the network, simplifying design and reducing costs.