The H3C S5560-EI series switches are the latest high-performance converged Ethernet switch products launched by H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. Developed based on industry-leading high-performance hardware architecture and H3C's advanced Comware V7 software platform, and powered by a robust unified switching platform, they achieve seamless wired and wireless convergence. The H3C S5560-EI series switches integrate wireless control functions, enabling local forwarding of wireless/wired connections at the access layer, eliminating wireless control bandwidth bottlenecks, expanding the scale of wireless deployments, and saving users investment costs.

The H3C S5560-EI series switches achieve the highest port density and flexible port expansion capabilities in the industry for 1U devices. Each host has 4 built-in 10 Gigabit optical ports and can be expanded with high-density 10 Gigabit and 40G ports at the same time, supporting high-density, high-performance port uplink capabilities.

The H3C S5560-EI series supports a pluggable dual power supply and a pluggable dual fan design, achieving high reliability at the hardware level. It also supports MACsec hardware encryption, including user data encryption, data frame integrity checks, and data source authenticity verification, providing users with secure connectionless MAC layer data transmission and reception services.

The H3C S5560-EI series Ethernet switches currently include the following models:

S5560-30S-EI: 24 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, and 2 40G QSFP+ ports;

S5560-54S-EI: 48 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, and 2 40G QSFP+ ports;

S5560-30C-EI: 24 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, 1 port expansion slot, 2 fan module slots, and 2 power supply module slots;

S5560-34C-EI: 28 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, including 8 combo ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, 1 port expansion slot, 2 fan module slots, and 2 power module slots;

S5560-54C-EI: 48 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, 1 port expansion slot, 2 fan module slots, and 2 power supply module slots;

S5560-30C-PWR-EI: 24 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, 1 port expansion slot, 2 fan module slots, and 2 power module slots;

H3C S5560-54C-PWR-EI: 48 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, 1 port expansion slot, 2 fan module slots, and 2 power supply module slots;

S5560-30F-EI: 24 SFP ports, 8 10/100/1000BASE-T (Combo) ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, 1 port expansion slot, 2 fan module slots, and 2 power module slots;

H3C S5560-54QS-EI: 48 10/100/1000BASE-T ports, 4 10G/1G BASE-X SFP+ ports, 2 40G QSFP+ ports, 2 fan module slots, and 2 power module slots;

Features

High-performance port expansion capabilities

The H3C S5560-EI series switches all have four built-in 10 Gigabit optical ports, providing a cost-effective port combination to achieve a low-cost interconnection solution and meet users' 1:1 non-convergence network deployment needs.

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support a rich and flexible array of port expansion cards, including an 8-port 10 Gigabit optical/electrical expansion card, a 2-port 10 Gigabit optical/electrical interface card, and a 2-port 40G expansion card. The entire unit supports a maximum of 12 10 Gigabit ports or 2 40G ports, enabling high-density, high-performance port expansion capabilities to meet the needs of large-scale network aggregation or small-to-medium-sized network core deployments, as well as the configuration requirements for hybrid optical-electrical networking.

Open multi-service architecture (OAP card insertion)

The H3C S5560-EI series switches are based on H3C's Open Services Architecture (OAA), which not only provides the functions of traditional switches, but also integrates high-performance OAP module cards, including FW, making the S5560EI switch a converged multi-service bearer platform.

High-performance IPv4/IPv6 service capabilities

The H3C S5560-EI series switches implement a hardware-based IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack platform, supporting various tunneling technologies, rich IPv4 and IPv6 Layer 3 routing protocols, multicast technology, and policy routing mechanisms, providing users with a complete IPv4/IPv6 solution.

IRF2 (Second Generation Intelligent Resilient Architecture)

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support IRF2 (Intelligent Resilient Architecture 2) technology, which connects multiple physical devices together, virtualizing them as a single logical device. This means users can manage and use these multiple devices as a single unit. IRF offers the following benefits:

Simplify managementOnce the IRF architecture is established, it can connect to any port of any device to log in to a unified logical device. By configuring a single device, it can manage the entire intelligent elastic system and all member devices within the system, without having to physically connect to each member device to configure and manage them separately.

Simplify businessThe various control protocols running in the logical devices formed by IRF are also run as a single device. For example, the routing protocol is calculated as a single device. With the application of cross-device link aggregation technology, it can replace the original spanning tree protocol. This can save a lot of protocol message interaction between devices, simplify network operation, and shorten the convergence time when the network is unstable.

Elastic scalingIt can be flexibly expanded according to user needs, ensuring user investment. Furthermore, new devices can be hot-swapped when joining or leaving the IRF architecture, without affecting the normal operation of other devices.

High reliabilityIRF's high reliability is reflected in three aspects: links, devices, and protocols. Physical ports between member devices support aggregation, as do physical connections between the IRF system and upper/lower-layer devices. This multi-link backup improves link reliability. The IRF system consists of multiple member devices; if the Master device fails, the system quickly and automatically elects a new Master to ensure uninterrupted service flow, achieving device-level 1:N backup. The IRF system also features real-time protocol hot backup, backing up protocol configuration information to all other member devices, thus achieving 1:N protocol reliability.

high performanceFor high-end switches, performance and port density improvements are limited by hardware architecture. However, the performance and port density of an IRF system are the sum of the performance and number of ports of all devices within the IRF. Therefore, IRF technology can easily increase the switching capacity and user port density of a device several times over, thereby significantly improving device performance.

IRF3 (Third Generation Intelligent Resilient Architecture)

The S5560-EI series products support heterogeneous virtualization in the vertical dimension. Through IRF3 technology, they can form a vertically integrated logical virtual device with core or aggregation devices. This is equivalent to adding a box-type device as a remote interface board to the main device system, thereby expanding I/O port capabilities and enabling centralized control and management. IRF3 technology simplifies management, significantly reducing network management nodes; simplifies cabling, reducing Layer 2 to Layer 1 and saving horizontal connection cables; and ultimately achieves data forwarding plane virtualization, facilitating simplified service deployment and automatic orchestration. Furthermore, it can obtain various network functions, including TRILL, from CB devices.

SDN (Software-Defined Networking)

Software-defined networking (SDN) is an innovative network architecture. Its core technology, OpenFlow, significantly simplifies network management and maintenance by separating the network's control layer and data forwarding layer. More importantly, it enables flexible control of network traffic, providing a robust network platform for innovation in core networks and applications.

The S5560-EI series switches support large-scale flow tables and, when used with the H3C SDN controller, can easily achieve large-scale Layer 2 network architecture and provide existing networks with the ability to quickly add users; while greatly simplifying network management, they can significantly reduce network maintenance costs.

Multi-service support capabilities

The H3C S5560-EI series switches all support Multi-VRF features and can be used as MCE devices. They support Layer 3 MPLS VPN and Layer 2 MPLS VPN (Martini, Kompella), and work with H3C MPLS VPN Manager to achieve graphical MPLS deployment and maintenance. They fully support VPLS features, providing an end-to-end Layer 2 VPN access solution, supporting full-speed MPLS/VPLS forwarding, and meeting the requirements for large-scale VPLS deployments.

The H3C S5560-EI PWR model supports PoE (Power over Ethernet) technology, which remotely powers connected devices (such as IP Phones and Wireless APs) via Ethernet. This eliminates the need to deploy a separate power system for the devices at the site, greatly reducing the cabling and management costs of deploying terminal devices.

Visualization capabilities

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support Telemetry technology, which can send real-time resource information and alarm information of the switches to the operation and maintenance platform via the gRPC protocol. The operation and maintenance platform analyzes the real-time data and can realize functions such as network quality backtracking, fault diagnosis, risk warning, and architecture optimization, so as to accurately protect the user experience.

Comprehensive security control strategy

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support EAD (Endpoint Admission Control) functionality. When used in conjunction with a backend system, endpoint security measures such as antivirus and patch repair can be integrated with network security measures such as network access control and access permission control into a unified security system. By inspecting, isolating, repairing, managing, and monitoring network access terminals, the entire network can be transformed from passive defense to active defense, from single-point defense to comprehensive defense, and from decentralized management to centralized policy management, thereby improving the network's overall defense capabilities against emerging security threats such as viruses and worms.

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support centralized MAC address authentication, 802.1x authentication, and PORTAL authentication. They support dynamic or static binding of user identification elements such as user accounts, IP addresses, MAC addresses, VLANs, and ports, and enable dynamic distribution of user policies (VLANs, QoS, ACLs). They also support real-time management of online users in conjunction with H3C's iMC system, enabling timely diagnosis and resolution of illegal network activities.

The H3C S5560-EI series switches offer enhanced ACL control logic, supporting ultra-high-capacity ingress and egress port ACLs, and VLAN-based ACL deployment. This simplifies user configuration while avoiding wasted ACL resources. Furthermore, the S5560-EI series supports unicast reverse path lookup (uRPF) technology. When a data packet is received on one of the device's interfaces, it performs a reverse path lookup to verify the existence of a route from the receiving interface to the source address specified in the packet. If the route is not found, the packet is deleted, effectively preventing the increasingly prevalent source address spoofing in networks.

Multiple reliability protections

The S5560-EI series switches feature multiple levels of reliability protection at both the device and link levels.

The S5560-EI series switches support pluggable AC/DC dual power supply modules and pluggable dual fan reliability design, allowing for flexible configuration of AC or DC power supply modules according to actual environmental needs. In addition, the entire unit supports power supply and fan fault detection and alarm, and can automatically adjust the fan speed according to temperature changes. These designs make the equipment more reliable.

In addition to device-level reliability, this product also supports a rich set of link-level reliability technologies, including protection protocols such as LACP/STP/RSTP/MSTP/Smart Link/RRPP fast ring network protection mechanisms. It supports IRF2 intelligent elastic architecture, 1:N redundancy backup, ring stacking, and cross-device link aggregation, greatly improving network reliability. Even when the network carries multiple services and high traffic, it does not affect the network convergence time, ensuring normal service operation.

MACsec hardware encryption

Macsec is a link-layer security protocol well-suited for Hop-by-Hop Ethernet, and it performs the following three functions:

1) Message encryption: By using encryption algorithms and keys, plaintext is transformed into ciphertext with garbled characters, which is difficult to decrypt even if eavesdropped on.

2) Anti-replay attack: Prevents hackers from intercepting messages received by the target host and resending them to the target host to deceive it, such as during authentication.

3) Anti-tampering: Prevents hackers from arbitrarily tampering with the original message content to achieve ulterior motives.

macsec is implemented in two modes:

1) Host-oriented mode: Used for first-hop protection when a terminal accesses the network.

2) Device-oriented mode: Protection of interconnection links between user equipment.

The H3C S5560-EI series switches integrate MACsec security encryption functionality in their hardware, and together with our inode intelligent client and core switches (S10500, S75E), they can build a complete MACsec solution.

Rich QoS policies

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support L2 to L4 packet filtering, providing flow classification based on source MAC address, destination MAC address, source IP address, destination IP address, TCP/UDP port number, protocol type, and VLAN. They offer flexible queue scheduling algorithms, configurable on both port and queue levels, supporting five modes: Strict Priority (SP), Weighted Round Robin (WRR), SP+WRR, WFQ, and WDRR. They also support Committed Access Rate (CAR) with a minimum granularity of 8Kbps. Furthermore, they support port mirroring in both inbound and outbound directions, allowing monitoring of packets on specified ports by copying data packets from one port to the monitoring port for network testing and troubleshooting.

Excellent management

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support a rich set of management interfaces, including Console ports, mini USB ports, and out-of-band management ports. They support SNMPv1/v2/v3 (Simple Network Management Protocol) and are compatible with common network management platforms such as OpenView and the iMC intelligent management center. CLI command-line and TELNET are supported for easier device management, and SSH 2.0 and other encryption methods enhance security.

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support SPAN/RSPAN/ERSPAN mirroring and multiple mirror observation ports, enabling network traffic analysis to facilitate appropriate management and maintenance measures. This makes previously invisible network service application traffic readily apparent and provides users with various network flow analysis reports to help them optimize network structure and adjust resource deployment in a timely manner.

Professional lightning protection

The H3C S5560-EI series switches employ professional built-in surge protection technology, supporting industry-leading 8KV service port surge protection capabilities, which greatly reduces the damage rate of equipment caused by lightning strikes even in harsh working environments.

Enhanced Power over Ethernet (PoE+) capability

The H3C S5560-EI series switches support 802.3af/802.3at enhanced Power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality, with a maximum output power of 30W per port. This allows them to provide PoE power capabilities for 802.11n wireless access points, video IP phones, high-power surveillance cameras, and many other terminal devices. They also support various types of PoE power modules for flexible PoE output, and can provide up to 1440W of PoE power per unit, achieving full PoE+ power supply for all 48 ports.

Networking applications

Network Application 1: Typical Applications in Large Campus Networks

In large and medium-sized enterprises or campus networks, the S5560-EI series Ethernet switches can be used as aggregation layer switches, providing high-performance, high-capacity switching services and supporting 10GE/40G uplink interfaces, providing higher bandwidth for access devices.

S5560-EI series Ethernet switches are used in the aggregation layer of enterprise/campus networks.

Network Application 2: Typical Applications in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Networks

The H3C S5560-EI series switches can also be used as core switches in small and medium-sized enterprise networks. Two S5560-EI series Ethernet switches can back each other up. In addition to providing the required Layer 2 and 3 line-speed forwarding performance, they also support rich access control policies to ensure secure terminal access.

Applications of S5560-EI Series Ethernet Switches in the Core Layer

Specifications