Avaya Virtual Services Platform 7000 Series or VSP 7000 is a set standalone/stackable switches, used in enterprise data networks, and data centers, manufactured by Avaya. This product is primarily offered to satisfy the Top-of-Rack role for server farms and virtualized data centers. It supports Avaya's extended Shortest Path Bridging implementation "Fabric Connect", and is future-ready for Edge Virtual Bridging – IEEE 802.1Qbg, and Fiber Channel over Ethernet. The system incorporates fifth generation application-specific integrated circuit chips with redundant and hot-swappable power supplies, fans, and expansion modules. The VSP 7000's unique architecture allows it to be meshed - fully or partially - with like devices, creating a high-capacity, low-latency network of up to 500 units, supporting up to 16,000 ports of 10GbE supported by a virtual backplane of up to 280Tbit/s
History
In November 2010 Avaya introduced its Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture and in May 2011 this Switch, featuring 24 ports of fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet was released as part of the VENA strategy. The VSP 7000 is future-ready for 40GbE and 100GbE by virtue of the Media Dependent Adapter slot on the front panel, enabling in-service deployment of high-speed connections. The Switch is also future-ready for storage area networking. The company gained the foundational technology for the VENA strategy through its $915 million acquisition of Nortel Enterprise Solutions business unit in December 2009. The Switch supports 24 fixed ports 1 or 10 Gigabit via SFP+ sockets, either front-to-back or back-to-front cooling, field replaceable fan trays, and field replaceable redundant AC or DC power supplies. The Application-specific integrated circuit technology allows the MDA to support additional 10GbE ports, with future 40GbE, and 100GbE planned. The VSP 7000 Series also futures integrated rear-mounted 'Fabric Interconnect' interfaces that delivers - per Switch - 640Gbit/s aggregate of bandwidth for Switch-to-Switch connectivity; Avaya market this technology as 'Distributed Top-of-Rack'. Recently added to the system is a Virtual Provisioning Service that helps managers track and manage, provision and troubleshoot their virtual machine environments. The VPS technology works with VMware’s VCenter to automate configuration changes. In September 2011 the system was reported as installed in the first US-based LEAP Center.
The more recent 7024XT model supports 24 fixed ports of 10GBASE-T, and as per the 7024XLS, supports expansion up to 32 ports of 10 Gigabit or the addition of two 40 Gigabit links, via the MDA slot.
