Abstract

New H3C Technologies commissioned Tolly to evaluate the performance and feature set of the H3C S12500X-AF series data center cloud core switches. The main focus of the project was to validate switching performance, high-availability and virtualization capabilities, overlay networking, routing, MPLS, telemetry, and core data center feature support across the S12500X-AF family for high-performance cloud and data center environments.  

The report applies to the H3C S12500X-AF series, including the S12504X-AF, S12508X-AF, and S12516X-AF chassis switches. For throughput testing, Tolly used an LSXM1CGQ48HB1 line card with 48 x 100GE ports in an S12508X-AF chassis. In RFC2544 testing with Spirent TestCenter, the switch delivered 100% Layer 2 and Layer 3 line-rate throughput for frame sizes of 128 bytes and above, with zero frame loss in a snake topology. This represented 4.8Tbps of throughput for the tested line card.  

A major theme in the report is resiliency and multi-device virtualization. Tolly verified support for IRF2, which virtualizes multiple physical switches into one logical fabric for simplified management, scalability, and redundancy. The report also validated ISSU for IRF2 fabrics and GIR for M-LAG systems, both delivering software upgrades with no packet loss. H3C S12500X-AF also supported static and dynamic LAG, M-LAG, and load balancing for unicast, multicast, and broadcast traffic.  

Feature validation highlighted broad support for modern data center and cloud networking. Tolly verified VXLAN Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity, IPv6 over IPv4 VXLAN, EVPN VXLAN with distributed gateways, centralized VXLAN Layer 3 gateway support, VXLAN OAM, and capacity for 9,215 IPv4 VXLAN tunnels. The platform also supported OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, OSPFv3, IS-IS for IPv6, BGP4+, graceful restart, non-stop routing, 10ms BFD, Layer 2 and Layer 3 multicast, MPLS VPWS, VPLS, L3VPN, MPLS TE, MPLS MCE, and MPLS Segment Routing. Operations and automation features included gRPC-based Telemetry, PTP server and client support, Ansible, NETCONF, SNMP, ZTP, ERSPAN, NetStream, and sFlow. Capacity varied by line card, with validated results including up to 750,000 MAC addresses, up to 1,048,576 ARP entries, up to 2,097,152 IPv4 FIB routes, and up to 262,144 IPv6 FIB routes. Tolly also verified Multitenant Device Context support for up to 16 MDCs, DCI for VXLAN fabrics, PFC deadlock detection, DCBX, PFC, ECN, OpenFlow, and fan and power redundancy without packet loss. Overall, the report presents the H3C S12500X-AF family as a high-capacity cloud core switching platform with strong performance, resilience, and rich data center feature coverage.  

Switches tested:

• H3C S12504X-AF — Compact chassis model in the S12500X-AF cloud core switch family for high-performance data center switching.  
• H3C S12508X-AF — Mid-range chassis model in the S12500X-AF series; used in the report’s throughput testing with a 48 x 100GE line card.  
• H3C S12516X-AF — Largest chassis model in the S12500X-AF family for higher-scale cloud and data center core deployments.  

Line cards tested:

• LSXM1CGQ48HB1 — 48 x 100GE line card used for RFC2544 throughput testing in the S12508X-AF chassis.  
• LSXM1CGQ36HB1 — Line card referenced for MAC, ARP, ND, and FIB capacity measurements in the S12500X-AF platform.  
• LSXM1CGQ18QGHF1 — Higher-scale line card referenced for capacity measurements, including up to 2M IPv4 FIB routes.