H3C picks Spirent to complete 800G test

Spirent Communications, the provider of test and assurance solutions for next-generation devices and networks, has supported H3C in successfully completing the industry’s first large-scale high-density 800G Ethernet test with up to 64 800G ports.

The test results validated the reliability and high performance of H3C S9827, H3C’s 800G CPO silicon photonic switch series.

With Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) driving a new wave of network transformation, the resultant large-scale AI workloads require data exchange among tens of thousands of servers executing billions of parallel computations for massive data training. Growing demand for computing power is driving new requirements for high-quality network connections and with 800G and 1.6T expected to become the standard for large-scale training in the future, high-performance of next-generation switches is essential for overall network efficiency and response speed.

This recent test leveraged the industry’s first high-density 800G OSFP and QSFP-DD test platform, the Spirent TestCenter 800G B2 Appliance. The B2 is dedicated to accelerating time-to-market for 800G infrastructure development and adoption, no matter the interconnect strategy, providing customers the flexibility to use a test platform native to their actual network deployments. The B2 test solution offers the density, flexibility and performance features needed to validate the next generation of switches, routers, chipsets, and data center fabrics.

Supporting multi-rate interconnection with switches via cables, optical fibres and other interconnects, the B2 enables testing based on benchmark performance and scale standards.

The H3C S9827 series is a new generation of 800G data center switches based on CPO silicon photonics technology, and test results showed a total switching capacity of up to 51.2T, with all 64 ports achieving 100 per cent line speed forwarding under different traffic. Each port transmission rate reached 800Gbps, and the integrated CPO silicon photonics technology fully met the high throughput demands for intelligent computing networking, ensuring its suitability for AIGC clusters and other high-performance data center core switching and related applications, which will help to unleash optimal computing power in the AIGC era.

“We were pleased to support H3C in verifying multiple breakthrough technology solutions for 800G Ethernet,” said Andrew Liu, VP of Sales for Spirent in Greater China. “We have developed a comprehensive, end-to-end 800G testing suite that leverages decades of experience in Ethernet testing. This latest positive 800G test validating the reliability and high performance of H3C S9827, H3C’s 800G CPO silicon photonic switch series, will help ensure successful deployments of this complex new technology and reliable high-speed networks to meet future demand.”

“The 800G high-performance switch, bolstered by CPO technology, will provide higher network capacity for cutting-edge applications such as AIGC and large-scale model training, paving the way for further improvement in the scale and computing power of computing clusters,” said Yutao Li, Vice President of Network Product Line and General Manager of Switch Product Line at H3C. “This joint test fully reflects H3C’s leading technical strength in the field of digital infrastructure. In the future, H3C will also help customers from various industries to comprehensively boost Ethernet performance, unleashing the full potential of computing power.”