Table of Contents
Introduction
Asterfusion’s SONiC 400G switches— CX732Q-N are designed for next-generation data centers handling AI/ML clusters, financial trading systems, or large-scale VXLAN fabrics. This blog answers the top questions IT leaders and engineers ask when evaluating 400G Ethernet switches. From latency benchmarks and RoCEv2 support to telemetry, automation, SONiC enhancements, and real-world deployment advice, consider this your go-to resource for selecting the smart switch to 400G.
32-Port 400G Switch
1. Hardware Performance & Low-Latency Capabilities
Q: Under what conditions was the minimum latency of 500ns measured? Was it under cut-through mode or store-and-forward mode?
A: Our 400G switches achieve 500ns latency under store-and-forward mode, which is already very low and suitable for delay-sensitive applications.
Q: Is latency consistent with mixed traffic (large and small packets)?
A: Yes, our 400G network switches maintain stable latency performance even under mixed traffic conditions.
Q: Does the 400G switch support breakout of 400G ports into 4×100G or 2×200G?
A: Yes. Ports can break out to 4×100G or 2×200G—both at the hardware and software levels.
Q: What is the total backplane bandwidth of the switch? Does it have a non-blocking architecture?
A: Our switches are box-type devices. The single ASIC forwarding path of a box-type device is shorter and has lower latency. The data of a Chassis-type device passes through multiple backplanes, and the forwarding path is more complex, with a latency of about twice that of a box-type device.
Q: What’s the buffer size? Does the switch support a large buffer capacity to handle bursty traffic scenarios?
A: The packet buffer of this series of switch chips is 70MB, providing sufficient buffering capacity for both data-intensive applications (such as distributed storage and big data processing) and real-time applications (such as video streaming and VoIP).
2. AI, HPC, and Financial Trading Scenarios
Q: Does the 400G switch support RoCEv2? What specific ECN, PFC, and DCB features are supported?
A: Yes. Supports RoCEv2, ECN, PFC, DCBX, and Easy RoCE with one-click configuration.
Q: Does the switch support In-band Telemetry (INT) for network visibility? Can it be used for visualizing training traffic?
A: Yes. The INT collector can collect and report network status information in real time on the data plane. Our switches can provide training traffic with the following services: microburst detection, latency monitoring, and queue congestion reporting, etc.
Q: In financial trading systems, does the switch support nanosecond-level time synchronization (e.g., via PTP v2)?
A: Due to limitations in hardware clock precision and processing capabilities, the TL7 series currently cannot achieve the time synchronization accuracy required for financial trading systems. Our Falcon series switches, equipped with high-precision hardware clocks and optimized PTP implementation, can provide approximately 20ns time synchronization accuracy. Refer to: CX732Q-M-H
Q: Has the switch been certified for compatibility with major GPU vendors such as NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel?
A: Yes. Our switches have successfully passed compatibility verification with the NVIDIA H20 GPU.
Q: How is the switch optimized for AI/ML workloads?
A: Our switches integrate advanced intelligent flow control technologies to ensure efficient operation of AI/ML workloads, including INT Driven Routing, Flowlet-based ALB, WCMP, etc.
3. SONiC and Software Operability
Q: How is Asterfusion Enterprise SONiC different from the community version? Is it stable and production-ready?
A: Our Enterprise SONiC Distribution is based on open-source SONiC and has been deeply optimized for AIDC and enterprise scenarios. Compared to the community version of SONiC, it offers significant advantages in management interfaces (Rest API, NetConf/YANG, gNMI…), control plane features (Packet Spray, WCMP, INT Driven Routing, Anycast Gateway WiFi Roaming, EVPN-MH), hardware compatibility (Marvell Teralynx, Prestera; Broadcom Tomahawk III, Trident III), and production stability.
Compare items | Community SONiC | Asterfusion Enterprise SONiC | |
Technical Services | Expert Pre-Sales Guidance | ||
Unrivaled After-Sales Support | |||
Comprehensive Training & Support | |||
Certified Cable & Optics Validation | |||
Rich Documentation & Insights | GitHub | GitHub + Enterprise-grade | |
SONiC Deployment Mastery | |||
Enhanced Features & Protocol Support | Advanced ROCEv2 Performance | ||
Robust EVPN Multi-Homing | |||
Superior Q-in-Q Capabilities | |||
AI-Powered Networking features | Flowlet-based load balancing, INT-based intelligent routing, and WCMP | ||
Open Source Ecosystem Integration | Full support for Ansible, Prometheus,ntopng and more | ||
Silicon telemetry | |||
Features customization | |||
Rapid Feature Updates | Accelerated Feature Releases | Updated every half year | Updated every quarter |
Clear and Transparent Roadmap | Quarterly Updates | ||
Operations & Usability | Unified Network Management | Limited | OpenWiFi-based management controller |
CLI for Enhanced Usability | Cisco-Style (Klish) Limited | Support Both Cisco-Style (Klish) and Linux-Style (Bash) Interfaces | |
Deployment Complexity | High, requires Linux and SONiC expertise | Low, optimized system, CLI, and technical support reduce deployment complexity | |
Cost & Infrastructure Compatibility | Cost | Free, but maintenance costs apply | Subscription-based, contact Asterfusion for pricing |
Hardware Compatibility | Supports mainstream white-box switches, needs manual adaptation | Broad hardware support, validated for higher compatibility | |
Typical Use Cases | Tailored Editions for multi-network scenarios | Three mature versions | |
Suitable users | Education, PoC, lab testing, open-source enthusiasts. Large companies with professional technical teams | Built for action-ready to power data centers, campus networks, AI/HPC infrastructures, edge computing environments, WLAN controllers, and a wide range of demanding enterprise deployments |
Q: Does the switch support containerized applications (e.g., PB, INT, ZTP)? Is it based on the FRR routing stack?
A: Yes. Built on SONiC’s containerized architecture, AsterNOS supports Packet Broker, In-band Telemetry, and ZTP. Additionally, based on the FRRouting (FRR) routing stack, it provides robust and reliable control plane functionality.
Q: Are automation interfaces such as gNMI, gRPC, REST API, and NetConf supported? Can the switch be integrated with OpenStack, Kubernetes, and Ansible?
A: Our AsterNOS fully supports these automation interfaces, providing flexible network management and configuration capabilities, and enabling integration with mainstream automation and orchestration platforms, including OpenStack, Kubernetes, and Ansible.
Q: Does the switch support BGP-EVPN and VXLAN overlay? Can it be used to build a large Layer-2 fabric in a Spine-Leaf topology?
A: Yes. AsterNOS supports:
- BGP-EVPN with VXLAN overlay
- 1K VXLAN tunnels
- 4K VXLAN gateways
- EVPN multi-homing for redundancy
Q: Are custom control plane plugins or BGP policies supported?
A: Yes. You can develop and deploy custom plugins or policies via SONiC’s flexible container + FRR framework.
4. Optics & Compatibility
Q: Our network is undergoing a transformation. Is the switch compatible with mixed deployments involving InfiniBand and traditional Ethernet devices?
A: Yes. It supports hybrid deployment with traditional Ethernet devices. At the module level, as long as both ends use the same protocol, interoperability is ensured.
Q: Does it support lossless interconnection with AI accelerator servers from vendors like NVIDIA and AMD?
A: Yes. Designed for lossless Ethernet with AI accelerators.
5. Deployment and Operations
Q: Does the switch support large-scale automated deployment via Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP)?
A: Yes. Our switches support ZTP for scalable, automated provisioning. Our switches fully support ZTP (Zero-Touch Provisioning), enabling large-scale automated deployment, simplifying device configuration, and accelerating the initialization and setup of network equipment.
Q: Is high availability supported via hot swap and patching?
A: Yes. Supports hot patching. The following are key mechanisms at the software level to ensure high reliability:
- Container-level isolation: Each core network function (such as BGP, LLDP, SNMP, etc.) is deployed in an independent Docker container, ensuring process-level isolation. Each container runs processes specific to its designated function.
- Microservices architecture: All services communicate and synchronize state through mechanisms such as Redis, gRPC, and message buses. In the event of a module failure, the affected service container can be restarted independently without requiring a reboot of the entire system.
Q: For fault diagnosis, are features like logging, telemetry, and SPAN/mirroring supported?
A: Yes. Includes: Our AsterNOS supports a comprehensive monitoring framework, including:
- Syslog: Supports both local storage and remote syslog transmission, facilitating issue tracking and auditing.
- Telemetry: Supports real-time telemetry based on protocols such as gNMI and OpenConfig, and can be integrated with mainstream network visibility platforms.
- SPAN/Mirror (Traffic Mirroring): Supports both local and remote port mirroring, enabling precise capture of traffic on specified interfaces or traffic matched by ACLs for in-depth packet-level analysis.
Q: Are NetFlow/sFlow/IPFIX supported?
- ✅ sFlow
- ✅ Telemetry
- ❌ NetFlow/IPFIX
Q: How is real-time status visualized?
A: Our AsterNOS monitors network operating status through the AsterNOS exporter (Prometheus exporter), integrates with the Prometheus monitoring platform, and provides visualized data to users.
6. TCO & Commercial Advantages
Q: How does Asterfusion compare to Arista/NVIDIA(Mellanox)?
A: The cost-performance ratio is reflected in hardware procurement cost, power consumption, software licensing model, and overall TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).
Q: In multi-tenant environments, does the switch support VLAN and VRF isolation? Can it serve dual roles as both access and aggregation layer?
A: Our AsterNOS supports Layer 2 and Layer 3 tenant isolation based on VLAN and VRF, supporting up to 4K VLANs and 1K VRFs. It is also compatible with multi-tenant scenarios in large-scale VXLAN-EVPN architectures and provides a complete set of L2 and L3 features. Hardware specifications can be selected according to the application scenario.
Q: What is the average delivery time? Is custom optical module selection or pre-configuration service supported?
A: The average delivery time is one week. Optical module selection requires hardware debugging. Customization is supported but subject to meeting the MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity).
Q: Compared to mainstream vendors (e.g., Arista), what are the pricing and energy efficiency advantages of Asterfusion’s 400G switches?
A: The price of our 400G switch (including the software operating system), when calculated per port, is more cost-effective for each 400G port. Additionally, in terms of power consumption, compared to Arista 400G switches, our maximum power consumption per port is lower. The relevant data are as follows.
- Lower per-port pricing (hardware + software)
- More efficient power consumption. Example:
- Asterfusion CX732Q-N: 970W / 32×400G = 30.31 W/port
- Arista 7280DR3A-36: 1283W / 36×400G = 35.64 W/port
Q: What is the general supply delivery time? Are customized modules or system integration services available?
A: The average delivery time is one week; for orders over 100 units, it is approximately 4 to 8 weeks.
Q: Is PoC (Proof of Concept) testing support available? Can testing or initial setup be done remotely?
A: We support PoC testing, and we recommend that customers purchase demo units. We will apply for a special discount for the POC/evaluation unit. Trial experience can help customers speed up decision-making.
Q: In dual-active, high-availability scenarios such as in banking or brokerage systems, are there reference network designs or recommended topologies? Can you share example architecture diagrams or documents?
A: The solution can be found on the Solutions page, and case studies are available on the Blog.
Q: Does the solution support cross-device MC-LAG or EVPN multi-homing access? Is dual-active link protection supported?
A: Our products support MC-LAG networking and EVPN multihoming to achieve highly reliable active-active link protection.
Conclusion
Asterfusion’s 400G switches provide an optimal blend of latency, flexibility, visibility, and TCO. Whether you’re deploying in AI/ML clusters, financial systems, or cloud data centers, our SONiC-based switches support advanced telemetry, automation, and future-ready scalability.
👉 Still have questions? Contact our team or request a PoC demo today.
