Arista 7280R3A Series

2RU fixed switch-router family scaling to 21.6 Tbps across 54x 400G QSFP-DD ports with deep buffers and large routing tables for cloud, SP, and enterprise data centers.

Arista Products

Arista 7280R3A Series

Arista 7280R3A Series
54x QSFP-DD (400G/100G/50G/40G/25G/10G), 21.6 Tbps, From 3.8 µs latency

DCS-7280DR3A-54
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Arista 7280R3A Series
36x QSFP-DD (400G/100G/50G/40G/25G/10G), 14.4 Tbps, From 3.8 µs latency

DCS-7280DR3A-36
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Arista 7280R3A Series
24x QSFP100 + 12x QSFP-DD 400G, 7.2 Tbps, From 3.8 µs latency

DCS-7280CR3A-24D12
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Arista 7280R3A Series
48x QSFP100 + 6x QSFP-DD 400G, 7.2 Tbps, From 3.8 µs latency

DCS-7280CR3A-48D6
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Arista 7280R3A Series
72x QSFP100, 7.2 Tbps, From 3.8 µs latency

DCS-7280CR3A-72
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See all 7 models below

The Arista 7280R3A Series is the modular-chassis evolution of the 7280R3 universal switch router, scaling the 7280R3 routing and switching capabilities into a 4-slot (7280R3A-4) and 8-slot (7280R3A-8) chassis that reaches up to 230.4 Tbps. The primary line card is the 7280R3A-LC-36CQ (36x QSFP28 100G), providing 3.6 Tbps per slot. The modular form factor targets deployments where the fixed 1RU/2RU 7280R3 models provide insufficient port density but where the larger 7500R/7500R3 chassis provides more capacity than is currently needed, addressing a mid-range position in the Arista data-centre router portfolio.

The full 7280R3 feature set is preserved: MPLS forwarding, Segment Routing with Traffic Engineering, EVPN-VXLAN, BGP-LU, IS-IS, OSPF, 512K IPv4 host routes, 256K IPv4 LPM routes, 256K IPv6 LPM routes (≤64 prefix length), and 128K MAC addresses. Dual hot-swappable supervisors maintain BGP and IGP adjacencies through control-plane failover using Non-Stop Forwarding, and N+1 redundant hot-swappable 2400W AC or DC power supplies provide the availability baseline expected for a core routing platform. Both front-to-rear and rear-to-front airflow options cover standard IT and raised-floor data-centre environments.

Mid-Range Modular Capacity

At 115.2 Tbps (4 slots) and 230.4 Tbps (8 slots), the 7280R3A occupies the capacity range between the largest fixed 7280R3 models (up to 12.8 Tbps) and the smallest 7500R3 chassis (120 Tbps minimum). This positions the platform for organisations that have grown beyond what a fixed 2RU switch router can provide but do not require the 960 Tbps maximum of the 7516R3 and want to avoid paying for unused slot capacity in a larger chassis.

Non-Stop Forwarding Through Supervisor Failover

Dual supervisor modules maintain BGP, IS-IS, and OSPF adjacencies through a supervisor switchover using NSF and Graceful Restart, preventing full re-convergence across the routing domain when a supervisor is replaced for maintenance. The standby supervisor maintains a synchronised routing state copy, so the active-standby switchover completes without withdrawing BGP prefixes or triggering IGP SPF recalculations across the network.

Full MPLS and SR-TE at Modular Scale

MPLS label forwarding, Segment Routing with TE path computation, and EVPN-VXLAN overlay support operate at the full 230.4 Tbps switching capacity of the chassis without control-plane slowpath involvement. This makes the 7280R3A deployable as a core PE router in an MPLS network, a DCI gateway in an EVPN fabric, or a BGP route reflector with local forwarding, all running simultaneously from the same EOS instance and hardware forwarding pipeline.

Incremental Slot-by-Slot Expansion

Starting with a 4-slot chassis and adding line cards one at a time as port requirements grow allows capital expenditure to track actual network growth rather than committing to a fully populated 8-slot chassis at initial deployment. The chassis itself requires no replacement as additional cards are inserted: the supervisor module, fabric, and power infrastructure remain in place through the full expansion from one card to the maximum slot count.