The Arista 7280R3A Series is a universal leaf and spine platform that combines high port density, an industry-leading deep packet buffer, and advanced routing capabilities for service provider, cloud, and high-performance enterprise data centre deployments. The 7280DR3A supports up to 54× 400G ports in 2RU, while the 7280CR3A supports 72× 100G — both with up to 24GB of ultra-deep packet buffer and Virtual Output Queues.
The defining characteristic of the 7280R3A is its ultra-deep buffer — up to 24GB compared to 64–165MB in Tomahawk-based switching platforms. This depth is critical for workloads that generate long-duration bursts: storage backup windows, big data batch analytics, AI model checkpoint saves, and media ingest all generate sustained high-bandwidth bursts that overwhelm shallow-buffer switches, causing TCP retransmissions and application performance degradation. The 7280R3A absorbs these bursts without dropping packets.
Support for 400G ZR and ZR+ coherent optics enables data centre interconnect over dark fibre without additional transponder equipment. A 7280R3A at each site connects directly via a DWDM wavelength — eliminating the DCO transponder layer and reducing the inter-DC switching path to two hops. This architecture is increasingly adopted for metro DCI where the economics of combined switching and transponder functions in a single platform are compelling.
Security features span three encryption layers: MACsec at Layer 2, IPsec at Layer 3, and VXLANsec for encrypted overlay tunnels. The combination enables full-stack encryption for regulated workloads without dedicated encryption appliances. All encryption operates at line rate in hardware without throughput penalty.
