Cisco Network Convergence System

NCS 5500 and NCS 5700

Fixed Platforms Architecture

Last Updated: November 2021

Authors – Cisco Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group

Table of Contents
NCS 5500 AND NCS 5700 FAMILY INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 3
BASE VS SCALE PLATFORMS ............................................................................................................................ 5
NCS 5501(-SE) PLATFORM ............................................................................................................................... 6
NCS 5501 BASE MODEL ................................................................................................................................... 6
NCS 5501-SE SCALE MODEL ............................................................................................................................. 6
NCS 5502(-SE) PLATFORM ............................................................................................................................... 7
NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S PLATFORM..................................................................................................................... 8
NCS 55A1-24H PLATFORM ............................................................................................................................ 10
NCS 55A2-MOD PLATFORMS ......................................................................................................................... 11
NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S/-SS PLATFORMS ............................................................................................................. 13
NCS 55A1-48Q6H PLATFORM ........................................................................................................................ 15
NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS / NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS PLATFORMS ................................................................................. 16
NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S PLATFORMS .................................................................................................................... 18
NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS / NCS 57C3-MODS-SYS PLATFORMS ............................................................................... 20

Route Processor NC57-MOD-RP2-E ................................................................................................................... 22

FAN TRAYS AND POWER SUPPLIES ................................................................................................................ 24
MACSEC........................................................................................................................................................ 25
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................ 25
LEARN MORE ................................................................................................................................................ 26
NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 Family Introduction
The Network Convergence System (NCS) 5500 and 5700 Series are specifically designed to be a scalable, low power
consumption, and cost-optimized 100G routing platform with a path to 400G. The platform family offers industry leading
density of 1/10/25/40/100G/400G ports for high-scale networks with efficient forwarding performance, low jitter, and the
lowest power consumption per Gigabits/sec at a very cost-effective price point.
The NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 product family is built to meet the massive bandwidth and operational needs of data centers,
large enterprise, web and service provider’s WAN and aggregation networks. These systems provide functionality vital to the
spine and leaf roles common to modern architectures as well as traditional core, aggregation access architectures.
The NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 leverage the industry leading IOS XR operating system with a full suite of standard layer-2 and
layer-3 protocols, plus new features and functions such as:
 Large label stack support
 Segment Routing and EVPN
 Comprehensive end-to-end OAM functionalities – including BFD, Ethernet OAM, Y.1731, Y.1564
and Ethernet loopback
 Application hosting
 Programmability
 Enhanced automation
 Machine to Machine (M2M) interface
 Telemetry
 Flexible package delivery

Figure 1. NCS 5500 Platform Family

Since the NCS 5500 introduction, the product line has expanded and now offers multiple fixed and modular form factors
giving more consumption flexibility to the customers. The first generation of fixed form factor platforms was based on
Qumran-MX and Jericho ASICs. It offered performance and scale with port speeds of 1/10/40/100G. Building on the success
of first-generation platforms, the second generation of NCS 5500 fixed form factor utilizes higher bandwidth Jericho+ ASICs
bringing in more port density options supporting 1/10/25/40/100G ports and capabilities such as line rate MACsec, DWDM,
and timing. The latest introduction in the portfolio, the third generation has been named NCS 5700 to reflect the use of a new
forwarding ASIC: Jericho 2 & J2C family.
This whitepaper focuses on the hardware architecture, characteristics, and packet forwarding of the three generations of NCS
5500 and NCS 5700 fixed form factor platforms.
Below is the naming convention for the fixed platform and the table summarizes the available models.
NCS 5xyz(-SE)(-S):
x = 5  Products based on Q-MX and Jericho/Jericho+
x = 7  Products based on Jericho 2 and following ASICs
 y = 0  First Generation
y = A  Second Generation
y = B/C  Third Generation
z = # of Rack Units
-SE : Scale platform with external TCAM (eTCAM) for higher scale
-S : MACsec capable platform
Hardware RU Forwarding Port Density MACsec DWDM Timing
Capacity
Base: 48x 1/10G SFP + 6x 40/100G QSFP Scale
NCS 5501(-SE) 1 800Gbps N Scale*
Scale : 40x 1/10G SFP + 4x 40/100G QSFP Only

NCS 5502(-SE) 2 4.8Tbps 40x 40/100G QSFP N N N

NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S 1 3.6Tbps 36x 40/100G QSFP Y N Y

NCS 55A1-24H 1 1.8Tbps 24x 40/100G QSFP N N Y

NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S 24x 1/10G SFP + 24x 1/10/25G SFP

1 900Gbps Y N Y
NCS 55A1-24Q6H-SS + 6x 40/100G QSFP

NCS 55A1-48Q6H 1 1.8Tbps 48x 1/10/25G SFP + 6x 40/100G QSFP Y N Y

24x 1/10G SFP + 16x 1/10/25G SFP

+ 2x 400G MPAs
MPA 4x 100G QSFP
NCS 55A2-MOD 2 900Gbps Y Y Y
MPA 2x 100/200G DWDM CFP2
MPA 2x 100G QSFP + 1x 100/200G DWDM CFP2
MPA 12x 1/10G SFP
NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS
1 4.8Tbps 24x 100G QDD + 6x or 5x 400G QDD Y ZR/ZR+ Y
NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS

32x SFP28 + 16x SFP56 +

NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S 1 2.4Tbps 2x QSFP-DD(4x100G) + 4x QSFP-DD (400G) Y ZR/ZR+ Y

48x 1/10/25G + 8x or 4x port 40/100G +

MPAs:

NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS
2x400G or 4x 100G MPA
3 2.4Tbps Y Y Y
NCS 57C3-MODS-SYS MPA 4x 100G QSFP
MPA 2x 100/200G DWDM CFP2
MPA 2x 100G QSFP + 1x 100/200G DWDM CFP2
MPA 12x 1/10G SFP

Table 1. NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 Fixed Platforms Summary

The above table captures the summary of fixed platforms, capacity, port density, and hardware capabilities.
Details of each platform are covered after the “Base vs Scale Platforms” section.

* DWDM support on NCS 5501 (non-SE) is limited to the R-Phy optics. Other DWDM and ZR 10G optics are only
supported on the NCS 5501-SE (on ports identified by a purple mark on the front plate).
 Base vs Scale Platforms
In the NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 Platforms family there are two types of systems: those without external-TCAM,
relying only on the on-chip resources available for feature scale, and those equipped with external-TCAM used to
provide extended scale in addition to the on-chip scale.

The following table covers the FIB scale for NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 fixed form factor platforms for both Base
and Scale systems.

Hardware LEM LPM/KAPS External-TCAM Combined

pfx scale
NCS 5501
786k entries shared
NCS 5502 256-350k entries shared
between MPLS labels,
NCS 55A1-36H-S between IPv4 and IPv6 pfx, - ~1.1M pfx entries
MAC addresses, IPv4 /32
NCS 55A2-MOD-S Multicast Groups
(default), IPv6 /48
NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S

786k entries shared

NCS 55A1-24H 1M-1.5M entries shared
between MPLS labels,
NCS 55A1-24Q6H-SS between IPv4 and IPv6 pfx, - ~2.2M pfx entries
MAC addresses, IPv4 /32
NCS 55A1-48Q6H Multicast Groups
and IPv6 /48

786k entries shared

256k-350k entries shared Up to 2M entries shared
NCS 5501-SE between MPLS labels,
between IPv6 pfx, Multicast between IPv4 pfx ~2.75M pfx entries
NCS 5502-SE MAC addresses, IPv4 /32
Groups and Hybrid ACL
and IPv6 /48

4M entries shared between

786k entries shared
NCS 55A1-36H-SE-S IPv4 pfx, IPv6 pfx Hybrid ACL
between MPLS labels, Multicast Groups ~4M pfx entries
NCS 55A2-MOD-SE-S is stored in e-TCAM but does
MAC addresses
share 4M entries

MPLS labels and 2.3M IPv4 routes

NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS - 2.3M pfx entries
MAC addresses or 1.7 IPv6 routes

MPLS labels and 5M IPv4 entries

NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS Multicast Groups 5M pfx entries
MAC addresses or 3M IPv6 entries

MPLS labels and MAC 2.3M IPv4 routes

NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S - ~2.3M pfx entries
addresses or 1.7 IPv6 routes

MPLS labels and 1.8M IPv4 routes

NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS - 2.3M pfx entries
MAC addresses or 1M IPv6 routes

MPLS labels and 4M IPv4 entries

NCS 57C3-MODS-SYS Multicast Groups 4M pfx entries
MAC addresses or 3M IPv6 entries

Table 2. Base (-S) vs Scale (-SE) Platforms

Note: the NCS 5700 family introduces the concept of Modular Database (MDB), offering more
flexibility in the definition of the LEM/LPM-KAPS database. Numbers will change depending
on release and profiles configured.
NCS 5501(-SE) Platform
The NCS 5501 and NCS 5501-SE are a 1 RU fixed form factor routing platform supporting SFP and QSFP ports.
The SFP ports can be used as 1G or 10G ports while the QSFP form-factor ports can be used for either 40G, 4x
10G ports in breakout mode or 100G speeds. NCS 5501(-SE) is based on Qumran-MX System-on-Chip (SoC)
single Forwarding ASIC that delivers up to 800Gbps and up to 720 Million Packets Per Second (MPPS) of
throughput.

There are two variants available for NCS 5501 platform, which are as follows.

NCS 5501 Base Model

Figure 2. NCS 5501 Base Model Front View

NCS 5501-SE Scale Model

Figure 3. NCS 5501-SE Scale Model Front View

NCS 5501-SE has the capability to support 1G and 10G ZR/DWDM optics. ZR and DWDM support is only available on ports
16 through 39 which are highlighted in pink on the chassis. NCS 5501-SE also supports timing via the timing ports available
at the front of the chassis.
NCS 5501 Base NCS 5501-SE
Chassis Height 1 Rack Unit
Chassis 21.70 x 17.40 x 1.72 inches
55.12 x 44.20 x 4.37 cm
Dimensions
Ports 48x 1/10Gbps SFP 40x 1/10Gbps SFP
6x 40/100Gbps QSFP 4x 40/100Gbps QSFP
24x 10G SFP via Breakout 16x 10G SFP via Breakout
Forwarding ASICs 800Gbps single Forwarding ASIC
Packet Forwarding 720MPPS 600MPPS
Rate
Max System 800Gbps
Bandwidth
Buffers 16MB On-chip Buffers
4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 8 usec
 Processor Intel 6-Core processor @ 2.0 GHz Intel 8-Core processor @ 2.0 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 64GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 3. NCS 5501/5501-SE Platform Specifications

NCS 5502(-SE) Platform

The NCS 5502(-SE) is a 2 RU routing platform that supports high density of 100G ports in fixed form factor. Both
the NCS 5502 base model and NCS 5502-SE scale model have 48 QSFP that can be configured as either 40G,
4x10G in breakout mode or 100G ports.

Figure 4. NCS 5502(-SE) Platform

NCS 5502(-SE) has eight Jericho ASICs, each offering 600Gbps of bandwidth and up to 720 MPPS of throughput.
The platform delivers up to 5,760 MPPS and up to 4.8Tbps of line rate forwarding. The eight forwarding ASICs are
connected to two fabric ASICs called FE3600 Switch Fabric Elements (SFEs), enabling line rate forwarding on all
data ports.

Figure 5. NCS 5502 Platform Architecture

In the NCS 5502 platform there are two variants available. Port density, capabilities, and dimensions are identical
between the two variants with the only difference being one with external-TCAM for higher scale and the other
without external-TCAM.

NCS 5502 NCS 5502-SE

 Chassis Height 2 Rack Unit

30 x 17.30 x 3.45 inches

Chassis Dimensions 76.20 x 43.94 x 8.73 cm

48x 40/100Gbps QSFP Ports

Ports
192x 10G SFP Ports via Breakout
Forwarding ASICs 8 Forwarding ASICs x (600Gbps bandwidth each)
Packet Forwarding 5,760 MPPS (8 x 720 MPPS) 4,800 MPPS (8 x 600 MPPS)
Rate
Max System 4.8Tbps
Bandwidth
16MB On-chip Buffers
Buffers
4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 8 usec
Processor Intel 12-Core processor @ 1.6 GHz
System Memory 64GB DRAM
Flash Storage 64GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 4. NCS 5502(-SE) Platform Specifications

NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S Platform

The NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S is a 1 RU routing platform based on Jericho+ ASICs. It provides 36 QSFP ports with
full line rate MACsec support. All the ports support 100G and 40G QSFP28/QSFP+ optics as well as 4x25G and
4x10G breakout. They are designed for base and high scale configuration needs with two variants; with and
without external TCAM.

Figure 6. NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S Platform

Both the NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S variants are capable of delivering up to 3,340 MPPS and up to 3.6Tbps of line
rate forwarding. There are four 900Gbps ASICs connected to one fabric ASIC called FE3600 SFE. The forwarding
ASICs and SFEs perform cell-based forwarding with line rate performance on all data ports. NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-
S supports timing via the specific ports available at the front of the chassis.
 Figure 7. NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S Platform Architecture

The NCS 55A1-36H platform also has a non-external-TCAM and an external-TCAM variant. Port count,
capabilities, and dimensions are identical between the two variants.

NCS 55A1-36H-S NCS 55A1-36H-SE-S

Chassis Height 1 Rack Unit
30 x 17.30 x 1.72 inches
Chassis Dimensions
76.20 x 43.94 x 4.36 cm
36x 40/100Gbps QSFP Ports
Ports
144x 10/25G SFP Ports via Breakout
Forwarding ASICs 4 Forwarding ASICs (900Gbps bandwidth each)
Packet Forwarding 3,340 MPPS (4 x 835 MPPS)
Rate
Max System 3.6Tbps
Bandwidth
Buffers for each 16MB On-chip Buffers
ASIC 4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 8 usec
Processor Intel 8-Core processor @ 1.6 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 128GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 5. NCS 55A1-36H(-SE)-S Platform Specifications

NCS 55A1-24H Platform
The NCS 55A1-24H is a 1 RU routing platform based on Jericho+ ASICs. It has 24x QSFP ports and provides
1.8Tbps forwarding capability. All the ports support 100G and 40G QSFP28/QSFP+ optics as well as 4x25G and
4x10G breakout. NCS 55A1-24H has two forwarding ASICs, each forwarding at 900Gbps with up to 835 MPPS of
throughput. There are 12x 100G ports connected to each 900Gbps ASIC making this system oversubscribed. The
platform delivers up to 1,670 MPPS and up to 1.8Tbps of data forwarding. The two forwarding ASICs are
connected back-to-back without any SFEs.

Figure 8. NCS 55A1-24H Platform

NCS 55A1-24H platform has only a non-external-TCAM version. It is based on the Jericho+ ASIC variant that has
a larger LPM memory table. The LPM memory can program 1M to 1.5M prefixes depending on prefix distribution.
Globally the platform can support up to approximately 2.2M prefixes providing higher scale to program full internet
table with capacity for future growth.

NCS 55A1-24H supports timing via ports available at the front of the chassis.

Figure 9. NCS 55A1-24H Platform Architecture

NCS 55A1-24H
Chassis Height 1 Rack Unit
21.7 x 17.30 x 1.72 inches
Chassis Dimensions
55.12 x 43.94 x 4.36 cm
24x 40/100Gbps QSFP
Ports
96x 10/25G SFP via Breakout
Forwarding ASICs 2 Forwarding ASICs x (900Gbps bandwidth each)
 Packet Forwarding 1670 MPPS (2x 835 MPPS)
Rate
Max System 1.8Tbps
Bandwidth
16MB On-chip Buffers
Buffers
4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 8 usec
Processor Intel 8-Core processor @ 1.6 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 128GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 6. NCS 55A1-24H Platform Specifications

NCS 55A2-MOD Platforms

The NCS 55A2-MOD platforms are designed to provide cost-effective delivery of next-generation services
requiring high capacity, compact form-factors, lower power consumption with MACsec, DWDM, and timing support.
These routers provide flexible options of different port types using Modular Port Adaptors (MPAs) along with fixed
ports. There are 40x SFP fixed ports and two modular bays for 400Gbps MPAs.

The first 24x fixed SFP ports can be used at 1/10Gbps speeds and the rests of the 16x fixed SFP ports can be
used at 1/10/25Gbps speeds.

Figure 10. NCS 55A2-MOD Platforms

By default, all the 16x 1/10/25Gbps ports are configured as 25G ports. These ports can either operate as 25G
ports or can be configured as 1/10G ports per Quad. A Quad is group of four ports with common speeds, 1G/10G
or 25G. Ports speeds for a Quad can be configured by “hw-module quad” command. Below are the four Quads for
ports 0/0/0/24 to 0/0/0/39.

Quad 0 : ports 0/0/0/24 to 0/0/0/27

Quad 1 : ports 0/0/0/28 to 0/0/0/31
Quad 2 : ports 0/0/0/32 to 0/0/0/35
Quad 3 : ports 0/0/0/36 to 0/0/0/39

There are four MPA variants available to cater to different port type needs. Same or different type of MPAs can be
used in the two modular bays of NCS 55A2-MOD platform. The picture below shows the different variants of MPAs
available.
 Figure 11. NCS 55A2-MOD Modular Port Adaptors

NCS 55A2-MOD router is based on single 900Gbps Jericho+ ASIC providing 835 MPPS throughput in a 2 RU
chassis. The NCS 55A2-MOD platform has different variants available:

- Base (without external-TCAM and Stats FPGA)

- Scale (with external-TCAM and Stats FPGA)

- Temperature hardened and also with conformal coating

Port count, capabilities, and dimensions are similar between the variants.

Figure 12. NCS 55A2-MOD Platform Architecture

NCS 55A2-MOD support line-rate MACsec forwarding on all ports of MPAs and on the16x SFP28 Ports from
0/0/0/24 to 0/0/0/39. 100G/200G DWDM support is available via MPA using CFP2-DCO optics. The platform also
supports timing via the timing ports at the front of the chassis.

NCS 55A2-MOD
Chassis Height 2 Rack Unit
Chassis Dimensions 28 x 43.94 x 8.8 cm
24x 1/10Gbps SFP+ Ports + 16x 1/10/25Gbps SFP28 Ports
Ports
2x MPA with flexible port type options
Forwarding ASICs 1 Forwarding ASIC x 900Gbps
Packet Forwarding 835MPPS
Rate
Max System 900Gbps
Bandwidth
16MB On-chip Buffers
Buffers
4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 8 usec
NCS 55A2-MOD-S : Intel 6-Core processor @ 2 GHz
Processor NCS 55A2-MOD-SE-S, NCS 55A2-MOD-SE-H-S : Intel 8-Core
processor @ 2 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 128GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 7. NCS 55A2-MOD Platform Specifications

NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S/-SS Platforms

The NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S and NCS 55A1-24Q6H-SS provide dense 1GE/10GE/25GE/100GE functionality in a 1
RU with line-rate MACsec, and timing support. It is based on a single Jericho+ ASIC functioning as a System-on-
Chip (SoC) with 900Gbps forwarding and 835 MPPS of throughput.

It has 48x SFP and 6x QSFP ports. Out of 48x SFP, 24 can operate at 1G/10G/25G speeds while the rest of the
24 ports operate as 1G/10G speeds only.

On NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S MACsec is supported on all the QSFP ports and on 16 out of 24 SFP28 ports.

On NCS 55A1-24Q6H-SS MACsec supported on all ports – all 6 QSFP ports, 24x25G ports, and 24x10G ports.

NCS 55A1-24Q6H-SS is equipped with a large LPM version of the Jericho+ ASIC, supporting a full internet view.
The NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S is using the normal Jericho+ and therefore is not fit for internet peering roles.

Figure 13. NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S Platform

 Figure 14. NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S Platform Architecture

Figure 15. NCS 55A1-24Q6H-SS Platform Architecture

NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S/-SS Platforms have only a non-external-TCAM version but the -SS one is equipped with a
larger LPM version of the Jericho+.

NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S NCS 55A1-24Q6H-SS

Chassis Height 1 Rack Unit

Chassis 21.7 x 17.40 x 1.73 inches
Dimensions 55.12 x 44.20 x 4.40 cm
24x 1/10Gbps + 24x 1/10/25Gbps + 6x 40/100Gbps QSFP Ports
Ports
24x 10/25G SFP Ports via Breakout
Forwarding ASICs Single 900Gbps Forwarding ASIC
Packet Forwarding 835 MPPS
Rate
Max System 900Gbps
Bandwidth
 16MB On-chip Buffers
Buffers
4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 8 usec
Processor Intel 6-Core processor @ 1.9 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 128GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 8. NCS 55A1-24Q6H-S/-SS Platform Specifications

NCS 55A1-48Q6H Platform

The NCS 55A1-48Q6H is designed to support high density of 25G ports in a 1 RU form factor. It is based on 2x
900Gbps Jericho+ ASICs providing 1.8Tbps forwarding with 1,670 MPPS system throughput. The two forwarding
ASICs are connected back-to-back without any SFEs. It has 48x SFP28 ports that can be configured at 1/10/25G
speeds and also has 6x 40/100G QSFP ports which can also be broken out into 4x 10/25G ports.

By default, all the ports are configured as 25G ports; these can be used as either 25G ports or can be configured
as 1/10G ports per Quad. A Quad is group of four ports with common speeds, 1G/10G or 25G. Port speeds for a
Quad can be configured by the “hw-module quad” command.

Figure 16. NCS 55A1-48Q6H Platform

NCS 55A1-48Q6H is based on the Jericho+ ASIC variant that has a larger LPM memory table. The LPM memory
can program 1M to 1.5M prefixes depending on prefix distribution. Globally the platform can support up to
approximately 2.2M prefixes providing higher scale to program full internet table with capacity for future growth.

Figure 17. NCS 55A1-48Q6H Platform Architecture

NCS 55A1-48Q6H supports line-rate MACsec forwarding on 6x QSFP. It also has timing support via the timing
ports at the back of the chassis.

NCS 55A1-48Q6H Platform has only a non-external-TCAM version.

 NCS 55A1-48Q6H
Chassis Height 1 Rack Unit
26.84 x 17.30 x 1.72 inches
Chassis Dimensions
68.19 x 43.94 x 4.37 cm
48x 1/10/25Gbps SFP Ports + 6x 40/100Gbps QSFP Ports
Ports
24x 10/25G SFP Ports via Breakout
Forwarding ASICs 2 Forwarding ASICs (900Gbps bandwidth each)
Packet Forwarding 1670 MPPS (2 x 835 MPPS)
Rate
Max System 1.8Tbps
Bandwidth
16MB On-chip Buffers
Buffers per ASIC
4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 8 usec
Processor Intel 6-Core processor @ 1.9 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 128GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 9. NCS 55A1-48Q6H Platform Specifications

NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS / NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS Platforms

The NCS 57B1-6D24 and -5DSE are designed to support high density of 100G and 400G ports in a 1 RU form
factor.
It is based on a single 4.8Tbps Jericho 2 ASIC with 2BPPS system throughput. It has 24x QSFP-DD ports on the
left that can be configured at 40G or 100G speed and also has 6x QSFP-DD ports or 5x QSFP-DD ports (for the
5DSE version) on the right which can also be used at 400G or 100G speed. The 400G-capable ports are identified
with a blue label in the front panel.

Breakout of the 100G-capable ports to 4x25 (or 4x10) is possible on the top row ports. Such configuration on port
N disables the bottom port N+1.

Figure 18. NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS Platform

 Figure 19. NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS Platform

NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS is tested for 2.35M prefixes and the NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS, equipped with an external
TCAM supports 5M routes.

Figure 20. NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS Platform Architecture

Figure 21. NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS Platform Architecture

Both NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS and NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS support line-rate MACsec forwarding on all ports. It also
has timing support via the timing ports at the front of the chassis.

NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS / NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS

Chassis Height 1 Rack Unit
Height: 1RU 1.72 in. (4.30 cm)
Chassis Dimensions
Width: 17.3 in. (43.9 cm)
 Depth: 23.60 in. (60.0 cm)
Ports 24x 40G/100G + (6 or 5)x 400G/200G
Forwarding ASICs 1x Forwarding ASICs (4.8Tbps bandwidth)
Packet Forwarding 2,000 MPPS
Rate
Max System 4.8Tbps
Bandwidth
32MB On-chip Buffers
Buffers per ASIC
8GB Off-chip Buffers (HBM)
Latency Under validation
Processor Intel 8-Core processor @ 2 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 128GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 10. NCS 57B1-6D24-SYS / NCS 57B1-5DSE-SYS Platform Specifications

NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S Platforms

The NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S is a fixed chassis that combines low port densities of 1GE/10GE/25GE with higher port
densities of 50GE/100GE/400GE and QSFP-DD optics, deep packet buffering, MACsec, Class C 1588 Precision
Time Protocol (PTP), and Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) in an extremely power-efficient, 1-rack-unit package.
It is based on a single 2.4 Tbps Qumran2c ASIC with 1BPPS system throughput. It has 32x SFP28 ports that can
be configured at 1G/10G/25G speed. It has 16x SFP56 ports that can be configured at 1G/10G/25G/50G speed.
The 400G-capable ports are identified with a blue label in the front panel. It also has 4xQSFP-DD port in the left
which can be configured as (400G/4x100G/2x100G/40G) + 2xQSFP-DD (4x100G/2x100G/40G). Breakout of the
400G-capable ports to 4x100G is possible on all the QSFP-DD ports. Other breakout options like 4x10G/4x25G
are also possible.

Figure 22. NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S Platform

NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S is tested for 2.32M prefixes. This platform is available only in the base version. It is not
available in the scale version i.e. with external TCAM
 Figure 23. NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S Platform Architecture

NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S support line-rate MACsec only on the ports 0,2,4. It also has timing support via the timing
ports at the rear of the chassis.

Figure 24. NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S Rear View

NCS 57C-48Q6D-S
Chassis Height 1 Rack Unit
Height: 1RU 1.72 in. (4.30 cm)
Chassis Dimensions Width: 17.3 in. (43.9 cm)
Depth: 19.70 in. (60.0 cm)
32x SFP28 + 16x SFP56 +
Ports
2x QSFP-DD(4x100G) + 4x QSFP-DD (400G)
Forwarding ASICs 1x Forwarding ASICs (2.4Tbps bandwidth)
Packet Forwarding 1,000 MPPS
Rate
Max System 2.4Tbps
Bandwidth
 16 MB On-chip Buffers per core
Buffers per ASIC
4GB Off-chip Buffers (HBM)
Latency 2-10 us
Processor 6 core Intel Hewlitt Lake
System Memory 128GB DRAM
Flash Storage 480 GB M.2 SSD Storage

Table 11. NCS 57C1-48Q6D-S

NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS / NCS 57C3-MODS-SYS Platforms

NCS 57C3-MOD router is based on single 2.4Tbps J2C ASIC providing 1Bpps throughput in a 3 RU chassis. The
NCS 57C3-MOD platform has different variants available:

Base (without external-TCAM)

Figure 25. NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS (Base Platform)

Scale (with external-TCAM)

Figure 26. NCS 57C3-MODS-SYS (Scale Platform)

It provides a great flexibility of network interfaces from 1G to 400G making it an ideal choice for high density
environments such as 5G mobile backhaul, aggregation for fixed line and business services, and for peering/core
roles in compact form factors with lower power consumption with MACsec.

There are 48x SFP28 fixed ports 10G/25G and 8x QSFP28 (40G/100G) fixed ports in the base model; 4x QSFP28
(40G/100G) ports in the scale model. The SFP28 ports also support 1Gig optics (optical). Much like the NCS55A2,
this router also provides numerous port types that are extensible using Modular Port Adaptors (MPA) along with
fixed ports.
There are three modular bays for MPAs:

o Two of them have up to 800Gbps and can support the new generation MPAs that are capable of
QSFP-DD

o There is also a third additional MPA bay (up to 400Gpbs)

o All MPA slots are also backward compatible with older MPAs: NC55-MPA-12T-S, NC55-MPA-2TH-S,
NC55-MPA-1TH2TH-S, and NC55-MPA-4H-S

Figure 27. NC57-MPA-2D4H-S

The chassis is also built with plenty of high availability features:

o Dual route processors offering control plane redundancy

o 5+1 redundant fan trays

o Dual/redundant power supplies

MACsec is supported on 24x SFP28 fixed ports that can be used at 10G/25G speeds. MACsec is also supported
on all MPA ports, legacy and new generation MPA (NC57-MPA-2D4H-S).

On Timing: Class C is supported on all fixed ports without MACsec and new generation MPAs; Class B will be
supported on fixed ports with MACsec and older MPAs.

Figure 28. NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS Base Platform Architecture

 Figure 29. NCS 57C3-MODS-SYS Scale Platform Architecture

NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS/NCS 57C3-MODS-SYS

Chassis Height 3 Rack Unit
Chassis 28.4 x 43.8 x 13.05 cm
Dimensions
Base: 48 Port 1/10/25G and 8 port 100G
Ports Scale: 48 Port 1/10/25G and 4 port 100G
3x MPA with flexible port type options
Forwarding ASICs 1 Forwarding ASIC x 2.4Tbps
Packet Forwarding 1Bpps
Rate
Max System 2.4Tbps
Bandwidth
16MB On-chip Buffers
Buffers
4GB Off-chip Buffers
Latency 2 to 10 usec
Processor 8-Core processor @ 2 GHz
System Memory 32GB DRAM
Flash Storage 256GB Flash SSD Storage

Table 12. NCS 57C3-MOD-SYS/NCS 57C3 MODS-SYS Platform Specifications

Route Processor NC57-MOD-RP2-E

This router has dual route processors offering control plane redundancy on a fixed form factor.
 CPU Core 8 cores at 2 GHz
Memory 32GB DRAM
Storage 256GB Flash
USB 1 USB
Management Console
Management Ethernet
Table 13. NC57-MOD-RP2-E Specifications

Figure 30. NC57-MOD-RP2-E

There are no separate system controllers and fabric cards on this system. The route processors directly connect to
the ethernet switch on the line card CPU.

 Ethernet Out-of-Bound Channel (EOBC) for inter-process communication and device

management. All system management communication takes place through the EOBC channel.

 Ethernet Protocol Channel (EPC) is for data plane communication such as sending control
plane packets between LC CPU and route processor.

There are separate channels for EOBC (Red) and EPC (Blue) communications as shown below
 Figure 31. EOBC and EPC Network

Fan Trays and Power Supplies

Fan Trays:
NCS 5500 fixed form-factor platforms are based on redundant hot-swappable fan trays. The fan trays provide
front-to-back or back-to-front airflow choices to adapt to any hot-aisle and cold-aisle configuration. The routers can
be installed with ports facing the rear or with the ports facing the front of the rack based on the desired airflow. The
tabs of the fan tray can be either red or blue; these colors indicate the front-to-back or back-to-front air flow.

Power Supplies:
The power supply modules of NCS 5500 fixed form-factor platforms deliver fault tolerance, high efficiency, load sharing, and
hot-swappable features to the platform. The fixed platforms have options for AC or DC power supply with redundancy. The
power supplies provide internal component-level monitoring, temperature sensors, and intelligent remote-management
capabilities. AC and DC power supplies are platinum-rated offering highest efficiency.
55A2- 55A1- 55A1-
5501 5502 55A1-36H 55A1-24H
MOD 24Q6H 48Q6H
Power
2x 1100W 4x 2000W 2x 2000W 2x 1100W 2x 1100W 2x 1100W 2x 1100W
Supply AC/DC AC/DC AC/DC AC/DC AC/DC AC/DC AC/DC

Redundancy 1+1 N+N 1+1 1+1 1+1 1+1 1+1

Typical
240W 1450W 1110W 270W*
600W 330W 460W
Power 260W (-SE) 1850W(-SE) 1300W (-SE) 320W (-SE)*

Fan Trays
1+1 N+1 N+1 N+1 N+1 1+1 1+1
Redundancy

Air Flow F2B/B2F F2B/B2F F2B/B2F F2B/B2F F2B F2B/B2F F2B/B2F

57B1-6D24- 57C3-MOD-
SYS NCS SYS/ 57C3-
57B1-5DSE- 57C1- MODS-SYS
SYS 48Q6D-S
2x1100W 2x1600W
Power
2x 2000W AC/DC AC/DC
Supply AC/DC

1+1
Redundancy 1+1 1+1
 340W 445W
Typical Power 500W 485W
520W
N+1
Fan Trays N+1
N+1
Redundancy
F2B
Air Flow F2B F2B

Table 14. NCS 5500 / NCS 5700 Fixed Platform Fan and Power Supply Specifications
*Note: Power consumption of chassis without MPA.

MACsec
MACsec is a Layer 2 IEEE 802.1AE standard for encrypting packets between two MACsec-capable routers.
MACsec secures data on physical media at line rate.

Below is the list of NCS 5500 routers with the interfaces that support MACsec encryption.

55A1-36H 55A2-MOD 55A1-24Q6H-S 55A1-24Q6H-SS 55A1-48Q6H

40G/100G Ports All MPA ports All 40G/100G Ports All 40G/100G Ports All 40G/100G Ports
Breakout 4x 10G Breakout 4x 10G Breakout 4x 10G Breakout 4x 10G Breakout 4x 10G
Breakout 4x 25G Breakout 4x 25G Breakout 4x 25G Breakout 4x 25G Breakout 4x 25G
QSA-10G 16x 10G/25G Fixed Ports 16x 10G/25G Ports All 10G/25G Ports

57B1-6D24-SYS NCS 57C-48Q6D-S 57C3-MOD-SYS

57B1-5DSE-SYS 57C3-MODS-SYS
All Ports Ports 0/2/4 All MPA ports

Fixed Ports 24x(10G/25G)

All Breakouts
Table 15. NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 Fixed Platform MACsec Support
Note: MACsec on 1G interfaces is not supported.

Conclusion
The NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 Series fixed form factor platforms are designed to provide highest performance and
scale in 1 RU and 2 RU configurations. The fixed platforms offer 1/10/25/40/100G/400G ports speeds with low-
latency forwarding and ultra-low power consumption.

The NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 fixed platforms support front-to-back and back-to-front airflows. The fixed platforms
have options for AC or DC power supply. Both the AC and DC power supplies are platinum-rated offering high
efficiency, so less power is dissipated as heat and more power is available for the system to use than with typical
power supplies.

Some of the NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 fixed platforms have base and scale models giving network operators the
flexibility to choose based on port speed, scale, and cost needs. The NCS 5500 base models support more than a
million routes while the scale models support around 2.75M and 4M routes to cater to the requirements of multi-
million routes and large ACLs. NCS 5700 are based on a new Forwarding ASIC generation offering larger routing
scale. In addition to that, all the fixed platforms have on-chip/off-chip buffers to provide deep queuing in case of
network congestion.

NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 platforms run on the Cisco IOS XR operating system. IOS XR is 64-bit Linux kernel
based, highly modular, and fully distributed operating system that provides a virtualized environment to
independently run system administration and routing functions on separate virtual containers. The IOS XR
software also offers features that enable innovations such as automation, telemetry, application hosting, and
programmability.

Based on the hardware/software attributes and capabilities, the NCS 5500 and NCS 5700 are ideal platforms to
position in data centers, large enterprise, web, and service provider networks to achieve efficient performance and
scale for growth.

Learn more
Take a closer look at the Cisco Network Convergence System 5500 Series data sheets and find out about our
Smart Licensing model.