Scalable 10G Networking: Port Breakout on FS N5860-48SC Switch
Nov 01, 20251 min read
In today’s rapidly evolving data center landscape, the demand for higher density, lower costs, and well-planned interconnection and migration strategies is driving the need for breakthrough communication solutions.
Addressing these challenges, the FS N5860-48SC 10G Data Center Switch provides reliable connectivity along with adaptable port modes and breakout functionality—empowering businesses to construct scalable, fault-tolerant, and secure data center architectures.
What is Breakout Mode?
Breakout mode allows a single high-speed port to be split into multiple independent lower-speed interfaces. For example, a 100G QSFP28 port can be divided into four 25G or four 10G connections. On the FS N5860-48SC, each QSFP28 port supports both 4×25G and 4×10G breakout through cables, enabling flexible adaptation to diverse deployment needs.
Advantages of Breakout
Higher density: One port can serve multiple devices, maximizing port utilization.
Flexible speeds: Supports 10G, 25G, 40G, and 100G to connect diverse devices.
Cost efficiency: Fewer switches, power, and cooling resources are required.
Disadvantages of breakout:
Limited customization: Breakout ports must be configured as a group, offering less flexibility than independent ports.
Replacement complexity: A failure in one breakout lane often means replacing the entire cable or module.
N5860-48SC Port Configuration
The FS N5860-48SC is a 48 × SFP+, 8 × QSFP28 L3 data center switch, built on Broadcom BCM56873 Trident 3 silicon in a compact 1U form factor. It delivers 10GbE server access through the SFP+ ports and 40/100GbE uplinks via QSFP28, with multiple breakout options for flexible deployment.
Equipped with a comprehensive set of L2/L3 features such as EVPN-VXLAN, MLAG, and stacking, the switch ensures low-latency, high-performance forwarding with up to 1.28 Tbps of unidirectional throughput. This makes it an ideal choice for spine-leaf architectures in small and medium-sized data centers.
Supported Speed and Breakout Modes
The following table shows the supported speed and breakout configurations of the FS N5860-48SC. All 48 × SFP+ ports support 10G operation, while the 8 × QSFP28 ports support multiple speed and breakout modes for flexible deployment.
Port Mode | Mode | Per Port Result | Max System Capacity |
48 × SFP+ | 10G mode | 1×10G | 48×10G |
8 × QSFP28 | 40G mode | 1×40G | 8×40G |
100G mode | 1×100G | 8×100G | |
Breakout cable mode | 4×10G | 4×10G | 80×10G |
4×25G | 4×25G | 32×25G | |
1×40G | 1×40G | 8×40G |
Implementation of Port Breakout
The FS N5860-48SC supports all three breakout modes and, by default, automatically detects installed transceivers, active optical cables (AOCs), or attach copper cables (DACs).
DAC Mode: Fixed-length copper cables with ultra-low latency, suitable for short-distance connections within or between adjacent racks, offering simple installation and cost efficiency.
AOC Mode: Active optical cables with integrated electrical-to-optical conversion, ideal for medium-distance server-to-switch or inter-rack connections, balancing high bandwidth and cabling flexibility.
Optical Transceivers Mode: Combining pluggable optical modules with breakout fiber cables, this mode supports medium-to-long distance or even inter–data hall connectivity while ensuring bandwidth scalability.
Configuration Guide:
By default, QSFP28 ports operate in their aggregated mode (100G). In global configuration mode, port breakout can be enabled or disabled using the following command:
[no] split interface interface-type interface-number [split-type split-type]
split: Splits a QSFP28 port into multiple lower-speed interfaces (e.g., 4×10G or 4×25G).
no split: Restores the default aggregated mode.
interface-type interface-number: Specifies the port type and number.
split-type: Specifies the breakout type, e.g., 4×10G, 4×25G, or 1×40G.
Note: A device reboot is usually required for the configuration to take effect.
For the complete list of supported optical modules and cables, please refer to the documentation.
Scalable and Reliable 10G Network
The N5860-48SC delivers flexible port configuration and breakout options, supporting both 10G and 100G networks. It efficiently adapts to diverse data center architectures and application scenarios, providing enterprises with a scalable and reliable networking foundation.
Spine-Leaf Architecture
As shown in the diagram below, the N5860-48SC can function as a leaf switch connecting to the NC8200-4TD spine switch, enabling a low-latency, highly scalable distributed network that is ideal for large-scale data centers requiring horizontal expansion.
Switch-to-Switch Breakout Link
For high-bandwidth interconnect scenarios, the N5860-48SC supports splitting a single 100G uplink into 4 × 10/25G links to the spine switch, maximizing port utilization while maintaining deployment flexibility.
Simplifying 10G Data Center Network Deployments
The FS N5860-48SC delivers a scalable, reliable, and flexible 10G network solution for data centers. Its rich SFP+ and QSFP28 port options support multi-speed access and breakout, maximizing port utilization. Whether deployed as a leaf switch or for high-bandwidth interconnects, the N5860-48SC ensures performance while simplifying data center network architecture.
To learn more about port breakout solutions, explore the FS DC Fabric Scaling Tool to streamline port-breakout and link planning. It automatically suggests compatible transceivers and cables, produces a complete BOM, and speeds up data-center network deployment.