The Cisco® Catalyst® 6500 Series Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and IPv6 in hardware is an industry first. The new supervisor engine combines high-density uplinks, system virtualization, and increased throughput with scalable performance and a rich IP feature set. This supervisor is a key component of the Cisco VSS 1440 Virtual Switching System and enables high availability, operational efficiency, and increased bandwidth with great ease of deployment.

The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks has a new forwarding engine that combines all the capabilities of its predecessor, the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720, with system virtualization and increased throughput. While introducing new features, the Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks also continues to provide investment protection to Cisco customers by supporting all three generations of Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series interfaces and services modules.

The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 includes:
- Two X2-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, ideal for high-density access and aggregation areas such as data center, LAN campus, and backbone areas;
- Two Gigabit Ethernet Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) ports and one 10/100/1000 gigabit port for additional flexibility. All the links in the Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 can be active simultaneously even in the redundant configurations, thereby increasing the supervisor throughput from 48 to 82 Mpps. This improves total system performance to 450 Mpps for IPv4 traffic and 225 Mpps for IPv6 traffic;
- Additional fabric capabilities offering subsecond failover rates, allowing faster switchover to a standby supervisor. The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks is supported on Cisco IOS® Software.

In addition, the Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks continues to offer a hardware-based feature set that enables applications such as traditional IP forwarding, Layer 2 and Layer 3 Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPNs, and Ethernet over MPLS (EoMPLS) with quality of service (QoS) and security features.

VSS 1440's system virtualization technology pools multiple Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches into one virtual switch, scaling the system bandwidth capacity to 1.4 Tbps. This innovation helps to close IT resource allocation and application integration gaps, advancing the Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture (SONA) and the Cisco Campus Communications Fabric (CCF) framework. Cisco VSS 1440, with sup720-10G-VSS as a key enabler, brings the following benefits to customer networks:

- Increases operational efficiency: Using Multichassis EtherChannel, the Cisco VSS 1440 eliminates the need for Hot Standby Router Protocol/Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol/ Gateway Load Balancing Protocol (HSRP/VRRP/GLBP) configuration and allows customers to use a standards-based aggregation mechanism for server network interface card (NIC) teaming across redundant switches. Since multiple Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches are viewed as one virtual switch, the management overhead is reduced by at least 50 percent. Using the Cisco VSS 1440, only one gateway IP address is required per VLAN, instead of the current requirement of three IP addresses per VLAN.

The Cisco VSS 1440 is flexible enough to be deployed in separate geographical locations. CiscoWorks further eases Cisco VSS 1440 management by seeing two Cisco Catalyst switches as one virtual switch.

- Boosting nonstop communication: The Cisco VSS 1440 uses Multichassis EtherChannel for link failover and eliminates Layer 2 and 3 protocol reconvergence. This results in a deterministic, subsecond virtual switch recovery avoiding any disruption to applications that rely on network state information (such as forwarding table information, NetFlow, Network Address Translation [NAT], authentication, or authorization).
- Scales system bandwidth capacity to 1.4 Tbps: The Cisco VSS 1440 provides automatic, even load sharing by using all the available Layer 2 bandwidth across redundant Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches. The Cisco VSS 1440 eliminates unicast flooding caused by asymmetrical routing in the campus, and maximizes the use of all of the 10-gigabit ports in a virtual switch.
- Uses existing multilayer switching architecture: Unlike many new technologies, the Cisco VSS 1440 eases deployment by using customers' existing Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series investments and by supporting standards-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections. Standards-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections between Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches results in flexible distances between connections. Furthermore, the CiscoWorks LAN Management Solution (LMS) management tool converts existing switch configurations into simpler VSS 1440 configurations, simplifying deployment.
- Provides slot efficiency: With two X2-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks built into the supervisor engine, the system saves slot for additional integrated services or high-density chassis.
- Increases throughput: The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks enables all Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet links to be active simultaneously. This is true for redundant systems (systems with dual supervisor engines in the chassis), thereby increasing the supervisor throughput to 82 Mpps. As a result, the system throughput increases to 450 Mpps for IPv4 traffic and 225 Mpps for IPv6 traffic.
- Improves resiliency: The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks includes switch fabric capabilities that offer deterministic, subsecond failover. This results in faster switchover to a standby supervisor.

Application Areas
The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks demonstrates its versatility and ability to meet the requirements of areas of the network with its hardware capabilities and support and a mix of Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. The supervisor engine can be used in numerous applications, including:
Enterprise backbone (core/distribution) and data center: The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks offers high-density uplinks, system virtualization, enhanced security, rich QoS, and scalable performance for Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, making it ideal for enterprise core and distribution applications and for data centers.
Campus access, Ethernet WAN, and Metro Ethernet: The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks offers a strong set of security features. System security is hardened with support for features such as one-touch AutoSecure, CPU rate limiting, multipath unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF), and numerous 802.1x extensions. Extensive hardware-based feature support of QoS mechanisms, hardware-based Generic Route Encapsulation (GRE) tunneling, and access control lists (ACLs) enable customers to build high-performance, feature-rich campus networks, metropolitan aggregation, and various WAN edge networks.

Summary/Conclusion
The Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks eases the 10 Gigabit Ethernet migration, providing system virtualization benefits by enabling the Cisco VSS 1440 and scaling the system bandwidth to 1.4 Tbps. Support for all Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series interface module classes (Classic, CEF256, dCEF256, and CEF720) combined with hardware support for MPLS and IPv6 makes the Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 an excellent choice in all network locations. For the first time in the industry, with all links active (including redundant supervisor links), the Cisco Virtual Switching Supervisor Engine 720 with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks offers improved forwarding capacity (82 Mpps) and system throughput, along with system virtualization through VSS 1440.