Competition between Huawei Switches and

Cisco Switches
Huawei CloudEngine, Campus, and Huawei SMB Switches combine advanced
architecture and design with carrier-grade reliability to provide high-availability, highperformance networking for large-scale data centers, ISPs, and enterprise IT networks
of all types and sizes.
Innovative networking, management, and security features let enterprise customers
keep pace with the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth in converged, wired and
wireless networks. Virtualization, high-density clustering, and Software-Defined
Networking technologies provide the flexible, scalable switching needed for serverbased multimedia applications, resilient cloud-computing, and the crush of Big Data.
Huawei switches are deployed worldwide in carrier and enterprise networks,
government, finance, education, and the healthcare industry.

Chassis
Cisco

Huawei

Cisco C6800

Huawei S12700

1. Support independent control engines and switching structure

2. Support high-density 10Ge ports line-speed cards, such as 48*10GE
3. Support native Access Controller (AC)
4. Supports 3 M FIB entries, and 1 M MAC address entries
5. Switch Capacity 37.28T; Slot capacity 640G
Cisco C6500E

Huawei S9700

1. Support CSS switch fabric and service port clustering

2. Supports high-density 10Ge ports line-speed cards, such as 48*10GE
3. Supports native Access Controller (AC)
4. Support 1M MAC VS 128K MACSwitch Capacity 18.56T Vs 2TSlot capacity 320G Vs
160G
Cisco C4500E

Huawei S7700

1. Support Distributed forwarding design

2. Support CSS switch fabric and service port clustering
3. Supports high-density line-speed cards, such as 40*10GE
4. Supports native Access Controller (AC)
5. Support FIB 512K Vs 256K FIB1M MAC VS 55K MAC

10GE Switch
Cisco
1

Huawei

Cisco C4500-X

Huawei S6700
Huawei S5710-HI

GE Switch
Cisco

Huawei

Cisco C3850

Huawei S5710-EI

1. Supports high-density 10Ge ports 8*10Ge Ports Vs 4*10Ge Ports

2. Support Ring network protection protocols SEP and G.8032
Cisco C3750X/C3560X IPB/IPS

Huawei S5700SI/EI

Cisco C2960-XR

Huawei S5700SI/EI

Cisco C2960-X

Huawei S5700-X-LI

Cisco C3750X/C3560X LAN BASE

Huawei S5700LI/S5700-X-LI

Cisco C2960S
1.Supports high-density 10Ge ports : 4*10Ge Ports Vs 2*10Ge Ports
2.Support Ring network protection protocols SEP and G.8032
Cisco C3750v2/C3560v2

Huawei S3700EI/SI

FE Switch
Cisco

Huawei

Cisco C2960-SF LAN BASE

Huawei S2700EI/2750EI

Cisco C2960 LAN BASE

Huawei S2700EI/2750EI

Cisco C2960-SF LAN LITE

Huawei S2710SI

Cisco C2960 LAN LITE

Huawei S2700SI

SMB
Cisco

Huawei

Cisco SMB 100/300/500

Huawei 1700

Competition with Cisco Campus Switch

Position

Cisco

Huawei

Core

C6800

S12700

Huawei Advantages

Support independent control engines and

switching structure (Cisco C6800 does not
support)
supports high-density 10Ge ports line-speed
cards up to48*10GE (Cisco C6800 does not
have high density 10Ge cards)
Supports native Access Controller (Cisco

C6500E

S9700

Aggregation

C4500E

S7700

C3850/C3650

S5710-EI

Access

C2960-X

S5700-LI

C6800 does not support)

Supports 3 M FIB entries (Vs Cisco C6800
1M ), and 1 M MAC address entries(Vs
Cisco C6800 128K)
Switch Capacity 37.28T (Vs Cisco C6800
11.2T) Slot capacity 640G (Vs Cisco
C6800 220G)
Support CSS switch fabric and service port
clustering (Cisco C6500E supports only
service port clustering)
Supports high-density 10Ge ports line-speed
cards up to 48*10GE (Cisco C6500E does
not have high density 10Ge cards)
Supports native Access Controller (Cisco
C6500E does not support)
Support 1M MAC (Vs Cisco C6500E 128K
MAC)
Switch Capacity 18.56T (Vs Cisco C6500E
2T)Slot capacity 320G (Vs Cisco C6500E
160G)
Distributed forwarding design (Cisco
C4500E needs DFC card to achieve
distributed forwarding)
Support CSS switch fabric and service port
clustering (Cisco C4500E does not support)
supports high-density line-speed cards up to
40*10GE (Cisco C4500E does not support)
Supports native Access Controller (Cisco
C4500E does not support)
Support FIB 512K (Vs Cisco C4500E 256K
FIB; 1M MAC (Vs Cisco C4500E 55K
MAC)
Supports high-density 10Ge ports: 8 10Ge
Ports (Vs Cisco C3850/C3650 4 10Ge Ports)
Support FIB 16K (Vs Cisco C3850/C3650
8K)
Support Ring network protection protocols
SEP and G.8032 (Cisco C3850/C3650 does
not support)
Supports high-density 10Ge ports: 4 10Ge
Ports (Vs Cisco C2960X 2 10Ge Ports)
Support Ring network protection protocols

SEP and G.8032 with failure recovery time

less than 50ms (Cisco C2960X does not
support)

Offensive Strategy

Networking

Huawei
S97
(Broadcom
ASIC)

H3C S10500

Cisco C68/C65
(Private ASIC)

ENP+S57,
Certification
point
is
S12700

S97+S57,
Certification
point is on S5700

Certification
point is on access
switch

C68+C2960X
Certification
poing
is
on
C2960

on

Native AC

1. 1K AP per
board, 4K AP per
chassis
2. ENP board
80Gbps

1. Dependent AC
(ACU2.0),
2K
AP per AC
2. AC 40Gbps

1.
Dependent
AC1K per AC
2.
Dependent
AC 20Gbps

1. C68 : 250 AP
2.
C65:
independent
AC1K AP
3. AC 20Gbps

Billing (DAA)

1. Billing by time
in control level
and forwarding
level
2. Billing by time
and traffic based
on
destination
address.

1.

Billing by
time
in
control
level
2. Cannot billing
based on traffic

1. Billing
by
time
in
control level
2. Cannot billing
based on traffic

1. Billing by time
in control level
2. Cannot billing
based on traffic

H-QOS

1. 64K Queues
2. H-QoS

1. 384 Queues
2. Port level QoS

1. 384 Queues
2. Port level QoS

1. Port level QoS

Simplified
Management

ENP boards to
realize unifying
certification
point of wired
and
wireless
users

1. Certification
point of wireless
users is on AC
board
2. Certification
point of wired
users is on access
switch

1. Certification
point
of
wireless
users is on
AC board
2. Certification
point of wired
users is on access
switch

1. Certification
point
of
wireless
users is on
AC board
2. Certification
point of wired
users is on access
switch

1. Cluster
by
switch
fabric or

1. Cluster by
service slots
2.
Cluster
bandwidth: 160G

1. Cluster
by
service slots
2.
Cluster
bandwidth: 160G

CSS2

Huawei S12700
(ENP)

1. Cluster
by
switch
fabric,

saving
service slots
2. Cluster
bandwid
th: 640G
3. MPU:
1+N
backup.

service slots
2. Cluster
bandwid
th: 320G
or 1.28T
3. MPU:
1+1
backup.

3. MPU:
backup.

1+1

3. MPU:
backup.

1+1

Defense Strategy
1. C68 could reuse C65E boards, to protect customer investments in expansion
projects, saving costs for customers.
Strategies: 12700 is SDN Ready. CISCO declared C6800 supports SDN onePK, but
no roadmap, Currently CISCO official website disclosure, C6800 only support the old
board of C6500E, if wants to the SDN architecture, needs released new boards.
2. Cisco guides to support DTP VTP PVST+
Strategies: Huawei has created VBST feature to support PVST+, it also could be
interoperated with PVST+; Also LNP replaces DTP, VCMP replaces VTP.
3Cisco guides Instance Access solution
Strategies: S12700 supports SVF solution, 64 x access switches to be boards of the
chassis, 2K x AP to be the wireless ports of the chassis, the whole network is a virtual
vertical system. While CISCO, Instant Access client of the solution could be boards,
but AP could not be wireless ports of the chassis; and only C6848ia could be access
switch, while all S57LI could be access switch in Huawei SVF solution.
By the detailed comparison between the Cisco products and Huawei products, the
Huawei products come out on top due to a combination of performance and its lower
price. What we found promote our decision to recommend Huawei Networks products
to our customers.
If youd like to see the benefits of Huawei products for yourself, you can log into
www.huanetwork.com, or you can contact our sales sales@huanetwork.com to get
more information on Huawei Networks solutions.
More related topics
Huawei Sx700 Switches Positioning
Huawei Ethernet Switches Category
Huawei S6700 Series Switches Overview
Comparison between S2300 Series Switches Models
What is the Working Temperature for the Huawei Switches?
5

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