Cisco N9K-C93180-FX3 (PE) is a fixed 1RU high-density data center switch from the Cisco Nexus 9300 FX3 family. It is typically used in leaf (ToR) or aggregation roles in modern data center architectures, especially VXLAN EVPN and cloud-scale deployments.
The switch provides 48 × multi-rate SFP28 downlink ports supporting 1G, 10G, and 25G connectivity, along with 6 × QSFP28 uplink ports that support 40G and 100G speeds. This flexible port architecture makes it suitable for high-density server connectivity and scalable spine-leaf designs.
It is built on Cisco’s cloud-scale ASIC platform, offering high throughput (around 3.6 Tbps class switching capacity), ultra-low latency, and strong buffer performance for burst-heavy workloads. It supports advanced features such as VXLAN EVPN, MACsec encryption, Segment Routing, telemetry, and automation via NX-OS or ACI modes.
The “PE” variant typically refers to a port-side exhaust airflow configuration, making it suitable for specific rack cooling designs in data centers. Overall, it is optimized for modern enterprise and service provider environments requiring high bandwidth, scalability, and low-latency networking.
