Does ASR 1001-X support Twinax cables ?

[Martin Hruby]

Dear colleagues

I'm ordering a bunch of ASR 1001-X routers which now have two 10G ports. I plan to connect the ASR to the existing 10G infrastructure by using Twinax cables (e.g. SFP-H10GB-CU3M). I was not able to find these under the list of supported modules however, see here: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/asr1000/install/guide/1001-x/asr1hig/asr1_hw2.html

Can anyone confirm if 10G Twinax cabling is supported on the ASR 1001-X platform?

Thanks a lot.

Best regards,
Martin

[Mark Malone]

Hi Martin

I don't see them supported in the 10GB compatibility matrix for ASRs and this sheet is usually bang on was only updated 2 days ago

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/10GE_Tx_Matrix.html#_Toc450654309

[Mike Parker]

I can confirm that they do not work as expected.  I tried using the twinax cables to connect 2 ASR 1001-x routers to Nexus 5548 switches.  The links would come up and work for the most part but the ASR router would not detect a link failure for over a full minute.  I switched my connections to fiber SFP modules and the behavior changed to what I normally expect.  Bummer that they won't work, would be much cheaper.

[Mike Parker]

So I have one more thing to add to this post now.  I opened a case with TAC and they told me that starting with 16.3.1 there would be support for the twinax on the asr1001x.  I have upgraded my IOS from the test in my previous post from 3.16.04a to 16.3.1a and I can confirm that they do link and behave as you would expect them to.  I am connecting from the ASR1001x to 5548 nexus switches using a vPC and it works correctly on the new code.  Link up/down is now detected correctly.

[Martin Hruby]

Hi Mike

Thanks a lot for the info! It's a shame that they decided to only start supporting twinax now, as I've had to deliver most of my ASRs with fiber optic cabling. Anyway I believe this was the right thing to do.

Best regards,
Martin