According to Cisco's 2019 VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, mobile data traffic is expected to grow at a 46 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2017 to 2022, two times faster than the growth of global IP fixed traffic during the same period. To help network providers meet these = challenges, the Cisco® Network Convergence System 5500 Series is built with features such as high port densities, deep packet buffering, and forwarding hardware optimized for these types of deployments.

The Cisco NCS 55A1 are the second generation of fixed chassis available for the Cisco NCS 5500 Series. That new series offers three fixed configuration chassis, the NCS 55A1-36H-S, NCS 55A1-36H-SE-S and NCS 55A1-24H. These systems provide functionality vital to both the Top of Rack (ToR) and spine or leaf roles common to modern spine-and-leaf architectures. Capabilities such as advanced packet classification, segment routing, ultra-wide ECMP, programmable network management and telemetry are added to the robust and mature features already present in Cisco IOS® XR Software Release 6.3.1.

The Cisco NCS 55A1-36H-S and NCS 55A1-36H-S provide 36 ports of 100 Gigabit Ethernet with full line rate MACsec capability. All the ports can support 100GE and 40GE optics as well as 25GE to 10GE breakout. They use QSFP28/QSFP+ form factor transceivers. They are designed for base and high scale configuration needs and are supported starting with Cisco IOS XR Software Release 6.3.1.