Abstract: An apparatus includes a housing capable of being mounted in a rack, and a vertically oriented switch card. The vertically oriented switch card includes one or more vertically oriented application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) mounted on the vertically oriented switch card. The switch card includes a two-dimensional arrangement of plug ports; each plug port is configured to receive a pluggable optical module. The switch card also includes a two-dimensional arrangement of channel intakes, each channel intake is positioned adjacent to at least one of the plug ports of the two dimensional arrangements of plug ports, each channel intake receives air and directs the received air towards an interior of the housing capable of being mounted in a rack.