Cisco Catalyst 4503-E Switch

●   24 gigabits per-slot capacity

●   48 ports

●   10/100/1000 module (RJ-45)

●   Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2(40)SG or later

●   Bandwidth is allocated across eight 6-port groups, providing 3 Gbps per port group (2:1)

●   L2-4 Jumbo Frame support (up to 9216 bytes)

●   IEEE 802.3af and Cisco prestandard PoE, IEEE 802.3x flow control

●   Enterprise and commercial: designed to power IP phones, wireless base stations, video cameras, and other IEEE-compliant powered devices

●   Campus and branch applications requiring enhanced performance for large file transfers and network backups

Overview

The Cisco^® Catalyst^® 4500 Supervisor Engine 6L-E is a next-generation, Layer 3 supervisor addition to the Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series product line. The Supervisor 6L-E now supports full routing protocols, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and many other advanced features with the Enterprise Services package. (Note: You must use Cisco IOS^® Software Release 12.2(53)SG2 or later for Enterprise Services support).

●   Centralized 280-Gbps switching capacity with 225 millions of packets per second (Mpps) of throughput

●   IP routing protocols: EIGRP, OSPF, Routing Information Protocol (RIP), and RIPv2

●   BGP Version 4 (BGPv4) and Multicast Border Gateway Protocol (MBGP)

●   Virtual Route Forwarding-Lite (VRF-Lite)

●   IPv6 support in hardware, providing line-rate forwarding for IPv6 packets

●   Flexibility to operate at 6 or 24 Gbps per line-card slot

●   Ability to mix and match 6-Gbps classic and 24-Gbps E-Series line cards with no performance degradation

●   Dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks (X2 optics)

●   Cisco TwinGig Converter Modules that enable flexibility for up to four Gigabit Ethernet (Small Form-Factor Pluggable [SFP]) uplinks in the X2 optic slots

●   Low latency

●   Hardware forwarding entries: 57,000

●   Dynamic hardware forwarding table allocations for ease of IPv4-to-IPv6 migration

●   Quality-of-service (QoS) services hardware entries: 16,000 per direction

●   Advanced QoS support with up to eight queues per port, dynamic queue sizing, and hierarchical policing to provide flexibility and control

●   Security services entries: 16,000 per direction

●   Support for the following software packages: LAN Base, IP Base, and Enterprise Services (Enterprise Services support introduced with Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2(53)SG2)

The Supervisor Engine 6L-E delivers 24 Gbps per slot of switching capacity when deployed with the E-Series line cards in a Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series chassis. You can mix and match classic line cards and E-Series line cards within a Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series chassis with no performance degradation. When you deploy the Cisco Catalyst Supervisor Engine 6L-E with classic line cards, all of the new features except the 24-Gbps per-slot switching capacity are inherited. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engine 6L-E is also compatible with classic Cisco Catalyst 4500 line cards, chassis (3-, 6-, and 7-slot), and power supplies, providing full investment protection.

The Cisco Catalyst Supervisor Engine 6L-E also provides flexibility and an easy migration path to 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks with dual-purpose X2 slots that can accommodate wire-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet optics or Cisco TwinGig Converter Modules, enabling Gigabit Ethernet SFP optics.

The Cisco TwinGig Converter Module, which ships standard with the Supervisor Engine 6L-E (unless you order 10 Gigabit Ethernet optics on the configuration tool), converts a single 10 Gigabit Ethernet X2 interface into two Gigabit Ethernet port slots that can be populated with appropriate SFP optics, providing a total of four Gigabit Ethernet uplinks if used in both X2 interface slots. With the flexibility offered by the Cisco TwinGig Converter Module, you can initially use the gigabit uplinks, and then, as your business demands change, you can simply remove the Cisco TwinGig Converter Module and insert 10 Gigabit Ethernet X2 optics to provide full line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. The ability to support both Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks on a single supervisor engine further demonstrates the flexibility and the investment protection of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series.

The capabilities and investment protection provided by the Supervisor Engine 6L-E facilitate not only adequate scalability for today’s network access requirements but also investment protection of your network components by providing significant software functions for future deployments.

Predictable Performance and Scalability

The Supervisor Engine 6L-E provides a fourfold increase in per-slot switching capacity from previous-generation Basic Layer 3 Cisco Catalyst 4500 supervisor engines: from 6 to 24 Gbps per slot. Table 1 highlights the performance and scalability enhancements of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engine 6L-E.

Table 1.       Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engine 6L-E Performance and Scalability Features