The Cisco Catalyst® 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch is a wire-speed, low-latency, Layer 2 to 4, 1-rack-unit (1RU), fixed-configuration switch for rack-optimized server switching. Based on the proven Cisco® Catalyst 4500 Series hardware and software architecture, the Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch offers exceptional performance, bandwidth, and reliability for low-density, multilayer aggregation of high-performance servers and workstations. High performance and scalability of intelligent network services is made possible with dedicated specialized resources known as ternary content addressable memory (TCAM). Ample TCAM resources (64,000 entries) enable high feature capacity, providing wire-speed routing and switching performance with concurrent provisioning of services such as quality of service (QoS) and security and helping ensure scalability for today’s network requirements with ample room for future growth.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch offers 48 ports of wire-speed 10/100/1000BASE-T with 2 ports of wire-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet (X2 optics). Exceptional reliability and serviceability are delivered with optional internal AC or DC 1+1 hot-swappable power supplies and a hot-swappable fan tray with redundant fans.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch delivers wire-speed throughput with low latency for data-intensive applications using a 136-Gbps switching fabric with a forwarding rate of 102 million packets per second (mpps) in hardware for Layer 2 to 4 traffic. High-performance switching is maintained regardless of the number of route entries or Layer 3 and 4 services enabled. Hardware-based Cisco Express Forwarding routing architecture enables increased scalability and performance. X2 10 Gigabit Ethernet optics provide 20 Gigabit Ethernet wire-speed uplinks for outstanding throughput of traffic.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch provides reliability for critical applications with 1+1 redundant, hot-swappable internal AC or DC power supplies. The 1+1 power supply design provides A-to-B failover when power supplies are connected to different circuits. AC and DC power supplies can be mixed in the same unit for outstanding deployment flexibility. The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch also has a hot-swappable fan tray with four redundant fans for additional serviceability and availability.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch includes a single, dedicated 10/100 console port and a single, dedicated 10/100 management port for offline disaster recovery. Remote in-band management is available with the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Telnet client, Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP), and Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). Support for local or remote out-of-band management is delivered through a terminal or modem attached to the console interface. The management port helps enable the Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch to reload a new image from a TFTP server within seconds.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch delivers a comprehensive set of management tools to provide the visibility and control required for server switching. Managed with CiscoWorks solutions and embedded CiscoWorks CiscoView, the Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch can be configured and managed to deliver device, VLAN, traffic, and policy management. These web-based management tools offer numerous services, including software deployment and quick isolation of error conditions.
Table 1 compares the features of the Cisco Catalyst 4948 Switch, Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch, and Catalyst 4900M Switch.
| Feature and Description | Cisco® Catalyst 4948 | Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet | Cisco Catalyst 4900M |
| Switching Capacity | 96 Gbps | 136 Gbps | 320 Gbps |
| Throughput | 72 mpps | 102 mpps | ● 250 mpps for IPv4 ● 125 mpps for IPv6 |
| IPv6 Support | In Software | In Software | In Hardware |
| Height | 1RU | 1RU | 2RU |
| Modular Half-Card Slots | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Maximum 10/100/1000 Ports | 48 | 48 | 40 |
| Maximum 10 Gigabit Ethernet Ports | 0 | 2 | 24 |
| Maximum Gigabit Ethernet (fiber) Ports | 4 | 0 | 32 (Cisco TwinGig Converter Module) |
| Cisco TwinGig Converter Module Support | No | No | Yes (half-cards only) |
| Uplink Optic Type | 4 Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) optics | 2 X2 (10 Gigabit Ethernet) optics | 8 X2 (10 Gigabit Ethernet) optics |
| Multilayer Switching | IP Base and Enterprise Services options | IP Base and Enterprise Services options | IP Base and Enterprise Services options |
| Shared Buffer | 16 MB | 16 MB | 16 MB |
| CPU | 266 MHz | 666 MHz | 1.3 GHz |
| Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDRAM) | 256 MB | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Active VLANs | 4096 | 4096 | 4096 |
| Multicast Entries | ● 28,000 (Layer 3) ● 16,000 (Layer 2) | ● 28,000 (Layer 3) ● 16,000 (Layer 2) | ● 56,000 for IPv4 ● 28,000 for IPv6 |
| Per-VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST) and VLAN IDs | 4096 | 4096 | 4096 |
| Spanning Tree Protocol Instances | 10000 | 10000 | 10000 |
| Switched Virtual Interfaces (SVIs) | 2000 | 2000 | 4000 |
| Security and QoS Hardware Entries | 32,000 | 32,000 | 128,000 |
| MAC Addresses | 32,000 | 55,000 | 55,000 |
| Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) | 2 ingress and 4 egress | 2 ingress and 4 egress | 8 ingress and 8 egress |
| USB port | No | No | Yes |
| Compact Flash Memory Support | No | No | Yes |
| System Reset Button | No | No | Yes |
| Minimum Software Requirement | Cisco IOS® Software Release 12.2(20)EWA or later | Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2(25)EWA or later | Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2(40)XO or later |
Predictable Performance and Scalability
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch is optimized for multimedia applications with its advanced multicast support. It supports Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), Source-Specific Multicast (SSM), and Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM), providing end users with additional scalability to support multimedia applications. Also supported is Internet Engineering Task Force (IGMP) snooping in hardware, enhancing performance and reducing network traffic by allowing a switch to dynamically add and remove hosts from a multicast group.
Intelligent Network Services with QoS and Sophisticated Traffic Management
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch offers superior per-port QoS features to help ensure that network traffic is classified, prioritized, and scheduled optimally to efficiently manage bandwidth-hungry multimedia, and time-sensitive and mission-critical applications. The Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch can classify, police, and mark incoming packets, allowing the administrator to differentiate between traffic flows and enforce policies. Sharing, shaping, and strict-priority configurations determine scheduling of egress traffic. The Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch also supports Dynamic Buffer Limiting (DBL), a congestion-avoidance feature. For details about the QoS features (including DBL) on the Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch, refer to the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series supervisor engine QoS overview at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps4324/prod_white_papers_list.html.
Features and Specifications at a Glance
Layer 2 Features
● Layer 2 hardware forwarding at 102 mpps
● Layer 2 switch ports and VLAN trunks
● IEEE 802. 1Q VLAN encapsulation
● Inter-Switch Link (ISL) VLAN encapsulation
● Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP)
● VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) and VTP domains
● Support for 4096 VLANs per switch
● PVST and PVST+
● Flexlink
● Spanning Tree PortFast and PortFast Guard
● Spanning Tree UplinkFast and BackboneFast
● IEEE 802.1s
● IEEE 802.1w
● IEEE 802.3ad
● Spanning Tree Root Guard
● Cisco Discovery Protocol Versions 1 and 2
● IGMPv1, v2, and v3 snooping
● Cisco EtherChannel technology, Cisco Fast EtherChannel technology, and Cisco Gigabit EtherChannel technology
● Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP)
● Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
● Unidirectional link detection (UDLD) and aggressive UDLD
● IEEE 802.1 QinQ in hardware
● Layer 2 protocol tunneling
● Multilayer jumbo frames (up to 9216 bytes)
● Baby giants (up to 1600 bytes)
● Unidirectional Ethernet
● Storm control (formally known as broadcast and multicast suppression)
● Community private VLANs (PVLANs)
● Forced 10/100 autonegotiation
● Web Content Communication Protocol (WCCP) Version 2 Layer 2 redirect
● Private VLAN promiscuous trunk
● Layer 2 promiscuous trunk over trunk port (L2PT)
● Class-of-service (CoS) mutation
● E-OAM 802.3ah and CFM: 802.1ag
Layer 3 Features
● Jumbo frames on all ports (up to 9216 bytes)
● Hardware-based IP Cisco Express Forwarding routing at 102 mpps
● IP routing protocols: EIGRP, OSPF, RIP, and RIP2
● BGP4 and Multicast Border Gateway Protocol (MBGP)
● Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) awareness
● Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) v1 and v2
● Software routing of Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) and AppleTalk
● IS-IS routing protocol
● IGMPv1, v2, and v3
● IGMP filtering on access and trunk ports
● IP Multicast routing protocols: PIM, SSM, and Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP)
● Auto rendezvous point (Auto-RP)
● Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM)
● Cisco Group Multicast Protocol server
● Full Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) support
● ICMP Router Discovery Protocol
● Policy-based routing (PBR)
● Virtual Route Forwarding lite (VRF-lite)
● VRF-aware IP services
● IPv6 (software switched)
● OSPF fast convergence
● OSPF and EIGRP fast-convergence protection
● EIGRP stub
● Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP)
● IP unnumbered for SVI
● NSF (Non-Stop Forwarding) Awareness
● WCCPv2 (Web Cache Communications Protocol)
● Gateway Load Balancing Protocol (GLBP)
High-Availability Features
● 1+1 hot swappable AC or DC power supplies
● Hot-swappable field-replaceable fan tray with redundant fans
● HSRP v1 and v2
● VRRP
● Cisco IOS Embedded Event Manager (EEM)
● Cisco Generic Online Diagnostics (GOLD)
● Smart Call Home
Sophisticated QoS and Traffic Management
● Per-port QoS configuration
● Support for four queues per port
● Strict priority queuing
● IP differentiated services code point (DSCP)
● Classification and marking based on IP type of service (ToS) or DSCP
● Classification and marking based on full Layer 3 and 4 headers
● Input and output policing based on Layer 3 and 4 headers
● Support for 512 policers on ingress and 512 policers on egress
● Shaping and sharing output queue management
● DBL congestion-avoidance feature
● No performance penalty for granular QoS functions
● Per-port, per-VLAN QoS
● Match class of service (CoS) for non-IPv4 traffic
Predictable Performance
● 136-Gbps switching fabric
● Layer 2 hardware forwarding at 102 mpps
● Layer 3 hardware-based IP Cisco Express Forwarding routing at 102 mpps
● Layer 4 TCP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) hardware-based filtering at 102 mpps
● No performance penalty with advanced Layer 3 and 4 services enabled
● Software-based learning at a sustained rate of 3000 hosts per second
● Support for 55,000 unicast and 16000 multicast MAC addresses
● Support for 32,000 entries in routing table (shared between unicast and multicast)
● Scalability to 2000 virtual ports ( SVIs )
● Bandwidth aggregation up to 40 Gbps using Cisco Gigabit Ethernet EtherChannel technology
● Hardware-based multicast management
● Hardware-based access control lists (ACLs), router ACLs (RACLs), and VLAN ACLs (VACLs)
Comprehensive management
● Manageable through Cisco Network Assistant (CNA)
● Single console port and single IP address to manage all system features
● Software configuration management, including local and remote storage
● Manageable through CiscoWorks Windows network-management software on a per-port and per-switch basis, providing a common management interface for Cisco routers, switches, and hubs
● SNMPv1, v2, and v3 instrumentation, delivering comprehensive in-band management
● Command-line interface (CLI) based management console to provide detailed out-of-band management
● Remote Monitoring (RMON) software agent to support four RMON groups (history, statistics, alarms, and events) for enhanced traffic management, monitoring, and analysis
● Support for all nine RMON groups through the use of a Cisco SwitchProbe analyzer (Switched Port Analyzer [SPAN])
● port, which permits traffic monitoring of a single port, a group of ports, or the entire switch from a single network analyzer or RMON probe
● Analysis support, including ingress port, egress port, and VLAN SPAN
● Layer 2 traceroute
● Remote SPAN (RSPAN)
● Cisco SmartPort macros
● SPAN ACL filtering
● Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) client autoconfiguration
● Enhanced SNMP MIB support
● HTTPS
● Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR)
● MAC address notification
● Onboard failure logging (OBFL)
● Network Mobility Service Protocol (NMSP)
Advanced Security
● TACACS+ and RADIUS, which help enable centralized control of the switch and restrict unauthorized users from altering the configuration
● Standard and extended ACLs on all ports
● IEEE 802. 1x user authentication (with VLAN assignment, voice VLAN, port security, guest VLAN, private guest VLAN, private VLAN, and RADIUS-supplied session timeout extensions)
● IEEE 802.1x accounting
● IEEE 802. 1x authentication failure
● IEEE 802. 1x private VLAN assignment
● IEEE 802. 1x private guest VLAN
● IEEE 802. 1x RADIUS-supplied timeout
● IEEE 802.1x Mac-Auth-Bypass
● IEEE 802.1x inaccessible authentication bypass
● Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) Layer 2 IEEE 802.1x
● Cisco NAC Layer 2 IP
● Cisco NAC Layer 2 IP inaccessible authentication bypass
● Trusted boundary
● RACLs on all ports (no performance penalty)
● VACLs
● Port ACLs (PACLs)
● Private VLANs (PVLANs) on access and trunk ports
● VTPv3
● DHCP snooping
● DHCP Option 82
● DHCP Option 82 insertion
● DHCP Option 82 pass-through
● Port security
● Port security for PVLAN ports
● Sticky port security
● Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Versions 1 and 2
● VLAN Management Policy Server (VMPS) client
● Unicast MAC filtering
● Unicast port flood blocking
● Dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) inspection
● IP Source Guard
● Community PVLANs
● Trunk port security
● IEEE 802.1x inaccessible authentication bypass
● MAC authentication bypass
● Control plane policing
● IEEE 802.1x unidirectional controlled port
● Voice VLAN sticky port security
● Secure Copy Protocol (SCP)
● &
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