Cisco C9600-LC-48TX Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

Suffix Breakdown

• C9600: Catalyst 9600 high-performance Silicon One modular core switch platform
• LC: Line Card modular copper access/aggregation module
• 48: Total 48 front-facing independent RJ45 copper ports
• TX: Multigigabit RJ45 copper interface supporting up to 10GBASE-T (no PoE capability)

Core Differentiators

1. vs PoE copper line cards: C9600 series PoE copper modules supply 60W/90W UPOE++; C9600-LC-48TX has zero PoE circuitry, targeting passive server/workstation endpoints to cut power budget cost.
2. vs fiber line cards (LC-24C / LC-48YL): LC-48TX uses short-distance copper RJ45 for rack-local downlinks; fiber cards handle long-distance campus/data center inter-switch trunking.
3. vs Catalyst 9400 multigigabit line cards: Catalyst 9400 is distribution-layer focused; C9600-LC-48TX leverages 9600 high-capacity backplane, larger forwarding tables and wire-speed 10G non-blocking performance for core aggregation.
4. vs combo fiber-copper line cards: LC-48TX provides full 48-port pure copper density without mixed fiber slots for dedicated server rack aggregation.

2. Hardware & Bandwidth Specifications

Universal Multigigabit RJ45 Port Performance

1. Port Count: 48 identical independent RJ45 mGig ports, fully non-blocking full-duplex
2. Auto-negotiation supported speeds per port: 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 5 Gbps, 10 Gbps BASE-T
3. Cabling requirements: Cat5e cable supports max 5G; Cat6/Cat6a required for stable 10GBASE-T transmission, maximum 100-meter cable reach per port
4. Slot Bandwidth Allocation
   • With C9600-SUP-1 (Gen1 Supervisor): 960 Gbps full-duplex per slot
   • With C9600X-SUP-2 (Gen2 Silicon One Supervisor): 960 Gbps fixed full-duplex per slot
5. Aggregate Full-Duplex Throughput: 960 Gbps total wire-speed capacity when all 48 ports run 10G simultaneously
6. Jumbo Frame Support: Layer 2–Layer 4 jumbo frames up to 9216 bytes for 4K video, virtualization, cloud storage and large backup workloads
7. Packet Buffer: 32 MB shared packet buffer for all ports to eliminate congestion loss under burst traffic

Built-In Hardware Acceleration Features

1. IEEE 802.1AE MACsec-256 AES-256 hardware port encryption to secure copper downlink traffic (supported on C9600-SUP-1 UADP ASIC)Cisco
2. IEEE 1588v2 / 802.1AS PTP hardware timing for synchronized broadcast video, unified VoIP, and industrial control network clock synchronization
3. Wire-speed L2/L3/L4 ACL filtering, QoS policing, marking, shaping, NAT, and full IPv4/IPv6 hardware forwarding
4. IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) to reduce power consumption on idle/unused RJ45 ports

Physical & Power Parameters

• Form Factor: Standard full-width Catalyst 9600 series line card, compatible with all empty line card slots of C9604R / C9606R / C9610R chassis
• Typical full-load power consumption: 195W
• Rated MTBF: 742,390 hours under nominal standard operating environment
• Asset tracking: Embedded passive UHF RFID tag for centralized enterprise asset lifecycle management
• Cooling: Passive multi-heatsink thermal design, fully dependent on chassis side-to-side horizontal airflow; no independent onboard fan
• No PoE capability: This module cannot supply any IEEE 802.3af/at/bt inline power to connected endpoints

Supported Chassis & Supervisor Compatibility

1. C9600-SUP-1 (Gen1 UADP ASIC, full MACsec support)
2. C9600X-SUP-2 (Gen2 Silicon One Supervisor, fixed 960Gbps slot bandwidth)

3. Front Panel Layout & Status LEDs

1. 48 RJ45 multigigabit ports arranged in two horizontal rows (24 ports per row; all ports identical 10G-capable mGig interfaces)
2. Per-port bi-color link/activity LED for each RJ45 port:
   • Solid Green: Valid link established, normal data forwarding operation
   • Blinking Green: Bidirectional data transmission/reception in progress
   • Solid Amber: Link down, cable fault, or port hardware error alarm
3. Global module status indicators at the card edge:
   • STATUS LED: Green = fully initialized and online; Amber = booting / minor warning; Red = critical hardware or backplane communication failure
   • LOCATE blue beacon LED: Remotely triggered to identify the line card during rack maintenance
4. Dual mechanical ejector latches on both sides to support OIR hot insertion/removal without chassis power shutdown

4. IOS XE Comprehensive Software Feature Suite

Layer 2 Campus & Fabric Aggregation Functions

• IEEE 802.1Q VLAN trunking (4096 maximum VLANs), PVLAN private VLAN multi-tenant isolation
• Cross-line-card LACP/PAGP EtherChannel link aggregation for redundant 10G copper server trunks
• MSTP/RSTP spanning tree toolkit with BPDU guard, root guard, loop guard, UplinkFast fast convergence
• DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard, and MAC address port security
• IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet for idle port power saving

Layer 3 & SD-Access EVPN Fabric Capabilities

• Hardware-accelerated IPv4 / IPv6 unicast & multicast routing (static routes, OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, IS-IS)
• Up to 32-way ECMP equal-cost multi-path uplink load balancing
• Native VXLAN EVPN hardware forwarding for Cisco SD-Access intent-based wired enterprise fabric aggregation
• Anycast gateway, LISP host mobility, and overlay user traffic aggregation
• Hardware VRF-lite multi-tenancy segmentation, supporting up to 2,000 independent isolated forwarding tables

Hardware-Accelerated Security Features

• Wire-speed port-level MACsec-256 encryption for server rack copper downlinks
• TrustSec SGT end-to-end policy segmentation, Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) for hidden malware detection
• Hardware ACL filtering, CoPP control plane policing to protect supervisor CPU resources
• IEEE 802.1X, MAB, WebAuth wired access authentication; AAA TACACS+/RADIUS/LDAP authentication support

QoS & Precision Timing

• 8 independent hardware priority queues per port, WRR/DRR congestion scheduling, per-port policing/marking/shaping
• IEEE 1588v2 PTP hardware timestamping for broadcast media, unified voice, and industrial synchronization

Automation, Programmability & Observability

• Model-driven open programmability: NETCONF, RESTCONF, YANG data models, gNMI, on-box Python scripting
• Real-time streaming telemetry, IPFIX flexible NetFlow export, continuous port latency and buffer utilization monitoring
• GOLD non-disruptive online diagnostic tests for real-time line card hardware health inspection
• Native seamless integration with Cisco DNA Center for zero-touch provisioning, unified policy management, and full network lifecycle automation

5. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Mid-Size Data Center Server Rack Downlink Aggregation
   48×10G multigigabit copper ports connect rack-mounted application servers, storage nodes and virtualization hosts; Cat6 cabling delivers stable 10G short-range rack connectivity, VRF multi-tenancy logically isolates multi-customer workloads.
2. Premium Enterprise Design & Video Workstation Aggregation
   Native 10G mGig bandwidth supports 4K/8K video editing workstations, CAD design thin clients and high-speed cloud desktop terminals; backward-compatible 1G/2.5G speeds for standard office PCs and printers.
3. High-Density IP Surveillance Camera Core Aggregation
   10G copper ports connect high-resolution multi-megapixel and PTZ security cameras deployed within the same wiring closet; hardware QoS prioritizes low-latency video streaming traffic for campus security systems.
4. Hybrid Cloud Regional Headquarters Core Copper Aggregation
   Dedicated non-PoE copper line card for passive high-bandwidth endpoints to avoid unnecessary PoE power budget consumption; paired with C9600-LC-24C 100G fiber uplink cards for inter-core and multi-cloud peering trunks.
5. Education & Enterprise Lab High-Speed Test Network
   Dense 48-port 10G copper capacity for IT lab equipment, network test appliances and virtual server clusters; hitless OIR maintenance minimizes lab network downtime during hardware upgrades.

6. Standard Package Contents of C9600-LC-48TX SKU

Separately Mandatory & Optional Add-On Components

1. Mandatory accessories for full operation
   • Cat6/Cat6a RJ45 patch cords for stable 10G transmission; Cat5e cables limited to max 5G speed
   • Catalyst 9600 series chassis, supervisors, power supplies, and fan trays (sold separately)
2. Optional upgrade hardware
   • Spare replacement line card for on-site hot-swap inventory
3. Software Licenses
   • DNA Advantage perpetual license required for full VXLAN EVPN SD-Access, MACsec encryption, streaming telemetry, and advanced automation features
   • DNA Essentials base license for fundamental Layer 2/Layer 3 switching and routing functionality

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation