Cisco C9600-LC-48YL Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

Suffix Breakdown

• C9600: Catalyst 9600 high-performance Silicon One modular core switch platform
• LC: Line Card modular fiber aggregation/uplink module
• 48: Total 48 front-facing independent SFP28 transceiver ports
• YL: Multi-rate SFP28 interface (Y = 25G/50G low-speed fiber aggregation, L = SFP28 form factor)

Core Differentiators

1. vs C9600-LC-24C (24×40G/100G QSFP28): LC-48YL provides higher port density for 25G downlink aggregation; LC-24C delivers higher 100G bandwidth for core inter-switch uplinks.
2. vs C9600-LC-48S (48×1G SFP only): LC-48YL supports 10G/25G/50G high-speed fiber for modern fabric architecture; LC-48S is limited to 1G-only legacy aggregation.
3. vs copper LC-48TX: Pure fiber design for long-distance rack/campus trunking; LC-48TX is short-range non-PoE RJ45 copper for local server racks.
4. Gen1 vs Gen2 Supervisor limitation: MACsec encryption is only functional with C9600-SUP-1; 50GE port speed is exclusive to C9600X-SUP-2Cisco.
5. vs C9600X-LC-48YL Gen2 optimized line card: Standard LC-48YL is the baseline multi-rate fiber card with constrained feature separation across supervisor generations.

2. Hardware & Bandwidth Specifications

Universal SFP28 Port Speed Capability (Supervisor Dependent)

1. Port Count: 48 identical hot-pluggable SFP28 slots, full non-blocking architecture
2. Speed Support Matrix
   • Deployed with C9600-SUP-1 (Gen1 UADP ASIC): 1GE, 10GE, 25GE (1GE only supported on Gen1)Cisco
   • Deployed with C9600X-SUP-2 (Gen2 Silicon One): 10GE, 25GE, 50GE (no native 1GE support)Cisco
3. Compatible Transceiver Types
   • SFP28 optical modules: SR/LR/ER 25G/50G short/long-reach fiber
   • SFP+ 10G optical transceivers via SFP28 backward compatibility
   • SFP28 twinax copper cables for short rack interconnections
   • Breakout cables for multi-port low-speed fan-out
4. Slot Bandwidth Allocation
   • C9600-SUP-1: 2.4 Tbps full-duplex per slot
   • C9600X-SUP-2: 4.8 Tbps full-duplex wire-speed per slotCisco
5. Aggregate Full-Duplex Throughput
   • Gen1 SUP: Max 2.4 Tbps total card capacity (48×25G wire-speed)
   • Gen2 SUP-2: Max 4.8 Tbps total wire-speed throughput (48×50G concurrent)
6. Jumbo Frame Support: Layer 2–Layer 4 jumbo frames up to 9216 bytes for video, virtualization, and backup workloads
7. Packet Buffer: Shared large packet buffer pool to absorb burst traffic from 25G/50G fiber downlinks

Built-In Hardware Acceleration Features

1. IEEE 802.1AE MACsec-256 AES-256 port encryption (only active with C9600-SUP-1 Gen1 supervisors; MACsec unavailable on Gen2 SUP-2)Cisco
2. IEEE 1588v2 / 802.1AS PTP hardware timestamping for broadcast video, unified VoIP, and industrial clock synchronization
3. Wire-speed L2/L3/L4 ACL filtering, QoS policing, marking, shaping, NAT, and full IPv4/IPv6 hardware forwarding
4. Intelligent transceiver power management to reduce idle power consumption on empty SFP28 slots

Physical & Power Parameters

• Form Factor: Standard full-width Catalyst 9600 series line card, fits all empty line card slots of C9604R / C9606R / C9610R chassis
• Typical full-load power consumption: 220W
• Physical weight: 3.55 kg (7.83 lbs)
• Rated MTBF: 708,460 hours under nominal operating environment
• Asset tracking: Embedded passive UHF RFID tag for centralized enterprise asset lifecycle management
• Cooling: Passive multi-heatsink thermal design, fully reliant on chassis side-to-side horizontal airflow; no onboard independent fan
• No PoE capability: This module cannot supply any IEEE 802.3af/at/bt inline power to endpoints
• Laser safety: Class 1 laser product for all fiber ports

Supported Chassis & Supervisor Compatibility

1. C9600-SUP-1 (Gen1 UADP): Supports 1/10/25G + MACsec-256 encryption
2. C9600X-SUP-2 (Gen2 Silicon One): Supports 10/25/50G, no MACsec support on this line card

3. Front Panel Layout & Status LEDs

1. 48 SFP28 transceiver ports arranged in two horizontal rows (24 ports per row)
2. Per-port bi-color link/activity LED for each SFP28 slot:
   • Solid Green: Valid optical link established, normal data forwarding
   • Blinking Green: Bidirectional data transmission/reception active
   • Solid Amber: Link down, missing transceiver, fiber cable fault, or port error alarm
3. Global module status indicators at card edge:
   • STATUS LED: Green = fully initialized and online; Amber = booting / minor warning; Red = critical hardware/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 25G/50G fiber downlink 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/wireless fabric border aggregation
• Anycast gateway, LISP host mobility, and large-scale overlay downlink 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 fiber trunk encryption (C9600-SUP-1 only)
• 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. Medium/Large Enterprise SD-Access Fabric Border Downlink Aggregation
   48×25G SFP28 ports deliver dense fiber downlinks to Catalyst 9400 distribution switches; paired with C9600-LC-24C 100G uplink line cards to build a complete mixed-speed core fabric. Gen2 supervisors enable 50G high-speed links for future network expansion.
2. Mid-Size Hybrid Data Center Leaf Switch Downlink Backbone
   25G/50G fiber ports connect rack leaf switches, storage controllers, and virtual server clusters; hardware VRF segmentation logically isolates multi-tenant enterprise and cloud workloads.
3. Ultra-Dense Wi-Fi 6/6E Wireless Controller Core Aggregation
   Massive 48-port 25G fiber capacity aggregates centralized wireless controller fleets supporting tens of thousands of multi-radio enterprise APs; hardware QoS prioritizes low-latency voice, video conferencing, and real-time collaboration traffic.
4. Multi-Building Campus Inter-Distribution Fiber Trunking
   Long-distance single-mode 25G fiber links connect remote campus distribution layers; MACsec encryption (Gen1 supervisor deployments) secures cross-campus backbone traffic, PTP timing synchronizes campus-wide surveillance and VoIP systems.
5. Education & Government Standardized Core Network
   High-density cost-effective multi-rate fiber aggregation for standardized campus network rollouts; hitless OIR hot-swap maintenance meets strict public sector zero-downtime operational requirements.

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

Separately Mandatory & Optional Add-On Components

1. Mandatory accessories for full operation
   • SFP/SFP28 optical transceivers (SR/LR/ER 10G/25G/50G) or SFP28 copper twinax breakout cables
   • Single/multi-mode fiber patch cords, optical attenuators for long-haul links
   • Catalyst 9600 series chassis, supervisors, power supplies, and fan trays (sold separately)
2. Optional upgrade hardware
   • Spare SFP28 transceivers for on-site hot-swap inventory
3. Software Licenses
   • DNA Advantage perpetual license required for full VXLAN EVPN SD-Access, MACsec, streaming telemetry, and advanced automation features
   • DNA Essentials base license for fundamental Layer 2/Layer 3 switching and routing functionality
   • HSEC license required to enable WAN MACsec when deployed with C9600-SUP-1 Gen1 supervisors

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation