Cisco C9600X-LC-32CD Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

Suffix Breakdown

• C9600X: Gen2 Silicon One optimized line card, exclusive to C9600X-SUP-2 supervisors
• LC: Line Card modular high-speed fiber uplink/aggregation module
• 32: Total 32 fiber transceiver ports (30 QSFP28 + 2 QSFP-DD)
• CD: Combo high-speed dual form-factor interface (QSFP28 + QSFP-DD)

Core Differentiators

1. vs C9600-LC-40YL4CD combo card: LC-40YL4CD includes dense SFP56 25G/50G low-speed downlinks; C9600X-LC-32CD eliminates low-speed SFP ports and focuses purely on 40G/100G/200G/400G high-speed fiber for spine/core uplink layersCisco.
2. vs C9600-LC-24C (24×QSFP28 40G/100G): LC-32CD provides 30×100G QSFP28 (higher 100G port density) plus native 400G QSFP-DD uplinks for future-proof ultra-high bandwidth interconnections.
3. vs Gen1 UADP line cards: C9600X-LC-32CD is Silicon One-only; it cannot operate with C9600-SUP-1 Gen1 supervisors, supports full WAN MACsec and native 400G without speed limitationsCisco.
4. vs copper LC-48TX: Pure fiber long-distance trunking design; copper cards only serve short-range rack-local server aggregation without high-speed optical uplink capability.
5. vs C9600X-LC-56YL4C: LC-56YL4C prioritizes massive 50G SFP56 downlink density; LC-32CD targets pure high-speed QSFP-based core/spine topologies.

2. Hardware & Bandwidth Specifications

Port Composition & Native Speed Support

1. 30 × QSFP28 ports: Auto-support 40GE, 100GE
2. 2 × QSFP-DD ports: Auto-support 40GE, 100GE, 200GE, 400GE

Transceiver Compatibility

• QSFP28 slots: SR4/LR4/ER4/ZR4 100G optical transceivers, QSFP+ 40G optics, QSFP28 twinax copper cables, breakout cables for 4×25G fan-out
• QSFP-DD slots: 400G DR4/FR4/LR4 optical modules, 200G/100G QSFP56 backward-compatible transceivers, QSFP-DD copper breakout cables

Bandwidth & Throughput

• Fixed per-slot full-duplex bandwidth: 6.4 Tbps (Silicon One Q200 native capacity)
• Maximum aggregate full-duplex throughput: 6.4 Tbps wire-speed when all 32 ports run at maximum rated speed simultaneously
• Jumbo frame support: Layer 2–Layer 4 jumbo frames up to 9216 bytes for 4K video, virtualization, storage replication and multi-cloud workloads
• Large shared packet buffer pool to absorb burst traffic from concurrent 100G/400G trunk links

Built-In Hardware Acceleration Features

1. IEEE 802.1AE MACsec-256 AES-256 port encryption
   • Supports both LAN MACsec and WAN MACsec (HSEC license mandatory to activate WAN MACsec for cross-site long-haul fiber trunks)
2. IEEE 1588v2 / 802.1AS PTP hardware timestamping for campus-wide broadcast media, 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 at line rate
4. Intelligent transceiver power management to reduce idle power draw on empty unpopulated optical slots

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: 270W
• Physical weight: 3.95 kg (8.71 lbs)Cisco
• Rated MTBF: 580,420 hours under nominal standard operating environment
• Asset tracking: Embedded passive UHF RFID tag integrated on ejector lever for centralized enterprise asset lifecycle managementCisco
• Cooling: Passive multi-heatsink thermal design, fully reliant 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
• Laser safety: Class 1 laser product compliant for all optical fiber ports

Strict Supervisor & Firmware Compatibility Restriction

• Only supported supervisor: C9600X-SUP-2 Gen2 Silicon One Q200 Supervisor
• Incompatible: C9600-SUP-1 Gen1 UADP Supervisor (card will not power up or initialize)
• Minimum IOS XE release: 17.9.1 or newer firmware versionCisco

3. Front Panel Layout & Status LEDs

1. Front panel port layout:
   • Top three rows: 30 × QSFP28 ports (10 ports per row)
   • Bottom row right: 2 × QSFP-DD high-speed uplink ports
2. Per-port bi-color link/activity LED for each transceiver slot:
   • Solid Green: Valid optical link established, normal line-rate data forwarding
   • Blinking Green: Bidirectional data transmission/reception active
   • Solid Amber: Link down, missing transceiver, fiber cable loss, or port hardware fault alarm
3. Global module status indicators at card edge:
   • STATUS LED: Green = fully initialized and online operational; Amber = booting / minor warning; Red = critical hardware failure or backplane communication loss
   • LOCATE blue beacon LED: Remotely triggered via CLI/DNA Center to identify the line card during rack maintenance
4. Dual mechanical ejector latches on both sides to support OIR hot insertion/removal without full chassis power shutdown

4. IOS XE Comprehensive Software Feature Suite

Layer 2 Campus & Fabric Core 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 100G/400G fiber core 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 optimization

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 for high-speed 100G/400G core paths
• Native VXLAN EVPN hardware forwarding for Cisco SD-Access intent-based wired/wireless fabric border core nodes
• Anycast gateway, LISP host mobility, and large-scale overlay high-speed 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 LAN + WAN MACsec-256 fiber trunk encryption (HSEC license required for WAN MACsec)
• TrustSec SGT end-to-end policy segmentation, Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) for hidden malware detection on high-speed core links
• 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 at line rate
• IEEE 1588v2 PTP hardware timestamping for broadcast media, unified voice, and industrial network 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. Large Enterprise SD-Access Fabric Border Core
   30 × 100G QSFP28 ports deliver dense high-speed downlinks to Catalyst 9600/9400 distribution switches; 2 × 400G QSFP-DD ports form inter-chassis StackWise Virtual trunks between paired C9606R core switches, providing redundant ultra-high bandwidth fabric backbone transport.
2. Mid-to-Large Hybrid Data Center Spine Backbone
   30 × 100G QSFP28 downlinks connect leaf switches, storage array controllers and virtualization server clusters; 400G QSFP-DD uplinks provide low-latency inter-spine trunking, hardware VRF logically isolates multi-tenant enterprise, cloud and backup storage workloads.
3. Multi-Region Campus Inter-Core High-Speed Trunking
   Long-distance single-mode 100G/400G fiber links connect geographically separated campus core sites; WAN MACsec encryption secures cross-metro backbone traffic, PTP timing synchronizes campus-wide surveillance and unified communications systems.
4. Multi-Cloud & Carrier Peering Core Aggregation
   Dense 100G QSFP28 ports handle mass peering links to ISP routers, cloud gateway devices and colocation tenant equipment; 400G QSFP-DD ports support aggregated high-volume hybrid cloud breakout traffic.
5. Financial, Government & Healthcare Mission-Critical Core Network
   Silicon One Gen2 hardware delivers consistent wire-speed 100G/400G forwarding; hitless OIR hot-swap maintenance meets strict zero-downtime regulatory compliance, centralized fabric security and bandwidth policy management via Cisco DNA Center.

6. Standard Package Contents of C9600X-LC-32CD SKU

Separately Mandatory & Optional Add-On Components

1. Mandatory accessories for full operation
   • QSFP28 (40G/100G) and QSFP-DD (40G/100G/200G/400G) optical transceivers or copper twinax breakout cables
   • Single/multi-mode fiber patch cords, optical attenuators for long-haul cross-campus links
   • Catalyst 9600 series chassis, C9600X-SUP-2 supervisors, power supplies, and fan trays (sold separately)
2. Optional upgrade hardware & licenses
   • Spare optical transceivers for on-site hot-swap inventory
   • HSEC license required to enable WAN MACsec long-haul fiber encryption
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