Important Pre-Statement: WS-X6848-10G Is Not an Official Valid Cisco Product

Cisco’s official datasheets, EOL documentation and IOS release notes confirm there isno WS-X6848-10G line cardin the Catalyst 6500 E-Series 6800-family product portfolioCisco.

Clarification of Naming Misconception

The name WS-X6848-10G incorrectly combines three conflicting segments of Cisco’s line card naming rules:

1. 68: 6800-series modules exclusively designed for Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL
2. 48: 48-port count — all 48-port 6800-series modules are1G Gigabit-only
   • WS-X6848-SFP-2T / 2TXL: 48-port Gigabit SFP fiber module
   • WS-X6848-TX-2T / 2TXL: 48-port Gigabit fixed RJ45 copper module
3. 10G: 10-Gigabit speed — all 10G-capable 6800-series line cards only offer 8 or 16 ports, no 48-port 10G variant exists:
   • WS-X6808-10G-2T / 2TXL: 8-port X2 10G fiber
   • WS-X6816-10G-2T / 2TXL: 16-port X2 10G fiber
   • WS-X6816-10T-2T / 2TXL: 16-port 10GBASE-T copper

No Cisco hardware provides a 48-port 10-Gigabit line card for Catalyst 6500 E-Series. Below are full official specifications for the two real 48-port 6800-series Gigabit modules (the closest matching valid products), plus a reference for the 10G 6800-series line cards for comparison.

Part 1: Cisco WS-X6848-SFP-2T / WS-X6848-SFP-2TXL Full Official Technical Specification Document

1. Product Overview

Official Full Designation

Cisco WS-X6848-SFP-2T / WS-X6848-SFP-2TXL:Catalyst 6500 E-Series 6800 Family 48-Port Gigabit Ethernet SFP Hot-Swappable Distributed Forwarding Fiber Switching Module

This high-density mixed-media Gigabit aggregation line card is exclusively built for Cisco Catalyst 6500 E-Series modular campus distribution and data center aggregation switches, and only operates with Supervisor Engine 2T / 2TXL (VS-S2T-10G / VS-S2T-10GXL). The module ships factory pre-assembled with two DFC4 distributed forwarding daughter card variants as complete orderable SKUs:

1. WS-X6848-SFP-2T: Pre-installed WS-F6K-DFC4-E standard DFC4 (1GB DRAM, 60 Mpps L2/IPv4/MPLS forwarding throughput, 30 Mpps IPv6 forwarding)
2. WS-X6848-SFP-2TXL: Pre-installed WS-F6K-DFC4-EXL high-capacity XL DFC4 (expandable DRAM, expanded IPv4/IPv6 routing tables, larger ACL and NetFlow scale)

This card delivers cost-effective high-density Gigabit access aggregation for enterprise campus wiring closet workstation deployments, compact-scale data center VM server access, branch office desktop connectivity, and hybrid fiber/copper network migration projects.

Core Definition

Full-slot hot-swappable OIR Catalyst 6500 E-Series line card with 48 independent SFP Gigabit mini-GBIC transceiver slots, divided into six separate 8-port port groups sharing dual 20-Gbps full-duplex crossbar fabric channels (80Gbps aggregate bidirectional bandwidth). The integrated DFC4 daughter card enables fully distributed line-rate dCEF forwarding, eliminating supervisor engine packet processing bottlenecks. It supports hot-swappable SFP transceivers (fiber optical or copper twinax adapters), jumbo frames up to 9216 bytes, dedicated per-port packet buffer pools, multi-queue hardware QoS, dual dedicated hardware multicast replication engines, and the complete Layer 2/Layer 3 routing, multicast and enterprise security feature suite native to Catalyst 6500 classic IOS SY firmware.

SKU Naming Breakdown

1. WS-X: Cisco standard prefix for modular chassis switching line cards
2. 68: 6800 Next-Generation high-performance interface module family for Catalyst 6500 E-Series, requiring Supervisor 2T/2TXL and integrated DFC4 distributed forwarding
3. 48: Total physical interface slots on the module (48 independent SFP Gigabit Ethernet ports)
4. SFP: Small Form-Factor Pluggable mini-GBIC transceiver interface (Gigabit-only, no native fixed copper ports)

• Suffix explanation:
  • -2T: Complete assembly with standard WS-F6K-DFC4-E distributed forwarding daughter card
  • -2TXL: Complete assembly with high-capacity WS-F6K-DFC4-EXL XL distributed forwarding daughter card

Product Lifecycle Notice

• Official Global Release Year: 2011
• End-of-Sale (EoS) Announcement Date: Cisco permanently discontinued manufacturing and new unit sales
• Minimum Supported IOS Software Version: Classic IOS SY train 12.2(50)SY and all later SY releases
• End of Software Maintenance: No new feature IOS releases post-EoS; limited critical security vulnerability patch support expired
• Final End-of-Support (EoSS) Date: Cisco official hardware repair, RMA replacement, and TAC technical engineering support fully terminated
• Legacy Status: All product datasheets, hardware installation guides, IOS configuration manuals are archived on Cisco’s legacy networking documentation portal; only third-party refurbished hardware and limited aftermarket best-effort support are available.

Supported Chassis & Supervisor Compatibility

Compatible Chassis Platforms

Cisco Catalyst 6500 E-Series Modular Switches only: 6503-E, 6504-E, 6506-E, 6509-E, 6509-NEB-A, 6513. Non-E Catalyst 6503/6506/6509 legacy chassis are fully unsupported; the module cannot power up or be recognized.

Mandatory Supervisor Engine Requirement

Only compatible with Supervisor Engine 2T and Supervisor Engine 2TXL (VS-S2T-10G / VS-S2T-10GXL). Incompatible with all older Supervisor generations (Supervisor 1A, Supervisor 2, Supervisor 32, Supervisor 720).

VSS Compatibility

Fully supports Virtual Switching System (VSS); this Gigabit access line card is typically deployed for access-layer workstation aggregation, not dedicated VSL inter-chassis trunk links (VSL requires 10G WS-X6808-10G / WS-X6816-10G fiber line cards).

Standard Factory Complete Bundle Contents

Each factory-sealed WS-X6848-SFP-2T / 2TXL retail package contains all hardware and accessories required for chassis deployment:

1. WS-X6848-SFP base 48-port SFP Gigabit line card with factory pre-installed WS-F6K-DFC4-E / DFC4-EXL distributed forwarding daughter card
2. Chassis mounting retention screws for secure slot installation
3. Quick-start hardware installation guide for line card insertion/removal and SFP transceiver deployment
4. Global regulatory compliance, safety, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) certification documentation packet

Supported Software & Enterprise Deployment Architectures

Compatible Cisco IOS Software

WS-X6848-SFP series exclusively runs classic IOS SY train firmware for Catalyst 6500 E-Series platforms:

• Minimum baseline release: 12.2(50)SY IOS XE, Catalyst 9000/9300/9400 series operating systems are fully incompatible with this legacy 6500-series line card.

Supported Deployment Architectures

1. Enterprise Campus Distribution Layer High-Density Workstation Access Aggregation Deployed in Catalyst 6500 E-Series distribution switches to provide mass Gigabit SFP ports for hundreds of office desktop PCs, IP phones, and network printers, supporting multi-mode short-range and single-mode long-distance fiber cabling plus copper twinax via interchangeable SFP transceivers.
2. Compact-Scale Data Center Server & Storage Access Aggregation Mixed-media Gigabit connectivity for compact rack-mounted virtualized application server clusters, IP SAN gateways, backup deduplication appliances; SFP single-mode fiber modules support inter-rack data center trunking for low-volume east-west workloads.
3. Metro Ethernet & Service Provider Carrier-Grade Edge Access Optimized for Catalyst 6500 E-Series carrier deployments, providing scalable high-density Gigabit SFP customer premise equipment (CPE) access links for small-to-medium business Ethernet broadband and managed office network services.
4. Hybrid Copper/Fiber Infrastructure Migration Transition Deployments Single line card platform supporting both fiber and copper Gigabit media via simple SFP transceiver swap, eliminating the need to deploy separate fixed-copper line cards during enterprise and carrier network infrastructure migration cycles.

Core Integrated Functional Capabilities

Full-slot hot-swappable OIR design, 48 SFP Gigabit Ethernet transceiver slots split into six independent 8-port port groups, dual 20-Gbps full-duplex chassis crossbar switch fabric channels (80Gbps aggregate bidirectional bandwidth), factory pre-installed WS-F6K-DFC4-E / DFC4-EXL distributed dCEF forwarding daughter card, zero PoE inline power circuits, Layer 2 IEEE 802.1Q VLAN trunking, jumbo frame support up to 9216 bytes, dedicated per-port packet buffer pools, multi-queue hardware QoS queuing, dual dedicated hardware multicast replication engines, IGMP v1/v2/v3 hardware multicast snooping, EtherChannel/PAgP/LACP link aggregation, UDLD unidirectional link fault detection, broadcast/multicast storm suppression, private VLAN segmentation, hot-swappable OIR module design, and full inheritance of all Catalyst 6500 E-Series enterprise unified communications, multicast, and security feature sets.

2. Hardware & Performance Specifications

Core Switching & Forwarding Performance

• Switch Fabric Architecture: Centralized crossbar fabric managed by Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL; factory pre-installed WS-F6K-DFC4-E / DFC4-EXL distributed forwarding daughter card enables local line-card dCEF line-rate forwarding to eliminate supervisor packet processing bottlenecks
• Backplane Fabric Connection: Dual full-duplex 20-Gbps channels (aggregate 40Gbps unidirectional / 80Gbps bidirectional bandwidth) to chassis crossbar switch fabric, shared evenly across all six 8-port port groups
• Port Group Operation Modes: Single fixed oversubscription mode for all 48 ports; no wire-speed performance mode supported (performance mode is exclusive to 10G WS-X6808-10G / WS-X6816-10G line cards for VSL links)
• Port Buffer Allocation: Dedicated ingress/egress memory per port to absorb bursty campus and data center traffic loads
• Forwarding Throughput Performance:
  • WS-X6848-SFP-2T (DFC4-E): 60 Mpps sustained L2/IPv4/MPLS line-rate forwarding, 30 Mpps IPv6 forwarding, 256K IPv4 forwarding entries, 64K shared ACL entries, 512K NetFlow entries
  • WS-X6848-SFP-2TXL (DFC4-EXL XL): Higher route table capacity, expandable DRAM, 1M IPv4 forwarding entries, 256K shared ACL entries, 1M NetFlow entries
• Maximum Supported Frame Size: Jumbo frames up to 9216 bytes for high-throughput large packet storage workloads
• Link Aggregation Capacity: Supports IEEE 802.3ad LACP and Cisco distributed EtherChannel; maximum 8 physical ports per logical EtherChannel bundle, cross-module port channels supported with other 6800-family line cards in the same chassis
• MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures): 140,696 operating hours under standard indoor data center/wiring closet environmental conditions
• Max Module Power Consumption: Up to ~334.44 Watts maximum rated power draw (DFC4 daughter card power included in total module power rating)

SFP Transceiver Compatibility Specifications

Each of the 48 ports accepts standard Cisco hot-swappable SFP Gigabit Ethernet mini-GBIC transceivers, supporting multiple media and distance types; no built-in copper RJ45 ports, no 10G transceiver compatibility:

1. Fiber Optical SFP Modules
   • 1000BASE-SX: Multimode fiber short-range campus trunking (550m max)
   • 1000BASE-LRM: Extended reach multimode fiber (2km max)
   • 1000BASE-LX/LH: Single-mode fiber medium-distance inter-building links (10km max)
   • 1000BASE-ZX / CWDM SFP: Long-haul single-mode fiber metro/long-distance campus connectivity (100km max)
2. Copper Twinax SFP Modules
   • GLC-T, GLC-TE: SFP to RJ45 copper Gigabit adapters
   • SFP-H1GB-CU1M / CU3M: Passive copper twinax short-range cables

• PoE Power Delivery Specifications:No PoE Capability: This line card contains zero inline power hardware, no power classification circuits, and cannot supply DC power to connected endpoints (IP phones, wireless APs, surveillance cameras). All attached devices must rely on local AC power adapters for operation.

Front Panel Physical Port & Indicator Layout

1. SFP Gigabit Ethernet Optical/Copper Ports (48 × SFP Hot-Swappable Transceiver Slots)
   • Port numbering: Left to right sequential numbering from Port 1 to Port 48, split into six independent 8-port port groups
   • Media flexibility: LC fiber connector natively; SFP copper adapters enable RJ45 twisted-pair copper conversion
   • Per-port bi-color status LEDs: Green = Link Up / Active bidirectional data traffic; Amber = Port administratively disabled, physical link down, faulty SFP transceiver, or port error state
2. Module Global System Status Indicators
   • Global module health LED: Solid green = Module detected by Supervisor 2T/2TXL and fully operational; Solid red = Critical line card hardware fault or DFC4 daughter card initialization failure; Flashing amber = Module entering ROMMON boot/diagnostic mode
   • Hot-swap ejector levers with integrated locking retention tabs for safe module insertion/removal without full chassis power shutdown
3. No Integrated Console or Local Management Ports – all chassis-wide management interfaces (console, Ethernet management port) are located on the front panel of the installed Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL module.

Physical, Environmental & Power Specifications

Physical Dimensions & Weight

• Form Factor: Standard full-slot hot-swappable line card for Catalyst 6500 E-Series chassis
• Overall Dimensions (H × W × D): 3.0 × 35.6 × 40.6 cm (1.2 × 14.4 × 16.0 inches)
• Bare Line Card Net Weight: ~1.4 kg (1400 grams) excluding SFP transceivers; each SFP transceiver adds ~0.1 pounds of weight

Environmental Operating Specifications

• Operating Ambient Temperature Range: Agency-certified for operation: 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F); designed and tested for extended range: 0°C to 55°C (32°F to 130°F)
• Storage & Transport Temperature Range: -40°C to 75°C (-40°F to 167°F)
• Operating Relative Humidity: 10% to 90%, non-condensing humidity for 24/7 continuous chassis operation
• Operating Altitude: Agency-certified for operation: –150 to 2000m (–500 to 6500 ft); designed/tested for extended altitude range: –150 to 3000m (–500 to 10000 ft)
• Acoustic Noise: No onboard cooling fans; all thermal dissipation via passive aluminum heatsinks; chassis main fan tray handles overall system thermal load
• Carrier-Grade Compliance: NEBS Level 3 (GR-1089-CORE, GR-63-CORE), ETSI ETS-300386-2, EN 50121-4
• Safety Certifications: UL 1950, EN 60950, CSA-C22.2 No.950, IEC 60950-1 2nd Edition

3. Supported Layer 2 / Layer 3 Protocol & Feature Set

Layer 2 Switching Features

• IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLAN trunking, maximum 4094 active concurrent VLANs (VLAN limit inherited from Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL configuration)
• Spanning Tree Protocol suite: IEEE 802.1D STP, 802.1w Rapid STP (RSTP), 802.1s Multiple STP (MSTP); UplinkFast, BackboneFast, root guard, BPDU guard
• Link Aggregation: IEEE 802.3ad LACP, Cisco distributed EtherChannel, cross-module EtherChannel support with other 6800-family full-slot line cards
• Multicast Optimization: IGMP v1/v2/v3 hardware snooping, Cisco Group Multicast Protocol (GMP) server functionality, dual dedicated hardware multicast replication engines
• Link Fault Detection: Unidirectional Link Detection (UDLD) and aggressive UDLD operating modes
• Security Layer 2 Features: Port security, MAC address learning limits, static secure MAC address binding, private VLANs with promiscuous trunk support, Q-in-Q VLAN stacking pass-through for Metro Ethernet service deployments
• Energy Efficiency: IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE), automatic port power-down for idle link states to reduce chassis power consumption
• Traffic Suppression: Broadcast, multicast, unknown unicast storm control (hardware rate-limiting); STP BPDUs are not exempt from multicast storm suppression filtering
• Misc Layer 2: Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), Layer 2 protocol tunneling (L2PT), CoS mutation for trunk ports.

Layer 3 Routing Features

• IPv4 Hardware Forwarding: Static routing, default static routes, EIGRP stub routing support, IP unnumbered SVI interfaces, SVI autostate exclude (DFC4-E supports 256K IPv4 distributed forwarding; DFC4-EXL XL offers expanded route table capacity)
• IPv6 Forwarding: Distributed hardware accelerated IPv6 packet forwarding (30 Mpps baseline capacity on DFC4-E)
• Access Control Lists: Hardware-based Port ACLs (PACLs), VLAN ACLs (VACLs), Router ACLs (RACLs) with low forwarding latency; ACL processing executed on local DFC4 distributed ASIC
• WCCP Version 2 Layer 2 redirect support for web cache offloading.

QoS Traffic Management Features

• Hardware Per-Port QoS Architecture:
  • Oversubscription Mode (default): 1 ingress queue with multiple drop thresholds, multi-class egress queue scheduling (strict priority + weighted round-robin)
• Traffic Classification Mechanisms: Layer 2 CoS marking, Layer 3 DSCP / IP Precedence classification, full Layer 3/Layer 4 ACL header matching for granular application traffic identification
• Policing & Shaping: 512 independent ingress policer instances, 512 independent egress policer instances; aggregate and per-flow policing modes, egress traffic shaping and bandwidth sharing
• Congestion Avoidance: Dynamic Buffer Limiting (DBL) to prevent egress buffer overflow and random packet loss for bursty enterprise application traffic
• Scheduling Algorithms: Strict priority queuing for real-time voice/video media traffic, weighted round-robin (WRR) shared queue scheduling for standard data traffic
• Unified Communications QoS: Auto-QoS CLI template for simplified VoIP and TelePresence deployment, per-port/per-VLAN CoS/DSCP marking and mutation for converged voice-data network environments.

Enterprise Security Features

• IEEE 802.1X port-based Network Access Control (NAC) fully compatible (NAC authentication processing executed on the supervisor engine or local DFC4 daughter card)
• DHCP Snooping with DHCP Option 82 insertion to block rogue DHCP server attacks and prevent IP address spoofing
• Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI) for Layer 2 ARP spoofing and man-in-the-middle attack prevention
• Encrypted management traffic support: AES encryption for SSH v2 remote CLI access, TLS 1.1/1.2 for HTTPS web administration (all security processing handled by the chassis supervisor engine or local DFC4 daughter card)
• Cisco TrustSec identity-based network access tagging support (TrustSec hardware feature set inherited from Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL).

High Availability Redundancy Features

• Hot-swappable full-slot line card design: Insert, remove, or replace the module without powering down the entire Catalyst 6500 E-Series chassis; all other active line card ports remain fully operational during module replacement
• Stateful Switchover (SSO) and Non-Stop Forwarding (NSF) fully compatible (requires dual redundant Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL modules installed in the chassis); line card Layer 2 MAC address tables and forwarding state are synchronized between redundant supervisors for subsecond failover with zero data-plane traffic outage
• VSS Virtual Switching System support: This Gigabit access line card cannot be used for VSL inter-chassis links; dedicated 10G WS-X6808-10G / WS-X6816-10G fiber line cards are required for VSL ports.

4. Core Deployment Advantages of Cisco WS-X6848-SFP-2T / 2TXL

1. Standard full-slot hot-swappable 6800-series line card exclusively built for Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL Catalyst 6500 E-Series chassis, delivering high-density 48-port SFP Gigabit mixed-media aggregation; flexible mixed-port-type deployments with other 6800-family line cards (48-port fixed copper WS-X6848-TX, 8/16-port X2 10G fiber) in a single modular chassis
2. Factory pre-integrated WS-F6K-DFC4-E / DFC4-EXL distributed forwarding daughter card eliminates separate DFC hardware procurement and on-site installation labor, provides local line-card dCEF line-rate packet processing to remove supervisor engine forwarding bottlenecks for high-volume campus access workloads
3. Modular SFP transceiver design enables flexible media selection: short-range multimode fiber, long-distance single-mode fiber, or short copper twinax without replacing the entire line card, reducing long-term hardware inventory costs
4. Dedicated per-port packet buffer pools provide robust burst traffic absorption capability, minimizing packet loss during peak office workstation and campus inter-switch traffic load periods
5. Zero PoE power circuit design delivers moderate chassis power consumption, reducing overall rack power load and cooling requirements when deployed alongside PoE copper line cards in the same Catalyst 6500 E-Series chassis
6. Next-gen 6800-family ASIC architecture with dedicated hardware multicast replication engines optimizes IPTV, video conferencing and broadcast media traffic forwarding performance for enterprise and service provider multicast deployments
7. Centralized crossbar fabric architecture with DFC4 distributed acceleration inherits all advanced Layer 2/Layer 3, QoS, and security features directly from the installed Supervisor Engine 2T/2TXL, eliminating separate ASIC feature licensing and delivering long-term investment protection via simple IOS SY firmware upgrades
8. Full OIR hot-swappable operation allows IT administrators to replace or add this line card to the Catalyst 6500 E-Series chassis without shutting down the entire switch, minimizing enterprise network maintenance downtime and supporting 24/7 always-on business network and carrier service requirements
9. Passive heatsink thermal design produces zero audible operational noise from the line card module itself; all cooling load is handled by the chassis main fan tray, making WS-X6848-SFP perfectly suited for quiet office wiring closet and executive campus network closet environments where noisy active-cooled line card modules create disruptive background noise
10. Full backward compatibility with all generations of Supervisor Engine 2T and 2TXL for Catalyst 6500 E-Series chassis, fully interoperable with existing enterprise CUCM/VCS/TMS on-premises unified communications infrastructure, enabling cost-effective high-density Gigabit fiber access line card hardware replacement without full chassis refresh investment

Part 2: Reference Table – Valid 6800-Series Line Cards (Proof WS-X6848-10G Does Not Exist)

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