Cisco WS-F6K-DFC4-A Full Official Technical Specification

1. Product Overview

Official Full Designation

Cisco WS-F6K-DFC4-A:DFC4 Standard Memory Distributed Forwarding Daughter Card for Field Upgrade of Legacy WS-X67xx CEF720 Line Cards to Support Supervisor Engine 2T / 2TXLCisco

WS-F6K-DFC4-A is a field-replaceable distributed forwarding daughter card in Cisco’s DFC4 product family, uniquely engineered as an upgrade kit for older WS-X67xx line cards originally paired with Supervisor 720. It enables legacy CEF720 line cards to operate with the next-generation Supervisor Engine 2T (VS-S2T-10G) equipped with PFC4 forwarding hardware, offloading all Layer 2/Layer 3 packet forwarding, security ACL, QoS, multicast replication and NetFlow processing tasks locally on the host line card to eliminate supervisor engine forwarding bottlenecks.

Core DefinitionDFC4-A is a compact pluggable auxiliary PCB daughterboard designed exclusively for field upgrades of WS-X6704-10GE, WS-X6724-SFP, WS-X6748-SFP, WS-X6748-GE-TX legacy line cards. It replicates the full hardware forwarding logic of Supervisor 2T’s PFC4 engine, delivering independent line-rate distributed Cisco Express Forwarding (dCEF) for all ports on its host WS-X67xx module. It features standard 1GB onboard memory sizing for enterprise campus and mid-sized data center workloads, differentiated from three other DFC4 variants: WS-F6K-DFC4-AXL (expanded high-memory upgrade variant for WS-X67xx), WS-F6K-DFC4-E (factory pre-installed base DFC4 for native WS-X68xx/WS-X69xx line cards), WS-F6K-DFC4-EXL (high-memory factory DFC4 for WS-X68xx/WS-X69xx)Cisco.

SKU Naming Breakdown

1. WS-F6K: Cisco standard prefix for auxiliary forwarding daughter cards compatible with Catalyst 6500 series chassis
2. DFC4: 4th-generation Distributed Forwarding Card architecture, matching Supervisor 2T PFC4 forwarding complex
3. -A: Standard memory upgrade variant, dedicated for retrofitting legacy WS-X67xx CEF720 line cards to work with Supervisor 2T

Product Lifecycle Notice

• Official Global Release Year: 2012, released alongside Catalyst 6500 E-Series Supervisor 2T upgrade program for legacy CEF720 hardware
• End-of-Sale (EoS) Announcement Date: Cisco permanently discontinued manufacturing and new retail sales
• Minimum Supported IOS Software Version: Classic IOS SY train 12.2(50)SY or later releases
• End of Software Maintenance: No new feature IOS releases post-EoS; only critical security vulnerability patches were provided during maintenance window
• Final End-of-Support (EoSS) Date: Cisco official hardware repair, RMA replacement, and TAC technical engineering support fully terminated
• Legacy Status: All hardware installation guides, compatibility matrices and IOS firmware documentation are archived on Cisco’s legacy networking documentation portal; only third-party refurbished spare parts and limited aftermarket support are available today.

Supported Host Line Card Compatibility

WS-F6K-DFC4-A is strictly used as a field-upgrade spare part for these original WS-X67xx CEF720 line cards, enabling them to interoperate with Supervisor 2T/2TXL:

1. WS-X6704-10GE (4-port XENPAK 10G fiber module)
2. WS-X6724-SFP (24-port Gigabit SFP fiber module)
3. WS-X6748-SFP (48-port Gigabit SFP fiber module)
4. WS-X6748-GE-TX (48-port Gigabit fixed copper RJ45 module)

Mandatory Supervisor Engine Requirement

Only compatible with Supervisor Engine 2T / VS-S2T-10G (equipped with PFC4-E centralized forwarding engine). Fully incompatible with Supervisor Engine 720 (DFC3 architecture), Supervisor 32, Supervisor 1A, Supervisor 2 platforms. It cannot be factory pre-installed on native WS-X68xx/WS-X69xx line cards—those modules ship with DFC4-E / DFC4-EXL by default, not DFC4-A.

Standard Factory Complete Spare Bundle Contents

When sold as a standalone spare upgrade kit, each factory-sealed WS-F6K-DFC4-A package contains all static-safe installation hardware:

1. WS-F6K-DFC4-A distributed forwarding daughter card with integrated passive aluminum heat sink
2. ESD anti-static grounding wrist strap for static-sensitive PCB handling
3. Mounting hardware: 9 retention screws, 2 plastic standoffs dedicated to DFC4-A installation on WS-X67xx line cards
4. Quick-start hardware installation manual covering removal of original CFC/DFC3 daughter cards and DFC4-A retrofit procedures
5. Global regulatory compliance, safety, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) certification documentation packet

Core Integrated Functional Capabilities

DFC4-A mirrors all PFC4-E hardware service functions locally on retrofitted WS-X67xx line cards, eliminating traffic hairpinning to the central supervisor engine:

• Full hardware-accelerated dCEF distributed packet forwarding: IPv4 unicast/multicast, IPv6 unicast/multicast, MPLS label switching, Layer 2 bridging and MAC address learning
• Hardware security processing: Ingress/egress Port ACLs (PACLs), VLAN ACLs (VACLs), Router ACLs (RACLs) with low-latency TCAM lookup
• Hardware QoS pipeline: DSCP/802.1Q CoS traffic classification, traffic policing/marking, ingress queuing, egress DWRR/SRR scheduling, WRED congestion avoidance, CBWFQ service queues
• Dedicated hardware multicast replication engine for efficient Layer 2/Layer 3 multicast traffic distribution for IPTV, video conferencing broadcast workloads
• Hardware NetFlow v5 / v9 flow collection, flow statistics aggregation and export processing
• EtherChannel load-balancing hash calculation, packet rewrite lookup and traffic statistics collection
• Full jumbo frame support up to 9216 bytes, VSS Virtual Switch Link traffic forwarding, OIR hot-swap line card failover state synchronization

2. Hardware & Performance Specifications

Core Forwarding & Memory Performance

• Forwarding Throughput Capacity: 60 Mpps line-rate distributed packet forwarding per WS-F6K-DFC4-A daughter card
• Base Physical Memory: 1GB onboard high-speed RLDRAM3 memory
• FIB (Forwarding Information Base) Capacity: Standard 256,000 IPv4 unicast forwarding entries
• TCAM Memory Allocation:
  • ACL TCAM: 64,000 security ACL entries
  • NetFlow TCAM: 512,000 concurrent NetFlow flow cache entries
• Memory Hardware: 3 × 600 MHz RLDRAM3 high-speed memory chips dedicated to forwarding table storage
• Switch Fabric Interface: Dual full-duplex 20 Gbps switch fabric channels (40 Gbps aggregate unidirectional / 80 Gbps bidirectional bandwidth) connecting the host WS-X67xx line card to the chassis crossbar switch fabric

Electrical & Thermal Specifications

• Power Draw: Low-voltage DC auxiliary power feed directly from the host WS-X67xx line card’s main power supply; no independent chassis power connector
• Thermal Design: Integrated passive extruded aluminum heat sink; no on-board active cooling fans, relying entirely on chassis backplane forced airflow for heat dissipation
• Operating Temperature Range:
  • Agency-certified operational range: 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F)
  • Extended validated operating range: 0°C to 55°C (32°F to 130°F)
• Storage & Transport Temperature: -40°C to 75°C (-40°F to 167°F)
• Relative Humidity: 10% to 90% non-condensing humidity for continuous 24/7 chassis operation
• Operating Altitude:
  • Certified range: -150m to 2000m (-500ft to 6500ft)
  • Extended validated range: -150m to 3000m (-500ft to 10000ft)

Physical Form Factor

• Form Factor: Compact pluggable daughter board PCB, mounted parallel to the host WS-X67xx line card’s main circuit board
• Mounting Mechanism: Screw-fixed retention brackets with dedicated power and data edge connectors mating to the WS-X67xx line card’s exclusive DFC4 upgrade socket
• Net Weight: ~0.2 kg (0.44 lbs), including integrated aluminum heat sink

3. DFC4 Family Variant Comparison Table

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4. Regulatory & Compliance Certifications

Fully compliant with global international industry standards when installed in a certified Catalyst 6500 E-Series chassis with supported WS-X67xx host line cards:

1. Safety Standards: UL 60950-1, CSA C22.2 No. 60950-1, EN 60950, IEC 60950-1
2. EMC & EMI Standards: FCC CFR Title 47 Part 15 Class A, VCCI Class A, EN55022 Class A, CISPR 22 Class A
3. Carrier-Grade Compliance: NEBS Level 3 (GR-1089-CORE, GR-63-CORE), ETSI ETS 300 386-2, EN 50121-4 railway EMC compliance
4. Environmental Directive: EU RoHS hazardous substance restriction compliance

5. Core Deployment Advantages

1. Legacy Hardware Reuse & Investment Protection: Enables existing WS-X67xx CEF720 line cards to work with modern Supervisor 2T/2TXL, eliminating costly full line card replacement during chassis supervisor upgrades and preserving existing network hardware investment.
2. Standardized Cost-Effective Memory Sizing: Optimized 1GB standard memory capacity for most enterprise campus, mid-tier data center, and small metro Ethernet retrofit deployments, delivering balanced performance without the premium cost of the high-memory DFC4-AXL upgrade variant.
3. Unified Full Feature Compatibility: Supports the complete full feature set of Catalyst 6500 E-Series Supervisor 2T IOS SY firmware, including VSS multi-chassis virtual switching, hardware multicast replication, full QoS policy support, and comprehensive security ACL filtering.
4. Static Passive Thermal Design: No on-board active cooling fans, reducing hardware failure points, acoustic noise, and long-term maintenance overhead for quiet wiring closet and office campus network deployments.
5. Field-Replaceable Spare Upgrade Kit: Designed for static-safe in-service retrofit without fully removing the entire host WS-X67xx line card from the chassis, minimizing network downtime during supervisor engine upgrade projects.

Supplementary Product Specification Notes

UNSPSC Classification Code

43222612 (Distributed forwarding auxiliary upgrade daughter card for retrofitting legacy Catalyst 6500 WS-X67xx CEF720 line cards to support Supervisor Engine 2T PFC4-E forwarding complex, standard 1GB memory DFC4-A variant providing hardware distributed dCEF packet forwarding, ACL security processing, QoS scheduling, multicast replication and NetFlow flow collection for Gigabit/10G Ethernet WS-X67xx modular line cards).

K9 Security Compliance Note

All WS-F6K-DFC4-A compatible IOS SY firmware releases implement H.235v3 AES 128-bit encrypted remote CLI, web portal and SNMP management traffic, meeting Cisco K9 secure network hardware classification standards required for government, military, healthcare, and financial regulated enterprise network deployments.

Factory Hardware Warranty Terms

Standard 1-year limited hardware warranty coverage for brand-new factory-sealed WS-F6K-DFC4-A daughter card spare upgrade kits purchased through official Cisco authorized global distribution channel partners. Critical lifecycle limitation note: The product EoS/EoSS status restricts active hardware replacement warranty service eligibility for all WS-F6K-DFC4-A units purchased after Cisco’s official End-of-Sale cutoff date; all formal Cisco technical TAC engineering hardware repair support services terminated permanently on the published End-of-Support date.