Cisco SPA-VA24XT1/E1 Full Official Product Description

1. Product Overview & SKU Definition

Official Full Name

SKU Breakdown

1. SPA: Shared Port Adapter, Cisco cross-platform modular I-Flex design
2. VA: Voice Accelerated, dedicated onboard silicon for T1/E1 PRI voice signaling, DSP media offload and hardware voice QoS processing
3. 24X: 24 independent RJ-48c T1/E1 physical ports per single-height SPA
4. T1/E1: Universal dual-mode ports; all 24 ports must be uniformly configured as all-T1 or all-E1 (mixed T1+E1 operation on one SPA is unsupported)
5. SuffixSPA-VA24XT1/E1=：Factory-new spare replacement SKU for field maintenance and inventory stocking

Core Positioning

Supported Hardware Platforms

• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Multilayer Switches
• Cisco 7600 Series Service Edge Routers
• Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers
• Cisco ASR 9000 Series Carrier-Class Routers
• Cisco XR 12000 Series Internet Backbone Routers
• Mandatory supporting carrier card: SIP-400 / SIP-600 SPA Interface Processor

Minimum Software Version Requirements

• Cisco IOS (Catalyst 6500 / 7600): IOS 15.4(1)S and all subsequent S-train releases
• Cisco IOS XE (ASR 1000): IOS XE 3.10.1 and newer builds
• Cisco IOS XR (ASR9000 / XR12000): IOS XR 5.1.1 or later releases
• Voice feature prerequisite: IOS voice feature set with K9 security licensing for encrypted voice trunk backhaul transport

Standard Factory Packaging Contents

1. SPA-VA24XT1/E1 single-height voice-accelerated T1/E1 SPA main PCB module
2. ESD anti-static shielding bag and shock-absorbing OEM foam protective packaging
3. Hardware installation quick reference guide: ESD handling protocols, OIR hot-swap operation steps, T1/E1 PRI voice trunk basic IOS configuration template
4. Global regulatory compliance document packet (electrical safety, EMC, NEBS Level 3, RoHS, telecommunications line certification)

2. Core Hardware & Functional Capabilities

Key Port & Channel Performance Specifications

• Port density: 24 independent RJ-48c T1/E1 ports per single-height SPA
• Uniform port configuration rule: All ports operate in all-T1 or all-E1 mode only; mixed-mode operation is restricted
• T1 line rate: 1.544 Mbps per port, channelized to 24 individual 64 kbps DS0 channels
• E1 line rate: 2.048 Mbps per port; supports framed channelized mode and unframed clear-channel mode, 32 DS0 logical channels per E1 trunk
• Maximum total logical DS0 capacity: Up to 768 independent 64 kbps HDLC DS0 channels across all 24 ports
• Integrated independent per-port CSU/DSU circuitry; no external line interface adapters required
• Full wire-rate performance for all DS0 voice/data channels under full 24-port maximum load

T1 Physical Layer Standards & Line Diagnostics

• Line encoding options: AMI, B8ZS
• Framing modes: D4 Superframe (SF), Extended Superframe (ESF)
• Facility data link diagnostics: ANSI T1.403, AT&T TR54016 FDL real-time monitoring
• Clock modes per port: Internal free-running oscillator clock, receiver recovered line clock
• Adjustable line build-out attenuation for short-haul and long-haul T1 cabling deployments
• Built-in BERT bit error rate testing, local/remote T1 layer loopback diagnostics for circuit troubleshooting

E1 Physical Layer Standards & Line Diagnostics

• Full compliance with ITU-T G.703, G.704, ETSI 300156 carrier-grade E1 standards
• Line encoding: AMI, HDB3
• Native 120-ohm RJ-45 UTP impedance; optional RJ45-to-BNC adapters for 75-ohm coaxial E1 circuits
• Per-port clock sources: Internal oscillator clock, loopback recovered line clock
• Full E1 loopback testing and BERT pattern generation/detection for end-to-end circuit validation

Voice-Accelerated Core Feature Set (VA Dedicated Offload Silicon)

1. ISDN PRI Voice Trunk Signaling
   Full T1 PRI (23B+D) and E1 PRI (30B+D) compliance with ISDN Q.921 LAPD and Q.931 call control signaling for PBX, CUCM voice gateway, and large contact center trunk interconnection
2. CAS Robbed-Bit Signaling Support
   Legacy analog PBX integration via channel-associated robbed-bit signaling over individual DS0 channels
3. Hardware Voice QoS Offload
   Per-DS0 weighted fair queuing, voice packet prioritization, adaptive jitter buffer management, G.165/G.168 echo cancellation, voice activity detection (VAD) and silence suppression fully processed onboard the SPA to eliminate route processor CPU overhead
4. TDM-to-IP Gateway Translation
   Hardware accelerated conversion between circuit-switched TDM DS0 voice streams and packetized VoIP media for unified large-scale enterprise multi-site voice networking

Data WAN Encapsulation & Multilink Aggregation

• MLPPP (RFC1990) multilink PPP trunk bundling
• MLFR FRF.16 multilink Frame Relay aggregation
• LFI Link Fragmentation and Interleaving (FRF.12 and MLPPP) to mitigate congestion delay on mixed voice-data trunks

Zero-Disruption OIR Hot-Swap Maintenance

Unified CLI & SNMP Network Management

Front Panel LED Status Indicators

1. Global SPA STATUS LED
   • Off: No power supplied to SPA or critical hardware fault detected
   • Solid Amber: SPA executing boot firmware initialization or minor operational warning state
   • Solid Green: SPA fully initialized, voice trunk processing active and ready for traffic forwarding
   • Blinking Green: SPA undergoing OIR insertion initialization sequence post hot-swap installation
2. Per-Port C/A (Carrier/Alarm) LED (24 independent port indicators)
   • Off: No RJ-48c cable plugged in, port administratively shut down, or physical line LOS signal loss detected
   • Solid Amber: Stable physical line link present but one or more active T1/E1 layer alarms (LOF, AIS, excessive BER)
   • Solid Green: Stable error-free T1/E1 trunk carrier established, no active port layer alarms
3. Per-Port ACT Traffic Indicator
   Blinking Green on C/A LED indicates bidirectional DS0 voice/data channel traffic actively transmitting/receiving on the port; blink frequency proportional to real-time trunk bandwidth utilization

3. Electrical, Thermal & Physical Specifications

Power Consumption

• Idle power draw (all ports disabled, no active voice trunks): ~30 Watts
• Medium load power draw (multiple PRI voice trunks active, mixed moderate voice-data traffic): ~34 Watts
• Full peak load power dissipation (all 24 ports running full line-rate DS0 voice trunk traffic): ≤38 Watts
• Power input: 3.3V DC power delivered exclusively via SIP backplane connector; no external auxiliary power ports required

Environmental Operating Parameters

• Continuous standard operating temperature range (datacenter / central office voice equipment room): 5°C ~ 40°C (41°F ~ 104°F)
• Short-term extended operating temperature range (temporary non-standard equipment closet deployment): -5°C ~ 45°C (23°F ~ 113°F)
• Non-operating storage temperature range (spare inventory transit and warehouse storage): -40°C ~ 70°C (-40°F ~ 158°F)
• Relative humidity: Operating environment 5%–85% RH non-condensing; Storage environment 5%–95% RH non-condensing
• Certified operating altitude: -60m ~ 2000m above sea level
• Cooling architecture: Passive convection cooling with integrated stamped aluminum heatsink, no onboard mechanical cooling fans. Chassis forced airflow provides supplementary thermal dissipation under maximum full voice trunk traffic load
• Reliability rating: MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) approximately 290,000 hours under standard datacenter operating conditions
• NEBS Compliance: Fully meets GR-63-Core and GR-1089-Core NEBS Level 3 environmental and electrical surge immunity standards for permanent carrier central office voice switching room deployment

Physical Form Factor & Dimensions

• Form Factor: Single-height Shared Port Adapter (SPA), occupies one single-height subslot on SIP-400/SIP-600 carrier cards
• Overall External Dimensions (Width × Depth × Height): 171.5mm × 184.9mm × 20.3mm (6.8 in × 7.3 in × 0.8 in)
• Net module weight (excluding RJ48c cables, BNC adapters, and retail packaging): Approximately 0.42 kg

4. Global Regulatory & Compliance Certifications

1. Electrical Safety Standards: UL 60950-1, CSA C22.2 No.60950-1, IEC 60950 CB Scheme, EN 60950-1, AS/NZS 3260, GB 4943 China national IT equipment safety standard
2. EMC / EMI Electromagnetic Compatibility: FCC CFR Title 47 Part 15 Class A, ICES-003 Class A, VCCI Class A ITE, EN55022 Class A, CISPR 22 Class A, CISPR 24, full EN 61000 series ESD, electrical surge, radiated and conducted immunity compliance
3. Telecommunications Industry Standards: ANSI T1.403 T1 specs, ITU-T G.703/G.704 E1 specs, ISDN Q.921/Q.931 PRI signaling standards, Bellcore NEBS Level 3
4. Environmental Directives: Full EU RoHS Restriction of Hazardous Substances compliance, EU WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling directive compliant

5. Core Deployment Advantages

1. Ultra-High-Density Voice-Optimized I-Flex Modular Architecture Minimizes Chassis Slot Consumption

   As a single-height voice-specialized SPA with 24 T1/E1 ports, SPA-VA24XT1/E1 delivers the highest voice trunk port density among Cisco VA-series channelized SPAs, drastically reducing total chassis slot consumption for large-scale centralized voice aggregation deployments. Network operators can mix voice VA T1/E1 SPA, data channelized SPA, ATM SPA, POS SPA modules on a single SIP carrier card to customize mixed voice-data service density, unifying spare parts inventory across Catalyst 6500, 7600, ASR 1000/9000 and XR 12000 platforms and reducing long-term spare capital expenditure for multi-site enterprise voice networks and service provider voice aggregation POPs.
2. Dedicated Onboard Voice Hardware Offloading Eliminates Route Processor CPU Bottlenecks

   All resource-intensive T1/E1 DS0 channelization, ISDN PRI D-channel signaling processing, voice media QoS queuing, adaptive jitter buffering and TDM-to-IP translation operations are fully offloaded to dedicated onboard voice acceleration silicon hardware. This reserves critical host route processor CPU resources exclusively for core control-plane network functions including BGP, OSPF, IS-IS routing adjacency maintenance, device system management and logging services. Hardware voice offloading prevents routing protocol flapping, excessive voice trunk packet latency, dropped VoIP media packets and customer-facing PBX/contact center voice service outages during peak full line-rate PRI trunk traffic loads.
3. Non-Disruptive OIR Hot-Swap Maintenance Eliminates Mission-Critical Voice Trunk Downtime

   Built-in full OIR hot-swap capability allows field voice network technicians to replace faulty voice SPA modules without chassis power cycles or traffic interruption on other active T1/E1 voice trunks hosted on the same SIP carrier card. This capability eliminates lengthy scheduled maintenance windows for mission-critical enterprise contact center inbound/outbound voice trunks, corporate multi-branch PBX interconnection PRI circuits and service provider wholesale voice trunk aggregation networks, substantially improving overall end-to-end voice service availability metrics and reducing NOC field maintenance labor overhead expenses.
4. Integrated Per-Port CSU/DSU & Universal Dual T1/E1 Port Design Reduces Total Deployment Hardware Cost

   SPA-VA24XT1/E1 embeds fully functional independent CSU/DSU circuitry for every port, removing the requirement to deploy separate external standalone CSU/DSU adapters for each T1/E1 trunk circuit, cutting total voice trunk hardware capital cost and simplifying rack space cabling management in datacenter voice equipment rooms. The universal dual-mode port design supports either North American T1 or EMEA/Asia E1 trunk standards on the same SPA hardware, enabling standardized inventory stocking for multi-region distributed enterprise networks and global service provider carrier deployments without separate T1-only or E1-only SPA hardware stock.
5. Fanless Passive Thermal Design Delivers Long-Term Stable Voice Trunk Reliability

   The SPA adopts a fully passive fanless aluminum heatsink thermal dissipation architecture with zero moving mechanical fan components. This design eliminates the most common hardware failure vectors associated with active cooling systems, including fan motor mechanical wear-out, dust and debris accumulation blocking airflow, fan power supply faults and fan noise interference in quiet central office voice switching rooms. The passive cooling design enables stable, reliable 24/7 unattended continuous voice trunk operation in remote unmanned regional office equipment closets, service provider POP voice aggregation router sites and enterprise core datacenter voice gateway deployments with minimal long-term on-site hardware maintenance requirements. Low idle and peak operational power consumption reduces overall router chassis total power draw and associated datacenter cooling energy expenditure over the multi-year hardware service lifecycle, lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) for large-scale distributed multi-site carrier and enterprise voice trunk network deployments.

Supplementary Product Notes

UNSPSC Classification Code

K9 Secure Software Compliance

Standard Hardware Warranty Terms