Full English Description for Cisco C9300L-48PF-4X-E
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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C9300L: Catalyst 9300 Lite cost-efficient stackable fixed-uplink Layer 3 enterprise access switch built on UADP 2.0 ASIC architecture
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48PF: 48×10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit RJ45 full UPOE ports, each port delivers up to 60W Cisco UPOE power, backward compatible with IEEE 802.3af PoE (15.4W) and IEEE 802.3at PoE+ (30W)Cisco
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4X: 4 integrated fixed dual-rate SFP+ uplink slots, auto-negotiate and support both 1G SFP and 10G SFP+ transceivers for high-speed fiber aggregation
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E: Pre-installed perpetual Network Essentials IOS XE license tier, entry baseline feature set for standard campus, SMB and branch high-power PoE deployments without advanced routing, SD-Access fabric and TrustSec segmentation capabilities
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Catalyst C9300L-48PF-4X-E, 1RU stackable Layer3 UPOE access switch, 48-port Gigabit full UPOE RJ45 downlinks with 880W native PoE budget, 4 fixed dual-rate 1G/10G SFP+ uplink interfaces, Network Essentials IOS XE license, StackWise-320 stacking support, factory pre-installed 1100W AC power supply, budget high-density high-power PoE edge switch for Wi-Fi 6/6E APs, PTZ IP cameras, digital signage and industrial IoT endpoints requiring 10G uplink aggregation bandwidth.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Catalyst C9300L-48PF-4X-E is an economical high-density fixed-uplink stackable Layer 3 UPOE access switch within the Catalyst 9300 Lite portfolio, tailored for enterprise campuses, retail venues, classroom environments and remote branch sites deploying massive quantities of high-power wired endpoints including Wi-Fi 6/6E wireless access points, PTZ surveillance cameras, digital signage displays and industrial IoT sensors. Equipped with 48 full UPOE Gigabit copper downlink ports and four onboard dual-speed SFP+ uplink ports delivering native 10G aggregation bandwidth, this chassis delivers wire-speed Layer 2 switching and limited fundamental Layer 3 routing features enabled by the included Network Essentials license. It supports StackWise-320 stacking technology to combine up to 8 identical switches into one unified logical switching domain, adopts dual hot-swappable 1100W AC power supply bays delivering a native 880W UPOE power budget, and provides basic monitoring, security and automation tools. This model lacks advanced routing protocols, SD-Access fabric and TrustSec segmentation capabilities exclusive to Network Advantage (-A) licensed switches.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Downlink Copper Ports (48×RJ45 UPOE)
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48 × 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet ports, full Cisco UPOE compliant with maximum 60W power output per individual portCisco
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Backward interoperable with IEEE 802.3af (15.4W PoE) and IEEE 802.3at (30W PoE+) powered devices
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Auto speed negotiation, auto-MDI/MDI-X, built-in cable diagnostics, EnergyWise intelligent port power management to reduce power draw for idle high-power endpoints
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Hardware support for 128-bit AES MACsec link encryption (256-bit MACsec unavailable under Network Essentials license)
Fixed Uplink Interfaces
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4 onboard dual-rate SFP+ slots compatible with 1G SFP and 10G SFP+ transceivers (SX, LX, ZX, LR, SFP-T / SFP+-T copper DAC modules supported)
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Uplink ports are factory fixed; no modular uplink card expansion slots available
Management & Auxiliary Ports
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USB Type-A storage port for offline IOS image upload, configuration backup and system log export
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Dual console access: USB Type-C console port + Mini-USB B console port for local CLI management
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UID beacon LED button for fast physical device identification in dense rack deployments
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Rear dedicated StackWise-320 stacking connectors; stacking cable kits sold separately as optional accessories
Power & Physical Form Factor
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Form Factor: 1RU standard 19-inch rack-mount chassis
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Dual hot-swappable redundant AC power supply slots; factory shipped with single 1100W AC PSU (PWR-C1-1100WAC-P)
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UPOE power budget: Single 1100W PSU provides total 880W UPOE capacity; dual redundant PSUs drastically expand total PoE output for full high-power endpoint deployments
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Thermal design: Field-replaceable redundant variable-speed fan trays with overheat protection and front-panel fault status LED indicators
5. Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Standalone Switching Capacity: 272 Gbps
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Standalone Forwarding Rate: 202.38 Mpps
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StackWise-320 maximum stacked backplane bandwidth: 592 Gbps (stack of up to 8 C9300L switches)Cisco
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MAC Address Table Size: 32,000 MAC forwarding entries
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Shared Packet Buffer Memory: 32MB
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Onboard Memory: 8GB DRAM, 16GB Flash storage
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VLAN Support: Up to 4,094 802.1Q tagged VLANs; maximum 1,000 active STP VLANs & SVIs
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QoS Hardware Queues: 8 priority hardware queues per port, full DSCP & 802.1p CoS mapping
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Routing Table Scales: 32,000 total IPv4 unicast routes (OSPF limited to 1,000 learned routes), 16,000 IPv6 unicast routes, 8,000 multicast routes
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Jumbo Frame Support: Up to 9198-byte jumbo frames
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ACL Capacity: 5,120 ingress/egress ACL entries
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Flexible NetFlow: Supports up to 64,000 active flow records
6. Full Layer 2 Standard Feature Suite
IEEE 802.1Q VLAN trunking, IEEE 802.3ad LACP EtherChannel (max 8 ports per bundle), complete spanning tree suite including PVST+, RPVST+, MSTP with BPDU guard, root guard, loop guard and UDLD; LLDP and CDP unified device discovery inventory, port security with sticky MAC allowlist learning, broadcast/multicast storm suppression, IGMP Snooping v1/v2/v3, SPAN/RSPAN remote port mirroring, private VLANs, voice VLAN auto-detection and traffic prioritization, hardware 128-bit MACsec link encryption.
7. Network Essentials (-E License) Supported Layer 3, Security & Automation Features
Supported Routing Protocols (With Scale Restrictions)
Static IPv4/IPv6 routing, RIP, OSPFv2/v3 (capped at 1,000 learned routes), EIGRP Stub only, PIM Sparse-Dense Mode stub multicast, VRRP gateway redundancy, inter-VLAN wire-speed routing, dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 forwarding.
Baseline Enterprise Security
IEEE 802.1X multi-domain/multi-host authentication, MAB MAC bypass authentication, DHCP snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard, CoPP control-plane policing, Cisco Secure Boot, hardware Trust Anchor Module, multi-level RBAC admin access control, TLS/SSH/HTTPS encrypted management transport.
Basic Automation, Visibility & Monitoring
SNMP v1/v2c/v3, IP SLA Responder, sampled Flexible NetFlow telemetry, NETCONF/RESTCONF/YANG/gRPC programmability, zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), limited Cisco DNA Center visibility without full fabric orchestration, local logging and on-box diagnostics.
Critical Features Excluded from Network Essentials (-E)
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Advanced dynamic routing: Full EIGRP, BGP, IS-IS, MPLS, VRF-lite, policy-based routing (PBR)
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Software-defined fabric: SD-Access, TrustSec SGT tagging, Adaptive Policy security group segmentation
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Advanced analytics: Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), full Model-Driven Telemetry, ThousandEyes integration
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Unified wireless fabric: Embedded Catalyst 9800 WLC multi-site policy orchestration
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256-bit AES MACsec link encryption (only 128-bit MACsec available)
8. License Differentiator: Network Essentials (-E) vs Network Advantage (-A)
The suffix -E (Network Essentials) is Cisco’s entry perpetual license tier for Catalyst 9300L switches, built for cost-sensitive high-power UPOE wired access deployments. Key limitations compared with top-tier -A Network Advantage:
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Restricted dynamic routing scale and no advanced routing protocols such as BGP, full EIGRP or MPLS
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Incompatible with SD-Access fabric, TrustSec segmentation and zero-trust group-based policy control
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Disabled advanced threat analytics and full DNA Center end-to-end automation workflows
All switches within a single StackWise stack must run identical license tiers to guarantee full stacking interoperability and consistent feature operation.
9. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Catalyst C9300L-48PF-4X-E is a cost-effective high-density UPOE stackable Layer 3 access switch equipped with 48 Gigabit full UPOE downlinks and four dual-rate SFP+ 1G/10G fixed uplink ports. Powered by the baseline Network Essentials IOS XE license, it delivers comprehensive Layer 2 switching, limited fundamental Layer 3 routing, fundamental security tools and basic network automation, backed by StackWise-320 high-speed stacking and redundant 1100W AC power supplies with a large 880W native UPOE power budget. It is perfectly suited for standard campus, retail and branch edge networks with high-power PoE endpoints, 10G high-bandwidth aggregation requirements, and no demand for SD-Access fabric or advanced enterprise routing capabilities.
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