Full English Description for Cisco C9300L-48U-4X-E
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
-
C9300L: Catalyst 9300 Lite cost-efficient stackable fixed-uplink Layer 3 enterprise access switch built on UADP 2.0 ASIC architecture
-
48U: 48× 10/100/1000BASE-T full Gigabit UPOE RJ45 ports, each port delivers up to 60W Cisco Universal PoE, compliant with IEEE 802.3bt Type 3, backward compatible with IEEE 802.3af (15.4W PoE) and IEEE 802.3at (30W PoE+)
-
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
-
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-48U-4X-E, 1RU stackable Layer3 full Gigabit UPOE access switch, 48-port 10/100/1000BASE-T UPOE RJ45 downlinks with 880W native UPOE power 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-48U-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 Gigabit UPOE 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 Full Gigabit UPOE)
-
48 × 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet ports, full Cisco UPOE compliant with maximum 60W power output per individual port
-
Backward interoperable with IEEE 802.3af (15.4W PoE) and IEEE 802.3at (30W PoE+) powered devices
-
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
-
Hardware support for 128-bit AES MACsec link encryption (256-bit MACsec unavailable under Network Essentials license)
Fixed Uplink Interfaces
-
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)
-
Uplink ports are factory fixed; no modular uplink card expansion slots available
Management & Auxiliary Ports
-
USB Type-A storage port for offline IOS image upload, configuration backup and system log export
-
Dual console access: USB Type-C console port + Mini-USB B console port for local CLI management
-
UID beacon LED button for fast physical device identification in dense rack deployments
-
Rear dedicated StackWise-320 stacking connectors; stacking cable kits sold separately as optional accessories
Power & Physical Form Factor
-
Form Factor: 1RU standard 19-inch rack-mount chassis
-
Dual hot-swappable redundant AC power supply slots; factory shipped with single 1100W AC PSU (PWR-C1-1100WAC-P)
-
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
-
Thermal design: Field-replaceable redundant variable-speed fan trays with overheat protection and front-panel fault status LED indicators
5. Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
-
Standalone Switching Capacity: 176 Gbps
-
Standalone Forwarding Rate: 130.95 Mpps
-
StackWise-320 maximum stacked backplane bandwidth: 592 Gbps (stack of up to 8 C9300L switches)
-
MAC Address Table Size: 32,000 MAC forwarding entries
-
Shared Packet Buffer Memory: 16MB
-
Onboard Memory: 8GB DRAM, 16GB Flash storage
-
VLAN Support: Up to 4,094 802.1Q tagged VLANs; maximum 1,000 active STP VLANs & SVIs
-
QoS Hardware Queues: 8 priority hardware queues per port, full DSCP & 802.1p CoS mapping
-
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
-
Jumbo Frame Support: Up to 9198-byte jumbo frames
-
ACL Capacity: 5,120 ingress/egress ACL entries
-
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)
-
Advanced dynamic routing: Full EIGRP, BGP, IS-IS, MPLS, VRF-lite, policy-based routing (PBR)
-
Software-defined fabric: SD-Access, TrustSec SGT tagging, Adaptive Policy security group segmentation
-
Advanced analytics: Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), full Model-Driven Telemetry, ThousandEyes integration
-
Unified wireless fabric: Embedded Catalyst 9800 WLC multi-site policy orchestration
-
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:
-
Restricted dynamic routing scale and no advanced routing protocols such as BGP, full EIGRP or MPLS
-
Incompatible with SD-Access fabric, TrustSec segmentation and zero-trust group-based policy control
-
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-48U-4X-E is a cost-effective high-density full Gigabit UPOE stackable Layer 3 access switch equipped with 48 Gigabit 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.
|
