Full English Description for Cisco C9300LM-48P-4G-A
SKU Clarification
C9300LM is widely used channel shorthand for Meraki cloud-managed Catalyst 9300 Lite hardware. The official Cisco formal SKU is C9300L-48P-4G-M, where the trailing -M represents Meraki cloud orchestration hardware. The suffix -A means the hardware supports the Meraki Advanced tier subscription license. All C9300LM switches rely on renewable Meraki Catalyst cloud subscriptions instead of traditional permanent IOS XE perpetual licenses.
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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C9300LM: Catalyst 9300 Lite Meraki cloud-native stackable fixed-uplink Layer 3 enterprise access switch, built on UADP 2.0 ASIC and fully managed via the Meraki Dashboard cloud control planeCisco
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48P: 48 × 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit RJ45 PoE+ downlink ports, IEEE 802.3at PoE+ certified, up to 30W power output per port, backward compatible with IEEE 802.3af 15.4W PoE devices
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4G: 4 integrated fixed 1G SFP uplink slots, only compatible with 1G SFP optical/copper transceivers; 10G SFP+ modules are not supported
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A: Hardware qualified for the Meraki Advanced tier renewable term subscription license, unlocking the full premium feature suite: unlimited OSPF dynamic routing entries, Adaptive Policy zero-trust segmentation, Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), full unsampled IPFIX telemetry and 256-bit AES MACsec link encryption
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Catalyst C9300LM-48P-4G-A, 1RU stackable Meraki cloud-managed Layer3 high-density PoE+ Gigabit access switch, 48-port IEEE 802.3at PoE+ 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 downlinks with 505W native PoE power budget, 4 fixed 1G SFP fiber uplink interfaces, Meraki Advanced subscription eligible, StackWise-320 stacking support, factory pre-installed 715W AC power supply, single-pane Meraki Dashboard cloud management for multi-site large office, classroom and branch deployments with Wi-Fi 6/6E APs, IP phones, PTZ surveillance cameras and PoE-powered IoT endpoints requiring low-cost 1G fiber aggregation uplinks.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Catalyst C9300LM-48P-4G-A is a high-density PoE+ fixed-uplink stackable Layer 3 edge switch within the Catalyst 9300LM Meraki cloud-managed portfolio, engineered for large corporate open offices, K-12 education classroom fleets, medium branch access closets and dense workstation deployments that require power delivery to wireless access points, IP phones, surveillance cameras and low-power IoT sensorsCisco. Equipped with 48 IEEE 802.3at PoE+ Gigabit copper RJ45 downlink ports and four dedicated 1G SFP fiber uplink ports, this chassis delivers identical wire-speed forwarding hardware performance to its on-prem IOS XE counterpart C9300L-48P-4G-A. Unlike traditional IOS XE switches, all network configuration, batch firmware upgrades, real-time traffic monitoring, fault alerting and end-to-end security policy management are fully centralized exclusively via the Meraki cloud dashboard rather than local CLI or Cisco DNA Center. It supports StackWise-320 stacking technology to aggregate up to 8 identical C9300LM switches into a single unified logical stack with 320Gbps dedicated hardware stacking bandwidth, features dual hot-swappable 715W AC power supply slots for power redundancy and expanded PoE capacity, and enables native cross-platform policy synchronization alongside Meraki MR wireless access points and MX security gateways in one centralized cloud console. Meraki zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), remote cable diagnostics, cross-site network topology visualization, Adaptive Policy zero-trust segmentation and Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) are all fully activated under the Meraki Advanced subscription tier compatible with this -A hardware model.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Downlink Copper Ports (48×PoE+ Gigabit RJ45)
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48 × 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet ports, IEEE 802.3at PoE+ certified, maximum 30W power output per port
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Total native PoE power budget of 505W with the single factory-shipped 715W AC power supply; deploying dual redundant PSUs expands total available PoE capacity up to 720W
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Auto speed negotiation, auto-MDI/MDI-X, integrated built-in cable diagnostic tools for remote line testing
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Hardware supports 128-bit AES MACsec link encryption; full 256-bit AES MACsec encryption is unlocked exclusively under the Meraki Advanced subscription licenseCisco
Fixed Uplink Interfaces
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4 dedicated onboard SFP slots exclusively for 1G SFP transceivers (SX, LX, ZX, SFP-T copper RJ45 SFP modules supported)
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Fully incompatible with any 10G SFP+ optical or copper transceivers; each uplink port is limited to a maximum 1Gbps bandwidth
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No modular uplink card expansion slots available
Stacking Interfaces
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Dual rear dedicated StackWise-320 stacking ports with total 320Gbps stacking bandwidth; compatible with C9300L-STAK-KIT2-M stacking cable kits. Mixed stacking with other C9300LM models is only supported if all stack members run matching Meraki Advanced license tiersCisco Meraki
Management & Auxiliary Ports
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USB Type-A storage port for offline firmware upload, local configuration backup and system log export
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Dual console access: USB Type-C console port + Mini-USB B console port for emergency local CLI access when cloud connectivity is lost
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UID beacon LED push-button for fast physical device identification inside dense rack cabinets
Power & Physical Form Factor
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Form Factor: 1RU standard 19-inch rack-mount chassis, dimensions 4.4 × 44.5 × 44.9 cm
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Dual hot-swappable redundant AC power supply slots; factory pre-shipped with single 715W AC PSU (PWR-C1-715WAC-P-M)
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Native PoE budget: 505W PoE+ power delivery capacity under single PSU operation
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Thermal design: 3 field-replaceable redundant variable-speed fan trays; overheat fault notifications are automatically pushed to the Meraki cloud dashboard
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Environmental compliance: Operating temperature -5°C ~ 45°C, ENERGY STAR certifiedCisco
5. Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Standalone Switching Capacity: 104 Gbps
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Standalone Forwarding Rate: 77.38 Mpps
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StackWise-320 maximum stacked backplane bandwidth: 592 Gbps (stack of up to 8 C9300LM units)
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MAC Address Table Size: 32,000 MAC forwarding entries
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Shared Packet Buffer Memory: 16MB
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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 traffic marking and scheduling
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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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IPFIX Flow Telemetry: Full unsampled flow data enabled natively with the Meraki Advanced license
6. Layer 2 Standard Feature Suite (Meraki Cloud Configured)
IEEE 802.1Q VLAN trunking, IEEE 802.3ad LACP EtherChannel (max 8 ports per bundle), full spanning tree toolkit including PVST+, RPVST+, MSTP with BPDU guard, root guard, loop guard and UDLD; LLDP/CDP unified device inventory auto-synchronized to Meraki dashboard, port security with sticky MAC address allowlists, broadcast/multicast storm suppression, IGMP Snooping v1/v2/v3, SPAN/RSPAN remote packet capture triggered via cloud portal, private VLANs, voice VLAN auto-detection and traffic prioritization, hardware 128-bit MACsec link encryption.
7. Meraki Cloud Native Layer 3, Security & Orchestration Features (Advanced Tier Full Capabilities)
Supported Routing Capabilities (Unlimited with Advanced License)
Static IPv4/IPv6 routing, RIP, OSPFv2/v3 with unlimited learned routes, VRRP gateway redundancy, wire-speed inter-VLAN routing, PIM sparse-mode stub multicast routing. There is no 1,000 OSPF route limit restriction on Advanced tier hardware.
Full Cloud-Managed Enterprise Security Suite
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, hardware Secure Boot & Trust Anchor Module, granular RBAC multi-admin dashboard permissions, TLS/SSH encrypted communication tunnel between switch and Meraki cloud. End-to-end Adaptive Policy group-based traffic segmentation, Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) and 256-bit AES MACsec encryption are fully activated on Advanced tier hardware.
Meraki Cloud Automation & Full Visibility
Zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) out-of-box automatic registration to Meraki organization, global bulk firmware scheduling and staged upgrade deployment, live remote cable testing without on-site IT technicians, real-time cross-site network topology mapping, unified wired/wireless policy synchronization with Meraki MR APs and MX security gateways, cloud-hosted centralized event logging, full unsampled IPFIX traffic analytics, cross-device fault alerting via email/SMS notifications, on-demand remote packet capture for offline troubleshooting.
8. Meraki Subscription License Tier Differentiation
All C9300LM series switches require renewable term-based Meraki Catalyst subscription licenses (1/3/5/7/10-year terms), split into two functional tiers:
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Enterprise License (Base Tier / -E Eligible Hardware)
Full Layer 2 switching suite, limited OSPF route scale (max 1,000 routes), standard edge security controls, cloud monitoring and ZTP automation; Adaptive Policy segmentation, full unsampled IPFIX and ETA are disabled.
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Advanced License (Full Feature Tier / -A Eligible Hardware)
Unlimited dynamic routing table capacity, Adaptive Policy zero-trust end-to-end traffic segmentation with SGT tagging, full unsampled IPFIX flow telemetry, Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), complete cross-domain wired-wireless fabric policy orchestration and 256-bit AES MACsec encryption support.
Key difference versus on-prem C9300L (-E/-A IOS XE switches: C9300LM relies on time-limited cloud subscription licensing, while standard C9300L uses permanent perpetual IOS XE licenses without mandatory cloud connectivity. All stack members must deploy matching Meraki license tiers to guarantee full stacking interoperability and consistent network policy operation.
9. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Catalyst C9300LM-48P-4G-A is a Meraki cloud-native stackable Layer 3 high-density PoE+ Gigabit access switch equipped with 48 IEEE 802.3at PoE+ downlinks and four fixed 1G SFP fiber uplink ports, fully compatible with Meraki Advanced tier cloud subscriptions. Powered by Meraki Dashboard single-pane centralized orchestration and supported by StackWise-320 high-speed stacking plus redundant 715W AC power supplies with a dedicated 505W native PoE+ power budget, it delivers complete Layer 2 switching, unlimited-scale Layer 3 dynamic routing, full advanced security automation including Adaptive Policy and ETA, and unified wired-wireless cross-site management. This model targets distributed multi-branch enterprises, large office environments and education networks prioritizing zero-touch remote cloud administration over traditional on-prem CLI or Cisco DNA Center deployment workflows, for high-density edge networks with PoE-powered wireless APs, IP phones and surveillance cameras requiring economical low-speed 1G fiber aggregation uplinks.
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