Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C93108TC-EX
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud data center fixed switch family
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C93108: 48 downlink + 6 uplink fixed leaf chassis of Nexus 9300 EX generation
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T: 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper downlink ports
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C: QSFP28 multi-rate 40/100G uplink ports
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EX: Enhanced EX-series Cloud Scale ASIC platform, improved buffer, higher route scale, dual NX-OS / ACI operation modesCisco
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C93108TC-EX, 1RU rack-mount cloud leaf data center switch, 48 auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T copper downlinks plus 6 universal QSFP28 40/100G fabric uplink ports, 1.08 Tbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable redundant Platinum power supplies and 3+1 redundant variable-speed fans, dual-mode standalone NX-OS or ACI intent-based fabric, optimized for 10G copper server ToR aggregation, virtual enterprise and multi-tenant cloud data center fabrics.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C93108TC-EX is a compact 1RU fixed-port Layer 2/3 leaf switch belonging to the Nexus 9300 EX enhanced platform portfolio, designed as top-of-rack leaf nodes for enterprise virtualization, converged compute-storage and ACI Application Centric Infrastructure fabrics. It features a fixed hybrid port layout of 48 RJ45 copper downlinks for server access and six QSFP28 multi-rate uplink ports for spine interconnection, delivering full wire-rate non-blocking forwarding with total switching bandwidth of 1.08 Tbps and forwarding throughput of 810 million 64-byte frames per second Cisco.
All copper ports auto-negotiate 100M, 1G and 10G speeds; Cat6A cabling supports full 10G transmission up to 100 meters, while Cat5E limits operation to max 5G. Each QSFP28 uplink supports flexible breakout: 1×100G, 1×40G, 2×50G, 4×25G or 4×10G via DAC breakout cables to adapt to evolving fabric speed migration. The EX generation Cloud Scale ASIC delivers expanded route tables, larger shared packet buffers and native hardware acceleration for EVPN/VXLAN overlay and MACsec encryption compared to original 9300 classic models.
The chassis integrates dedicated out-of-band RJ45 management, mini-USB RS232 console and single USB Type-A port to support POAP zero-touch provisioning, offline configuration backup and firmware upgrades. Dual hot-swappable power supplies and N+1 redundant fan trays eliminate single points of hardware failure, with bidirectional airflow options (PI port-side intake / PE port-side exhaust) selectable at order time to fit diverse rack thermal layouts. This switch supports two independent operating modes: modular standalone Cisco NX-OS for traditional routed data centers, or native ACI fabric mode for policy-driven multi-tenant cloud automation. Equipped with comprehensive streaming telemetry and open DevOps automation APIs, the N9K-C93108TC-EX balances dense 10G copper server access and scalable high-speed 100G fabric uplinks within a space-saving single rack unit.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Fixed Copper Downlink Ports (48 × Auto-Sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45)
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Auto-negotiation speeds: 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T, 10GBASE-T
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Cabling rule: Cat6A required for full 10G 100m reach; Cat5E capped at 5Gbps
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All 48 copper ports run wire-rate simultaneously under full load
Fixed Fabric Uplink Ports (6 × Universal QSFP28 Multi-Rate Slots)
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Per-port speed & breakout options:
1×100G, 1×40G, 2×50G, 4×25G, 4×10G via breakout cables
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Compatible transceivers: QSFP28 100G, QSFP+ 40G, SFP28 25G, SFP+ 10G with breakout assemblies
Management & Auxiliary Ports
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1 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management port
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1 × Mini-USB RS232 console port for local CLI access
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1 × USB 2.0 Type-A port for firmware upload, config backup and POAP deployment
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Optional SFP management uplink port for remote out-of-band fiber managementCisco
Power & Cooling
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Dual hot-swappable power supply options: 650W AC, 930W DC, 1200W HVAC/HVDC (1+1 active redundancy, live hot-swap without traffic outage)
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3+1 redundant variable-speed fan trays, bidirectional airflow PI / PE configurable at ordering
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Power efficiency: 80Plus Platinum certified
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Operating temperature: 0°C ~ 40°C full load; storage temperature: -40°C ~ 70°C
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Humidity: 5%–95% non-condensing; maximum operating altitude: 4000m
Physical Form Factor
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Dimensions: 1RU standard 19-inch rack chassis, 4.4cm (H) × 44.5cm (W) × 57.1cm (D)
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Empty weight (no PSUs/fans): ~8.0 kg / 17.7 lb
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Compliance: RoHS-6, NEBS Level 3, global safety & EMC certifications
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Total switching capacity: 1.08 Tbps full duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 810 mpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer: 40MB for congestion absorption
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MAC address table size: 128,000 MAC entries
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IPv4 / IPv6 unicast route table capacity: 128,000 entries
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VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
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System memory: 24GB DRAM + 64GB onboard SSD storage
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Typical cut-through latency: Less than 2 microseconds for minimum-size frames
5. Core Software Feature Suite (Dual NX-OS / ACI Operating Modes)
Layer 2 & Layer 3 Routing
Static routing, RIP, OSPFv2/v3, EIGRP, BGP, VRRP, PIM sparse/dense multicast, FCoE Fibre Channel over Ethernet for unified compute-storage fabrics
Cloud Fabric Overlay
Hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN symmetric & asymmetric routing, multi-tenant VXLAN segmentation, fabric multicast optimization
Enterprise & Fabric Security
802.1X port authentication, MAB MAC bypass, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, CoPP control-plane policing, hardware 128/256-bit MACsec encryption on all uplink ports, TrustSec SGT zero-trust segmentation
Monitoring & Telemetry
Sampled/unsampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN/VSPAN, real-time buffer, queue and fabric link visibility, Tetration flow export support
Automation & DevOps
POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML APIs, embedded Linux Bash shell, Python scripting, Ansible/Puppet/Chef integration, containerized application hosting, hot patching and ISSU in-service software upgrade without traffic downtime
High Availability
Modular fault-isolated process architecture, stateful process restart, redundant control plane, hot-swappable power supply and fan FRUs
6. Typical Deployment Use Cases
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Top-of-Rack (ToR) leaf switch for dense 10G copper virtualization server rack aggregation
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Converged compute/storage fabric node supporting FCoE block storage traffic
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Leaf access node for medium & large-scale ACI Application Centric Infrastructure fabrics
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Hybrid migration leaf for mixed-generation 1G/10G copper servers with scalable 100G uplink capacity to spine layer
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C93108TC-EX is a 1RU EX-generation cloud data center leaf switch equipped with 48 auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T copper downlinks and 6 multi-rate 40/100G QSFP28 fabric uplinks, delivering 1.08 Tbps non-blocking switching performance with dual Platinum redundant power and cooling hardware. Supporting both standalone modular NX-OS and ACI intent-based fabric operational modes, it features hardware EVPN/VXLAN overlay, wire-rate MACsec encryption and enterprise-grade security acceleration, serving as a flexible cost-effective leaf aggregation switch for virtualized enterprise and multi-tenant cloud data centers built around 10G copper server infrastructure.
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