Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9348GC-FX3
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
-
N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud data center fixed switch family
-
C9348: Entry-level leaf chassis with 48 copper downlinks + mixed SFP28/QSFP28 uplinks
-
G: 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit copper RJ45 downlink ports
-
C: Combined optical uplink mix: SFP28 1/10/25G + QSFP28 40/100G
-
FX3: Third-generation FX3 Cloud Scale ASIC platform, larger route scale, optimized telemetry, dual NX-OS standalone / ACI fabric operation modes
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9348GC-FX3, 1RU rack-mount entry-level hybrid copper/optical leaf data center switch, 48 × 10/100/1GBASE-T Gigabit copper downlinks, 4 × 1/10/25G SFP28 uplinks plus 2 × 40/100G QSFP28 fabric uplinks, 696 Gbps non-blocking switching capacity, dual hot-swappable 350W redundant power supplies and three N+1 variable-speed fan trays, dual-mode standalone NX-OS or ACI intent-based fabric, optimized for Gigabit server rack aggregation, branch data center leaf, virtual office workloads and cost-sensitive small-scale ACI deployments.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9348GC-FX3 is a compact 1RU fixed Layer 2/3 entry leaf switch built on the latest Nexus 9300 FX3 Cloud Scale ASIC, purpose-built for small enterprise data centers, branch compute racks, legacy Gigabit server aggregation and lightweight ACI Application Centric Infrastructure pods. It features a cost-balanced mixed port layout: 48 auto-negotiating Gigabit RJ45 copper downlinks for desktop, virtualization and storage servers, paired with a split optical uplink stack consisting of four flexible SFP28 ports and two high-bandwidth QSFP28 multi-rate fabric ports, delivering full wire-rate non-blocking forwarding with total switching bandwidth of 696 Gbps and forwarding throughput of 517 mpps for minimum 64-byte Ethernet framesCisco.
All 48 copper ports auto-negotiate 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps; Cat5e cabling supports full Gigabit transmission up to 100 meters, no 10G copper capability on downlink ports. The four SFP28 uplinks auto-negotiate 1G, 10G and 25G for mid-tier fabric connectivity, while the two QSFP28 uplinks support flexible breakout: 1×100G, 1×40G, 2×50G, 4×25G or 4×10G via DAC breakout cables to enable seamless migration to higher-speed leaf-spine fabrics. Powered by FX3-series silicon, this platform delivers expanded LPM IPv4/IPv6 route table capacity, a 40MB shared dynamic packet buffer for burst traffic absorption, hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing and wire-rate MACsec encryption on all optical uplinks, plus enhanced unsampled streaming telemetry integrated with Cisco Tetration Analytics.
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 350W power supplies and three 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 small rack thermal designs. This switch supports two independent operating modes: modular standalone Cisco NX-OS for traditional routed Gigabit data centers, or native ACI fabric mode for policy-driven multi-tenant automation. Its low-power, compact footprint and mixed-speed uplink design make it ideal for budget Gigabit server aggregation use cases.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Gigabit Copper Downlink Ports (48 × Auto-Sensing 10/100/1GBASE-T RJ45)
-
Auto-negotiation speeds: 10M, 100M, 1G; no 10G copper support
-
Cabling: Cat5e / Cat6 for full 1G 100m transmission
-
All 48 copper ports run wire-rate simultaneously under full load
SFP28 Intermediate Uplink Ports (4 × Universal Multi-Rate Slots)
-
Supported speeds: 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps
-
Compatible transceivers: SFP 1G, SFP+ 10G, SFP28 25G, short passive DAC cables
QSFP28 Fabric Uplink Ports (2 × Universal Multi-Rate Slots)
-
Per-port speed & breakout options:
1 × 100G, 1 × 40G, 2 × 50G, 4 × 25G, 4 × 10G via breakout cables / QSA adapters
-
Compatible transceivers: QSFP28 100G, QSFP+ 40G, SFP28 25G, SFP+ 10G
Management & Auxiliary Ports
-
1 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management port
-
1 × Mini-USB RS232 console port for local CLI access
-
1 × USB 2.0 Type-A port for firmware upload, configuration backup and POAP deployment
Power & Cooling
-
Dual hot-swappable power supply options: 350W AC, 350W PHV, 440W DC (1+1 load-sharing redundancy, live hot-swap without service interruption)Cisco
-
Three variable-speed fan trays (2+1 N+1 redundancy), bidirectional airflow PI / PE configurable at ordering
-
Power efficiency: 80Plus certified
-
Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C full load; non-operating storage range: -40°C ~ 70°C
-
Humidity tolerance: 5%–90% non-condensing operating; max operating altitude: 4000 meters
Physical Form Factor
-
Dimensions: 1RU standard 19-inch rack chassis, 4.4cm (H) × 44.5cm (W) × 57.1cm (D)
-
Empty weight (without PSUs and fans): ~6.49 kg / 14.33 lbCisco
-
Compliance: RoHS-6, NEBS Level 3, global safety and EMC certifications
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
-
Total switching capacity: 696 Gbps full duplex non-blocking
-
Forwarding rate: 517 mpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
-
Shared dynamic packet buffer: 40MB for congestion absorption
-
MAC address table size: 256,000 MAC forwarding entries
-
IPv4 / IPv6 unicast LPM route table capacity: Expanded FX3-scale routing entries
-
VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
-
System memory: 16GB base DRAM, upgradeable to 32GB; 128GB onboard SSD storageCisco
-
Typical cut-through switching latency: Less than 2 microseconds for minimum-size Ethernet 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; limited FCoE support via optical uplink transceivers
Cloud Fabric Overlay
Hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN symmetric & asymmetric routing, multi-tenant VXLAN segmentation, fabric multicast optimization for small workload pods
Enterprise & Fabric Security
802.1X port authentication, MAB MAC bypass authentication, DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, CoPP control-plane policing, hardware 128/256-bit MACsec encryption on all optical uplink ports, TrustSec SGT zero-trust segmentation
Monitoring & Telemetry
High-performance sampled/unsampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN/VSPAN, real-time buffer, queue and fabric link utilization visibility, full Cisco Tetration flow export compatibility
Automation & DevOps
POAP zero-touch provisioning, NX-API REST JSON/XML APIs, embedded Linux Bash shell, native 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
-
Entry top-of-rack leaf switch for Gigabit server and desktop rack aggregation in small enterprise data centers
-
Branch office data center leaf for virtualized workloads and storage consolidation
-
Lightweight leaf access node for small-scale ACI Application Centric Infrastructure pods
-
Migration leaf for legacy Gigabit server environments with upgradeable 25G/100G optical uplink capacity to spine layer
-
Cost-optimized access switch for test/dev labs, educational and mid-market virtualization clusters
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9348GC-FX3 is a 1RU FX3-generation entry-level hybrid copper/optical cloud data center leaf switch equipped with 48 auto-sensing 10/100/1GBASE-T Gigabit copper downlinks, four 1/10/25G SFP28 uplinks and two multi-rate 40/100G QSFP28 fabric uplink ports, delivering 696 Gbps non-blocking switching performance with dual 350W redundant power and three redundant fan trays. Supporting both standalone modular NX-OS and ACI intent-based fabric operational modes, it features FX3 upgraded ASIC with expanded routing scale, hardware EVPN/VXLAN overlay and wire-rate uplink MACsec encryption, serving as a budget-friendly compact leaf aggregation switch for small enterprise, branch and lightweight ACI data centers built around Gigabit copper server infrastructure.
|
