Full English Description for Cisco N9K-C9348GC-FXP
1. Part Number Naming Breakdown
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N9K: Cisco Nexus 9000 cloud-scale fixed data center switch family
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C9348: Compact hybrid copper/optical entry leaf chassis
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G: 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit RJ45 copper downlink ports
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C: Combined optical uplink set: SFP28 1/10/25G + QSFP28 40/100G
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FXP: First-generation FX Cloud Scale ASIC platform, fixed port layout, dual operational modes: standalone NX-OS and ACI intent-based fabric mode, optimized for Gigabit server aggregation and small ACI podsCisco
2. Short Sales One-Liner (For BOM, Quotation & Datasheet Header)
Cisco Nexus N9K-C9348GC-FXP, 1RU rack-mount entry-level hybrid copper-optical leaf data center switch, 48 × 100M/1GBASE-T Gigabit copper downlinks, 4 × 1/10/25G SFP28 intermediate 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 fabric operation, built for Gigabit server rack aggregation, branch data center access, test/dev labs and cost-sensitive small ACI multi-tenant deploymentsCisco.
3. Complete Product Overview Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9348GC-FXP is a compact 1RU fixed Layer 2/3 entry leaf switch built on Cisco’s original FX Cloud Scale ASIC, designed for small enterprise data centers, branch compute racks, legacy Gigabit server aggregation and lightweight ACI Application Centric Infrastructure environmentsCisco. It adopts a cost-efficient mixed port architecture: 48 auto-negotiating Gigabit RJ45 copper downlinks for desktops, virtualization hosts and low-speed storage servers, paired with a tiered 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 standard 64-byte minimum Ethernet framesCisco.
All 48 copper ports auto-negotiate 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps; Cat5e or Cat6 cabling supports full Gigabit transmission up to 100 meters, with no native 10G copper capability on downlink ports. The four SFP28 uplinks support auto-negotiated 1G, 10G and 25G for mid-tier fabric connectivity, while the two QSFP28 uplinks support flexible breakout configurations: 1×100G, 1×40G, 2×50G, 4×25G or 4×10G via passive DAC breakout cables, enabling seamless migration from Gigabit leaf racks to high-speed 25G/100G leaf-spine fabrics.
Powered by FX-series Cloud Scale silicon, this platform provides a 40MB shared dynamic packet buffer to absorb burst traffic, hardware-accelerated EVPN/VXLAN overlay routing and wire-rate MACsec encryption on all optical uplinks, plus sampled streaming telemetry compatible with Cisco Tetration Analytics for basic fabric observability. It supports expanded VRF and multicast scaling for small multi-tenant workloads, alongside full Layer 2/3 protocol stack for traditional routed data center architectures.
The chassis integrates dual independent management interfaces: dedicated out-of-band RJ45 Ethernet and SFP+ fiber management uplink ports, plus 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 compact rack thermal designsCisco. This switch supports two independent operating modes: modular standalone Cisco NX-OS for conventional Gigabit data center routing, or native ACI fabric mode for policy-driven multi-tenant automation. Its low-power, compact footprint and tiered-speed uplink design deliver an economical access solution for legacy Gigabit server environments.
4. Detailed Hardware Interface Specifications
Gigabit Copper Downlink Ports (48 × Auto-Sensing 10/100/1GBASE-T RJ45)
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Auto-negotiation speeds: 10M, 100M, 1G; no 10G copper support
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Cabling standard: Cat5e / Cat6 for full 1G 100m transmission
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All 48 copper ports operate wire-rate simultaneously under full load
SFP28 Intermediate Uplink Ports (4 × Universal Multi-Rate Slots)
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Supported speeds: 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps
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Compatible transceivers: SFP 1G, SFP+ 10G, SFP28 25G, short passive DAC twinax cables
QSFP28 Fabric Uplink Ports (2 × Universal Multi-Rate Slots)
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Per-port speed & breakout combinations:
1 × 100G, 1 × 40G, 2 × 50G NRZ, 4 × 25G, 4 × 10G via breakout cables / QSA adapters
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Compatible transceivers: QSFP28 100G, QSFP+ 40G, SFP28 25G, SFP+ 10G
Management & Auxiliary Ports
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1 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 out-of-band management port
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1 × SFP+ multi-rate fiber out-of-band management uplink 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, configuration backup and POAP deployment
Power & Cooling
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Dual hot-swappable power supply options: 350W AC, 440W DC (1+1 load-sharing redundancy, live hot-swap without service interruption)
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Three variable-speed fan trays (2+1 N+1 redundancy), bidirectional airflow PI / PE configurable at ordering
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Power efficiency: 80Plus certified
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Typical AC power draw: 287W; maximum AC power draw under full load
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Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C full load; non-operating storage range: -40°C ~ 70°C
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Humidity tolerance: 5%–90% non-condensing operating; max operating altitude: 4000 meters
Physical Form Factor
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Dimensions: 1RU standard 19-inch rack chassis, 4.4cm (H) × 43.9cm (W) × 49.9cm (D)
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Empty weight (without PSUs and fans): ~6.44 kg / 14.2 lbCisco
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Compliance: RoHS-6, NEBS Level 3, global safety and EMC certifications
Core Hardware Performance Benchmarks
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Total switching capacity: 696 Gbps full duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding rate: 517 mpps (64-byte frame wire-rate)
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Shared dynamic packet buffer: 40MB for congestion absorption across all ports
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MAC address table size: 256,000 MAC forwarding entries
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IPv4 / IPv6 unicast LPM route table capacity: Up to 1,792,000 routing entries
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VLAN support: Up to 3,967 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
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Maximum VRF instances: 16,000 isolated virtual routing tables
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System memory: 24GB DRAM + 128GB onboard SSD storage
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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 only
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
Sampled IPFIX streaming telemetry, ERSPAN remote port mirroring, local SPAN/VSPAN, real-time buffer, queue and fabric link utilization visibility, 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
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Entry top-of-rack leaf switch for Gigabit server and desktop rack aggregation in small enterprise data centers
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Branch office data center leaf for virtualized workloads and low-speed storage consolidation
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Lightweight leaf access node for small-scale ACI Application Centric Infrastructure pods
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Migration leaf for legacy Gigabit server environments with upgradeable 25G/100G optical uplink capacity to spine layer
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Cost-optimized access switch for test/dev labs, educational facilities and mid-market virtualization clusters
7. Datasheet Short Summary Paragraph
The Cisco Nexus N9K-C9348GC-FXP is a 1RU first-generation FX-series entry-level hybrid copper-optical cloud data center leaf switch equipped with 48 auto-sensing 100M/1GBASE-T Gigabit copper downlinks, four 1/10/25G SFP28 intermediate 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 FX Cloud Scale ASIC with large route 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.
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