Cisco Catalyst WS-C3650-48PS-L Full English Product Description
1. Short Sales Title
Cisco WS-C3650-48PS-L 1RU Stackable High-Density PoE+ Gigabit Layer 2 Converged Wired/Wireless Access Switch, 48×10/100/1000BASE-T IEEE 802.3at PoE+ Copper Downlinks, 4 Fixed GE SFP Fiber Uplink Slots, LAN Base IOS XE Image, Single Modular 640W AC Power Supply (390W Total PoE+ Budget), Redundant Hot-Swap Variable-Speed Fan Trays, StackWise-160 160Gbps Stack Bus, Integrated Lightweight CAPWAP Wireless LAN Controller, Full Enterprise Layer 2 Feature Set Only, No Dynamic Layer 3 Routing Protocols, Max 255 VLANs, Cisco Limited Lifetime Hardware Warranty, End-of-Sale Cost-Effective Bulk PoE+ Converged Voice/Wi-Fi Stackable Switch for Small/Medium Enterprise Flat Layer 2 Office, Small K-12 Campus, Medium Regional Branch Wired-Wireless Deployments Without Local Dynamic Routed Access Requirements
2. Official Product Overview
The Cisco Catalyst WS-C3650-48PS-L belongs to the Catalyst 3650 unified wired-wireless stackable multilayer switch family, fully End-of-Sale (EOS Oct 31, 2021; End-of-Support Oct 31, 2026) Cisco. Built on Cisco UADP Unified Access Programmable ASIC and modern IOS XE operating system, this 1RU high-density chassis integrates full wired switching and embedded lightweight CAPWAP wireless LAN controller hardware, eliminating standalone wireless controller appliances for low AP density environments.
It delivers native IEEE 802.3at PoE+ power on all 48 copper ports with a total usable 390W PoE budget, fixed 4-port Gigabit SFP fiber uplinks, a 640W modular hot-swappable AC power supply, and entry-level LAN Base IOS XE feature set. LAN Base provides complete Layer 2 switching, static inter-VLAN routing only, basic lightweight wireless AP management, while disabling all dynamic Layer 3 routing, HSRP/VRRP gateway redundancy, 4094 VLAN scaling, full Flexible NetFlow Lite, and advanced multicast routing functions available on IP Base and IP Services variants. This model targets cost-sensitive bulk access deployments requiring PoE for IP phones, low-density Wi-Fi APs and low-power PoE surveillance cameras without local inter-VLAN dynamic routing demands.
Model Suffix Breakdown
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3650: Unified access stackable switch platform with embedded wireless controller, StackWise-160 stacking, modular hot-swap power/fan trays, UADP programmable ASIC
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48: Forty-eight front-panel 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 Gigabit copper downlink ports
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P: IEEE 802.3at PoE+ power delivery (up to 30W per copper port)
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S: Fixed rear bank of 4× hot-swappable GE SFP fiber uplink slots
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L: LAN Base IOS XE feature set (pure Layer 2 dominant, static inter-VLAN routing only, max 255 VLANs, all dynamic Layer 3 routing protocols disabled)
Three IOS XE Feature Set Comparison for Catalyst 3650
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LAN Base (WS-C3650-48PS-L): Full Layer 2 suite, static inter-VLAN routing limited, maximum 255 VLANs, basic lightweight wireless AP management, all dynamic routing protocols disabled, no HSRP/VRRP gateway redundancy, restricted Flexible NetFlow Lite.
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IP Base: All LAN Base functions + baseline Layer 3 routing (OSPF stub, EIGRP stub, PIM stub), HSRP/VRRP, 4094 VLANs, full unified wireless mobility controller, complete Flexible NetFlow Lite, IPv6 stub dynamic routing, cross-stack Layer 3 routing replication.
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IP Services: Full advanced enterprise Layer 3 toolkit (multi-area OSPF, full EIGRP, BGP, full PIM sparse-dense multicast), complete end-to-end IPv6 dynamic routing (OSPFv3/EIGRPv6/BGPv6), Policy-Based Routing (PBR), WCCP v2 web cache redirection, full Flexible NetFlow, VRF-Lite multi-tenancy, advanced WIDS/WIPS wireless security.
Stacking Architecture
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StackWise-160 160Gbps full-duplex stacking bus: Up to nine Catalyst 3650 switches form a single logical stack under one unified IP management plane, supporting distributed wire-speed Layer 2 forwarding, cross-stack EtherChannel link aggregation, cross-stack RSPAN port mirroring, and cross-stack wireless AP policy replication. StackWise-160 stacking cables sold separately as optional accessories.
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Unified wireless stack domain: All CAPWAP APs across the entire stack operate under a single consistent wireless policy domain with basic RF monitoring and rogue AP detection only.
Power & Port Hardware Design
Factory-equipped with one modular 640W hot-swappable AC power supply, providing a total usable PoE+ power budget of 390W to power IEEE 802.3at 30W PoE+ endpoints including enterprise IP phones, Wi-Fi 5 wireless access points, and low-power PoE surveillance cameras. A second optional redundant 640W AC power supply can be installed for N+1 power fault tolerance, with an external RPS backup connector on the rear panel.
Fixed rear uplink bank with 4× hot-swappable GE SFP slots, compatible with 1000BASE-SX/LX/LH/ZX/CWDM Gigabit fiber transceivers and backward interoperable with 100M SFP modules. All SFP transceivers support hot swap without full switch reboot for zero-touch fiber link upgrades. Dual redundant variable-speed hot-swap fan trays dynamically adjust fan RPM based on internal chassis temperature to minimize idle acoustic noise.
Front panel port layout: 48 standard 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 PoE+ copper ports with dedicated per-port LEDs for link, activity, speed and PoE power status. Rear panel interfaces include RJ45 RS232 serial console, USB Type-A flash storage port, USB Type-B mini console, dedicated out-of-band 10/100 Fast Ethernet management port, dual StackWise-160 stacking connectors, dual power supply bays, and Kensington security lock. All copper ports support auto MDI-X.
WS-C3650-48PS-L Front View
3. Port & Hardware Specifications
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Front Downlink Ports: 48 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 auto-sensing Gigabit copper, auto MDI-X, IEEE 802.3at PoE+ (30W maximum per port)
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Rear Fixed Uplinks: 4 × hot-swappable GE SFP Gigabit fiber slots
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Local Management Interfaces: RJ45 serial console, USB Type-B mini console, USB Type-A flash storage, dedicated out-of-band 10/100 Fast Ethernet management port
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Stack Interfaces: Dual StackWise-160 160Gbps stacking connectors
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Power Supply: Single modular 640W AC auto-ranging unit; optional second redundant 640W AC PSU for N+1 redundancy; input 100–240V AC 50/60Hz; total available PoE+ power budget 390W, typical idle power draw 64.18W
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Front Panel LEDs: Per-port link/activity/speed/PoE indicators; global system fault, power, stack member ID, wireless status LEDs
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Mounting: Standard 19-inch 1RU rack-mount brackets included; wall-mount adapter optional, desktop rubber anti-slip feet supplied
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Thermal Envelope: Dual redundant hot-swappable variable-speed fan trays; operating temperature 0°C ~ +45°C, storage -25°C ~ +70°C, relative humidity 10–85% non-condensing
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Compliance Certifications: CE, FCC Class A, UL listed, VCCI Class A, RoHS compliant, NEBS Level 3 certified
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Physical Dimensions: 445 mm (W) × 44.5 mm (H, 1RU) × 448 mm (D) / 17.5 × 1.75 × 17.6 inches
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Unit Weight: 5.4 kg (11.9 lbs) with single 640W power supply
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Memory: 4 GB DRAM, 2 GB onboard flash memory for IOS XE universal images and configuration files
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Switching Fabric: 176 Gbps full-duplex non-blocking stack-wide capacity
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Forwarding Rate: 77.37 Mpps wire-speed Layer 2 forwarding for 64-byte packets
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MAC Address Table: Up to 32,000 unicast MAC entries
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VLAN Capacity: LAN Base hard limit 255 active IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs (VLAN ID range 1–4094)
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Multicast Groups: 1024 IPv4 CGMP snooping groups (PIM multicast routing fully disabled under LAN Base)
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Jumbo Frame Support: Up to 9000 bytes on all PoE+ copper downlinks and GE SFP uplink ports
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Wireless Scale: Supports up to 25 CAPWAP wireless APs per standalone switch/stack, maximum 1000 concurrent wireless clients, 64 unique WLAN profiles, basic RF monitoring only
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MTBF: 160,000 hours under standard office enterprise operating conditions
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Warranty: Cisco Limited Lifetime Hardware Warranty: Next-business-day advance hardware replacement, 90-day complimentary Cisco TAC technical support
4. Layer 2 + LAN Base IOS XE Full Feature Set
Core Layer 2 Switching & Converged Wired-Wireless QoS Functions
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Up to 255 IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs, VTPv3 dynamic VLAN synchronization, MSTP 802.1s multiple spanning tree
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Dual trunk encapsulation: Cisco ISL trunk + IEEE 802.1Q standard trunk on all copper and SFP fiber ports
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Hierarchical IEEE 802.1p CoS / DSCP MQC QoS, 4 egress priority queues per port; Auto-QoS template optimized for VoIP and video traffic prioritization
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Gigabit EtherChannel link aggregation (LACP / static PAgP), up to 8 bundled ports for uplink redundancy and cross-stack load balancing
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Rapid STP (802.1w), UplinkFast, BackboneFast, BPDU Guard, Root Guard, UDLD to eliminate Layer 2 switching loops
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Port security: Static MAC assignment, sticky dynamic MAC learning, configurable port shutdown violation actions
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Per-port broadcast/multicast/unicast storm control to mitigate flooding DoS attacks
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Local SPAN + cross-stack RSPAN port mirroring supported via StackWise-160 stacking
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CGMP (Cisco Group Management Protocol) to reduce redundant multicast flooding across unified wired/wireless domains
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Voice VLAN dedicated VoIP traffic segmentation, automated Auto QoS marking for PoE IP voice endpoints
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Cisco EnergyWise intelligent power management to lower idle stack and PoE power consumption
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RMON Groups 1,2,3,9 real-time traffic statistics monitoring
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NTP time synchronization, CDP Cisco Discovery Protocol for end-to-end network device visibility
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Embedded web-based Device Manager, Cisco Network Assistant zero-touch stack-wide provisioning
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Basic IPv6 dual-stack Layer 2 switching: IPv6 Snooping, IPv6 ACL, IPv6 QoS marking, IPv6 neighbor discovery
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Integrated Lightweight Unified Wireless Controller: CAPWAP AP termination, basic RF monitoring, rogue AP detection, unified wired/wireless Layer 2 policy enforcement
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Flexible NetFlow Lite for limited traffic visibility (full Flexible NetFlow requires IP Base license upgrade)
LAN Base Layer 3 Routing Hard Limitations
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Only static inter-VLAN routing supported; all dynamic Layer 3 routing protocols fully disabled: OSPF, full multi-area EIGRP, BGP inter-domain routing, PIM stub / full PIM sparse-dense multicast routing unavailable.
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No HSRP / VRRP first-hop gateway redundancy protocols (requires IP Base license).
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Limited IPv6 Layer 2 snooping only; no IPv6 dynamic routing suites (OSPFv3/EIGRPv6/BGPv6).
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No policy-based routing (PBR), no WCCP web cache redirection, no DVMRP multicast tunneling.
Enterprise Security Feature Suite
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IEEE 802.1X port-based NAC authentication with RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA remote access control (unified wired/wireless Layer 2 NAC enforcement only)
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SSH v2 encrypted CLI management; SNMPv3 secure monitoring (fallback unencrypted Telnet/SNMPv1/v2c available)
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Layer 2 ingress access control lists for granular inbound traffic filtering
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Time-based ACL policy scheduling for restricted network access hours
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Private VLAN edge isolation to separate host communication within the same broadcast domain
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DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard to block IP/MAC spoofing attacks
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Encrypted startup-config files, strong password encryption for local administrative credentials
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Wireless baseline security suite: WPA2/WPA3 support, 802.11r fast roaming, basic ISE identity services engine integration
5. Full Management Interfaces
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Local Out-of-Band: RJ45 serial console port for offline configuration without network connectivity
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Secure Remote CLI: SSH v2 encrypted command-line access; fallback unencrypted Telnet
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In-Band Management: Embedded web GUI, SNMP v1/v2c/v3, CDP Cisco Discovery Protocol, NTP time synchronization
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Auxiliary Interfaces: USB Type-A flash storage port for IOS XE image / config backup, dedicated out-of-band 10/100 Fast Ethernet management port
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Stack & Wireless Management: Single unified IP management plane for entire StackWise-160 stack; centralized AP inventory and basic RF management across all stack members
6. Integrated Security Mitigation Suite
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Multi-level privilege CLI access with encrypted local user password storage
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IEEE 802.1X port authentication to validate wired/wireless endpoints before granting LAN access
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Port MAC address security to restrict unauthorized device connection
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STP BPDU guard and root guard to block rogue switches from altering spanning-tree topology
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Broadcast/multicast storm control to suppress flooding-based denial-of-service threats
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Private VLAN edge to isolate peer hosts on the same access VLAN
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DHCP Snooping + DAI ARP Inspection + IP Source Guard to eliminate address spoofing attacks
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SSHv2 and SNMPv3 encryption to secure remote switch management traffic over the LAN
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Manual permanent shutdown of unused RJ45/SFP ports to reduce unauthorized network attack vectors
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Dedicated management VLAN isolation to segregate switch control plane traffic from end-user data traffic
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Per-port PoE priority scheduling to protect critical voice/Wi-Fi devices during power budget shortages
7. Typical Deployment Scenarios
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Small/Medium Enterprise Pure Layer 2 High-Density Stackable PoE+ Converged Access Switch: 48 PoE+ Gigabit copper ports power bulk office IP phones and low-density wall-mounted Wi-Fi APs; 4×GE SFP cost-effective multi-mode fiber trunks link to building distribution switches. LAN Base flat Layer 2 feature set meets basic VLAN segmentation requirements without inter-VLAN dynamic routing, StackWise-160 stacking enables linear access-layer capacity expansion as office headcount grows.
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Small K-12 Campus Converged Wired-Wireless Network: PoE+ Gigabit ports link classroom VoIP phone stacks and wall-mounted student Wi-Fi APs; multi-mode fiber SFP uplinks connect to central school data center backbone. MSTP prevents broadcast loop failures across geographic VLAN domains, cost-efficient LAN Base firmware eliminates expensive IP Base/IP Services routing licenses for simple flat campus topologies.
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Medium Regional Branch Wiring Closet Main Layer 2 Multilayer Switch: Universal PoE+ Gigabit access ports connect branch office desktop stacks and low-bandwidth PoE surveillance cameras; long-distance single-mode fiber SFP uplink links to corporate headquarters distribution layer. LAN Base pure Layer 2 feature set satisfies basic branch flat-VLAN access requirements for organizations that centralize all dynamic routing at the corporate core data center.
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Multi-Branch Distributed Retail Office Access Pod: Bulk PoE+ ports power lobby VoIP phones and store guest Wi-Fi APs; fiber SFP uplink connects back to regional retail hub, integrated lightweight wireless controller removes standalone WLC hardware cost for low AP density retail sites.
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Legacy Catalyst 3750 PoE Access Network Refresh Hardware: Drop-in stackable 3650 replacement for older Catalyst 3750X PoE switches, fully compatible with enterprise fiber uplink infrastructure, adds integrated wireless controller and modern IOS XE operating system for gradual migration to Catalyst 9300 unified access platforms without core router upgrades.
8. Standard Package Contents
1 × Cisco Catalyst WS-C3650-48PS-L PoE+ Gigabit Multilayer Switch (LAN Base IOS XE Image Preinstalled, single 640W AC power supply factory pre-installed)
1 × AC power cord matching regional mains voltage standard
1 × RJ45-to-RS232 serial console rollover cable
1 × Standard 19-inch rack mounting bracket kit
Rubber anti-slip desktop stand feet
Hardware installation guide & Cisco IOS XE LAN Base configuration documentation
GE SFP fiber transceivers, StackWise-160 stacking cables, redundant second 640W power supply, wall-mount adapter sold separately as optional accessories
Short Commercial Version (For Quotation & Product Catalog)
The Cisco Catalyst WS-C3650-48PS-L is a legacy 1RU rack-mount variable-fan stackable pure Layer 2 managed PoE+ Gigabit converged wired/wireless access switch from the Catalyst 3650 Series, factory preloaded with LAN Base IOS XE firmware (no dynamic Layer 3 routing protocols, max 255 VLANs, 390W PoE+ power budget). It features 48×10/100/1000BASE-T IEEE 802.3at PoE+ auto-sensing RJ45 copper downlink ports plus four fixed rear GE SFP Gigabit uplink slots, modular single 640W AC power supply with optional redundant power, 160Gbps StackWise-160 stacking bus supporting up to 9 stacked units. It delivers a 176 Gbps non-blocking switching fabric, 77.37 Mpps Layer 2 forwarding rate, 32K MAC address table, multilayer DSCP MQC QoS, CGMP multicast snooping, Rapid STP, cross-stack EtherChannel/RSPAN, Cisco EnergyWise intelligent PoE management, Flexible NetFlow Lite, integrated lightweight wireless LAN controller, and enterprise security tools including 802.1X NAC authentication, SSHv2, DHCP Snooping and DAI. Cost-effective high-density pure Layer 2 stackable PoE+ Gigabit converged voice/Wi-Fi access switch for small/medium enterprise flat-VLAN bulk office, small education campus and medium regional branch hybrid fiber/copper LAN deployments requiring basic Layer 2 and lightweight wireless management without routed access functionality, End-of-Sale legacy Cisco unified access hardware covered by Cisco Limited Lifetime Warranty support only.
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