Cisco Catalyst WS-C4503 Full English Product Description
1. Short Sales Title
Cisco WS-C4503 Classic 3-Slot Modular Campus Switch Chassis, 7RU Rack Height, Single Supervisor Slot + 2 Hot-Swappable Line Card Slots, Dual Redundant Power Supply Bays, Integrated Hot-Swap Fan Tray, Classic 6 Gbps Per-Slot Backplane Architecture, Supports Legacy Supervisor II/IV/V Series Engines & Standard Catalyst 4500 Line Cards, Layer 2–Layer 4 Wire-Speed Switching, PoE/PoE+ Compatible, End-of-Sale Enterprise Access & Small Campus Aggregation Chassis for Wiring Closets, Branch Core & Small Data Center Leaf Deployments
2. Official Product Overview
The Cisco Catalyst WS-C4503 is a classic non-E series 3-slot modular chassis belonging to the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series mid-range campus switch platform, fully End-of-Sale (EoS) and End-of-Support (EoSup) per Cisco lifecycle policyCisco. Delivered as bare chassis with factory-installed fan tray only—power supplies, supervisor engine and line cards are sold separately as optional spare modules.
Built on a centralized non-blocking switching fabric architecture, WS-C4503 targets small-to-medium enterprise wiring closets, regional branch campus core switches, compact building aggregation points and miniature data center leaf deployments. It delivers wire-speed Layer 2 switching plus full Layer 3 IP routing, advanced QoS, enterprise security and integrated PoE power delivery for IP phones, Wi-Fi access points and IP surveillance cameras.
This classic chassis differs from the upgraded WS-C4503-E variant: it only supports 6 Gbps per line card slot backplane bandwidth, lacks CenterFlex ASIC, and is incompatible with E-Series high-speed 24/48 Gbps line cards and latest 6-E/7-E/8-E supervisor enginesCisco. It maintains full backward compatibility with all legacy Catalyst 4500 classic supervisors and standard copper/fiber PoE line cards, offering long-term investment protection for existing Catalyst 4500 infrastructure upgrades.
Model Suffix Breakdown
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WS-C: Cisco Catalyst Switch Platform Identifier
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4503: Catalyst 4500 Series, 3 total module slot classic chassis (non-E enhanced generation)
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No suffix: Standard bare chassis, fan tray included, power supplies, supervisor and line cards not bundled
Chassis Slot Layout Definition
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Slot 1: Dedicated fixed supervisor engine slot (single supervisor only, no redundancy support; cannot install second supervisor for SSO/NSF failover)Cisco
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Slot 2, Slot 3: Hot-swappable line card expansion slots for Gigabit copper, SFP fiber, PoE/PoE+ access modules
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Rear side: Dual independent hot-swappable power supply bays (1+1 redundant power supported)
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Front lower bay: Single integrated hot-swappable cooling fan tray
Supported Supervisor Engine Compatibility
WS-C4503 classic chassis supports legacy classic supervisors only (E-series supervisors 6-E/7-E/8-E are not compatible):
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Supervisor Engine II, II-Plus, II-Plus-TS, II-Plus-10GE
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Supervisor Engine IV (WS-X4515)
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Supervisor Engine V, V-10GE
All supervisors run Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2EW train native image, supporting full Layer 2 switching and optional Layer 3 IP routing feature setsCisco.
Supported Line Card Modules
All standard Catalyst 4500 classic 6 Gbps slot line cards are hot-swappable compatible:
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10/100/1000BASE-T copper non-PoE / PoE / PoE+ modules (24/48 port)
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SFP-based Gigabit fiber uplink line cards
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10GE uplink expansion line cards
Maximum PoE power capacity depends on installed AC/DC power supply modules (1000W / 1300W / 2800W ACV PoE-capable PSUs).
3. Hardware & Physical Specifications
Core Slot & Backplane Parameters
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Total modular slots: 3 (1 supervisor slot, 2 line card slots)
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Per-slot bandwidth: Fixed 6 Gbps full-duplex (classic chassis limitation; no 24/48Gbps E-series support)
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Switching fabric: Centralized non-blocking architecture via supervisor ASIC
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Maximum concurrent port density: Up to 96×1G copper ports with dual 48-port line cards; up to 24×1G SFP fiber ports
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MAC address table capacity: Up to 16,384 MAC entries (varies by supervisor model)
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TCAM size: Up to 64,000 ACL/QoS security entries
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Jumbo frame support: Up to 9198 bytes on all copper and fiber ports
Power System
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Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots (1+1 N+1 redundancy supported)
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Supported power options: AC 1000W non-PoE, AC 1300W/2800W PoE+, DC 1400W industrial PSU
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Input voltage range: AC 100–240V 50/60Hz; DC –48V telecom standard
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Max total PoE budget: Up to 1440W with dual 2800WACV PoE power supplies
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Hot-swap power supply replacement: Live swap without chassis shutdown
Cooling System
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Fan tray: Single integrated hot-swappable fan assembly (factory pre-installed with WS-C4503 chassis)
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Airflow direction: Right-to-left internal switch airflow; power supply front-to-back airflow
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Fan status LED: Green = normal operation, red = fan fault alarm via SNMP/console logging
Physical & Environmental Specs
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Rack form factor: 7 RU standard 19-inch rack mount
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Dimensions (H × W × D): 31.12 cm × 43.97 cm × 31.70 cm (12.25 × 17.31 × 12.50 inches)Cisco
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Weight: 14.1 kg (31.25 lbs) bare chassis with fan tray; max fully loaded weight 34 kg (75 lbs) with dual power supplies and full line cardsCisco
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Operating temperature: 0°C to 40°C (32°F–104°F)
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Storage temperature: -40°C to 75°C (-40°F–167°F)
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Relative humidity: 10%–90% non-condensing
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Operating altitude: Up to 3000 meters (9842 ft)
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Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, RoHS compliant
Management Interfaces (On Supervisor Engine)
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RJ45 Console port (RS232 serial)
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USB mini console port (select later supervisors)
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Out-of-band 10/100BASE-T Ethernet management port
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Dual SFP uplink slots (Gigabit or 10GE dependent on supervisor model)
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Status LED bank: System, fan, power, module, uplink, fault alarm indicators
4. Full Layer 2 & Layer 3 IOS Feature Set
Layer 2 Switching Features
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IEEE 802.1d STP, 802.1w Rapid STP, 802.1s MSTP
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4096 maximum VLANs (802.1Q trunking, ISL trunk encapsulation)
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Private VLAN, VLAN stacking (Q-in-Q)
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Port security, MAC address filtering, static/dynamic MAC learning
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802.3ad LACP static EtherChannel link aggregation (up to 8 port bundles)
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Broadcast/multicast/unicast storm suppression
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IGMPv1/v2/v3 snooping, CGMP for IP multicast video/VoIP
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Voice VLAN auto-detection for Cisco IP phones
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802.3x full-duplex flow control, half-duplex backpressure
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Port mirroring (SPAN / RSPAN remote port analysis)
Layer 3 Routing & Multicast Features (IP Base / IP Services IOS Images)
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Static IP routing, RIP v1/v2, EIGRP, OSPF v2/v3, BGPv4
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Inter-VLAN SVI wire-speed routing
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IPv4 / IPv6 dual-stack forwarding (IPv6 support requires Supervisor V or newer)
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PIM-SM / PIM-DM multicast routing, MSDP
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Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) load balancing
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Policy-Based Routing (PBR) on IP Services license
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VRF-Lite multi-tenancy segmentation (Supervisor V+ only)
QoS & Traffic Prioritization
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Hierarchical MQC modular QoS policy framework
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8 hardware priority queues per port, 802.1p CoS / DSCP mapping
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Ingress policing, egress shaping, traffic marking/remark
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Auto-QoS template for VoIP, video conferencing, IP surveillance
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Voice priority queue dedicated for PoE IP phone traffic
Enterprise Security Suite
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IEEE 802.1X port-based NAC authentication (RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA)
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DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard
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Port ACL, VLAN ACL (VACL), route ACL hardware filtering
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MACsec 802.1AE link encryption (10GE supervisor uplinks)
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SSHv2 encrypted CLI management, SNMPv3 secure monitoring
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Control Plane Policing (CoPP) to protect supervisor CPU
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Rogue AP detection, private VLAN isolation
PoE Power Management
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IEEE 802.3af PoE (15.4W per port) / 802.3at PoE+ (30W per port) line card support
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Per-port power priority scheduling for critical voice/Wi-Fi endpoints
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Power budget monitoring, auto power shutoff over-subscription protection
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EnergyWise power-saving management for idle PoE devices
5. High Availability Capabilities
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Dual redundant hot-swappable AC/DC power supplies (1+1 power failover)
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Hot-swappable fan tray, line cards, power supplies (no chassis power down for replacement)
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Online Insertion and Removal (OIR) for all modular line cards
Limitation: Classic WS-C4503 single supervisor slot design does NOT support redundant supervisors, SSO stateful switchover, NSF nonstop forwarding or ISSU in-service software upgrades (these features exclusive to R-series redundant chassis like WS-C4507R / WS-C4510R)Cisco.
6. Typical Deployment Scenarios
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Small Enterprise Wiring Closet Aggregation
3-slot compact chassis fits standard rack wiring closets; dual 48-port PoE line cards deliver high-density voice/data access for office floors, with supervisor Gigabit uplinks to campus core routers.
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Regional Branch Office Core Switch
Serves as single core layer for remote branch networks, combining inter-VLAN routing, PoE Wi-Fi AP power and WAN fiber uplink aggregation without large 6/7/10-slot chassis footprint.
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Mini Campus Building Distribution Switch
Deploys in mid-size school, hospital or retail campus buildings to aggregate multiple floor access switches via 1G/10G fiber trunks, supporting multicast IPTV and unified VoIP communications.
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Compact Small Data Center Leaf Switch
Low-density leaf deployment for SMB server racks and storage arrays, utilizing SFP fiber line cards for spine-layer uplinks with wire-speed Layer 3 forwarding.
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Legacy Catalyst 4500 Infrastructure Refresh
Drop-in replacement for aging WS-C4000 chassis, fully compatible with existing classic PoE line cards and supervisor engines to extend network hardware lifecycle with minimal upgrade cost.
7. Standard Package Contents
1 × WS-C4503 Classic 3-slot empty chassis
1 × Pre-installed integrated hot-swappable fan tray
Rack mount rail kit for 19-inch standard rack installation
Hardware installation guide, safety compliance documentation
Items Sold Separately (Not Included)
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Supervisor engine module (II / IV / V series)
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AC or DC redundant power supply units
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Gigabit copper/fiber PoE/non-PoE line cards
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SFP / GBIC / XFP optical transceivers for uplink ports
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Console cable, management accessories
Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)
The Cisco Catalyst WS-C4503 is an End-of-Sale classic 7RU 3-slot modular campus switch chassis from the Catalyst 4500 Series, supplied bare with factory fan tray only (power supplies, supervisor and line cards sold separately). It features 1 dedicated single supervisor slot, 2 hot-swappable 6 Gbps backplane line card slots, dual redundant hot-swap power supply bays and centralized wire-speed Layer 2–Layer 4 switching architecture. Compatible with legacy Catalyst 4500 classic supervisor engines and standard PoE/PoE+ Gigabit copper/fiber line cards, supporting full Cisco IOS Layer 3 routing, advanced QoS, enterprise security, IGMP multicast snooping and 802.1X NAC. Designed for small branch core, wiring closet aggregation and miniature data center leaf deployments, with 1+1 redundant power high availability and full OIR hot-swap module replacement; note no redundant supervisor support on this non-R series chassis. Compliant with global industrial safety and EMI standards, covered by Cisco limited hardware warranty during active support lifecycle.
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