Cisco Catalyst WS-C4948E Full English Product Description

1. Short Sales Title

2. Official Product Overview

1. Front-to-back port intake airflow: No side/top venting, fully compliant with standard hot/cold aisle data center rack design (distinguished from back-to-front WS-C4948E-F variant)Cisco.
2. Quad dual-speed SFP/SFP+ uplink ports supporting both 1G and 10G simultaneously, doubling uplink bandwidth vs the 2 dedicated X2 ports on WS-C4948-10GECisco.
3. Upgraded 192 Gbps switching fabric and 144 Mpps forwarding rate, expanded memory and TCAM tables for virtualization scale.
4. Native hardware-accelerated IPv6 forwarding (legacy 4948 only supported software IPv6).
5. VSS Virtual Switching System for multi-chassis virtualized core resiliency, unavailable on classic non-E hardwareCisco.
6. Larger shared packet buffers and enhanced high-power fan tray for sustained 10GE uplink load.

Model Suffix Breakdown

• WS-C: Cisco Catalyst LAN Switch Platform Identifier
• 4948: Catalyst 4900 fixed server switch series, 48 copper downlink ports
• E: Enhanced data center optimized chassis, front-to-back airflow, SFP+ dual-speed uplinks, hardware IPv6, VSS support, upgraded fabric capacity

Chassis Port Layout Definition

1. Front Panel Downlinks: 48×10/100/1000BASE-T auto-sensing RJ45 copper ports for servers, virtualization hosts, IP phones and surveillance cameras
2. Front Uplink Slots: 4×dual-speed SFP/SFP+ slots supporting 1G SFP or 10G SFP+ optical transceivers (mix 1G/10G uplinks freely)
3. Out-of-Band Management Interfaces:
   • RJ45 RS232 serial console port
   • Mini USB console port
   • Isolated 10/100BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port
4. Front Diagnostic LED Bank: System, power, fan, module, port link/activity, fault, UID beacon status indicators
5. Rear Compartment: Dual independent hot-swappable power supply bays + integrated redundant variable-speed hot-swap fan tray

Airflow & Variant Differentiation

• WS-C4948E: Front-to-back airflow (cold air enters port side, hot exhaust from power supply rear; burgundy color coding)
• WS-C4948E-F: Back-to-front airflow (blue color coding, separate model)
  Fan trays and power supplies are non-interchangeable between E and E-F variantsCisco.

Supported Transceivers & Power Options

1. Optical transceivers: All Cisco SFP (1G) and SFP+ (10G SR/LR/ER/ZR) modules
2. Power supply variants: AC 1100W / 1400W hot-swap PSU, DC 1100W telecom negative power PSU
3. No PoE support; designed exclusively for server/data center aggregation workloads

3. Hardware & Physical Specifications

Core Switching Performance

• Total non-blocking switching fabric capacity: 192 Gbps full-duplex
• Wire-speed forwarding rate: 144 Mpps for Layer 2 bridging, hardware CEF IPv4 and native hardware IPv6 routing
• Shared dynamic packet buffer memory: 32 MB (4x larger than classic WS-C4948)
• Main CPU: High-speed multi-core processor; system memory: 1 GB SDRAM, 4 GB internal flash storage
• MAC address table capacity: 131,072 MAC entries (massively upgraded from 32K legacy models)
• Routing table scale: IPv4 256,000 CEF routes; IPv6 128,000 hardware forwarding routes
• TCAM ACL/QoS security flow entries: 128,000 concurrent entries
• Maximum VLANs: 4094 standard 802.1Q tagged VLANs
• SVI routed interfaces: Up to 4094 inter-VLAN routed SVIs
• Jumbo frame support: Up to 9216 bytes MTU for all copper/fiber ports
• Link aggregation: Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC) and 10GE EtherChannel (max 8 ports per logical bundle)

Power & Cooling System

• Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots enabling 1+1 N+1 power failover
• AC input range: 100–240V 50/60Hz; DC –48V standard telecom negative power
• Fan tray: Integrated variable-speed multi-fan hot-swappable assembly with per-fan fault detection; single fan failure triggers SNMP alert without traffic loss
• Airflow direction: Front-to-back cold aisle compliant (port intake, rear exhaust)
• Real-time monitoring: Fan speed, internal temperature, PSU voltage and hardware fault logging via console syslog and SNMP traps

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Rack form factor: 1 RU standard 19-inch rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 4.4 cm × 43.97 cm × 41.0 cm (1.73 × 17.31 × 16.14 inches)
• Weight: 14.5 kg (32 lbs) bare chassis without power supplies; fully loaded max weight 18.2 kg (40 lbs) with dual PSUs installed
• Operating temperature: 0°C to 40°C (32°F–104°F); operating altitude up to 3000 meters
• Storage temperature: -40°C to 75°C (-40°F–167°F)
• Relative humidity: 10%–90% non-condensing, non-condensing
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, RoHS compliant
• MTBF: 1,050,000 hours under standard data center operating environments

4. Full Layer 2 & Layer 3 IOS Feature Set (Cisco IOS 12.2(54)XO / IOS 15SG)

Layer 2 Switching Features

• IEEE 802.1D STP, 802.1w Rapid STP, 802.1s MSTP (10,000 MST instances)
• 802.1Q trunking + ISL trunk encapsulation, DTP dynamic trunk negotiation
• VTP v1/v2/v3 VLAN Trunking Protocol, Private VLAN, Q-in-Q VLAN stacking
• Port security, static/dynamic secure MAC address learning, MAC filtering
• 802.3ad LACP EtherChannel link aggregation (max 8 ports per bundle)
• Broadcast/multicast/unicast storm suppression
• IGMPv1/v2/v3 snooping, CGMP for IPTV and video multicast optimization
• Voice VLAN auto-detection for Cisco IP phone uplink aggregation
• Local SPAN, RSPAN remote traffic mirroring (8 bidirectional wire-speed monitoring sessions)
• 802.3x full-duplex flow control

Layer 3 Routing & Multicast Features (IP Base / IP Services License)

• Static routing, RIP v1/v2, full multi-area OSPFv2, EIGRP, BGPv4/BGPv6 inter-domain routing
• Wire-speed hardware SVI inter-VLAN routing for IPv4 and native hardware-accelerated IPv6 forwarding
• Full PIM-DM / PIM-SM / PIM-SSM multicast routing, MSDP support
• ECMP equal-cost multi-path load balancing across multiple 1G/10GE uplinks
• Policy-Based Routing (PBR) available with IP Services IOS license
• Multi-VRF Lite multi-tenant network segmentation
• VSS Virtual Switching System: Pair two WS-C4948E into a single logical redundant switch supporting SSO Stateful Switchover, NSF Nonstop Forwarding and ISSU In-Service Software Upgrade for zero-downtime core maintenance

Advanced MQC QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Hierarchical Modular QoS Command-Line (MQC) policy framework
• 8 hardware priority queues per physical port, bidirectional 802.1p CoS / DSCP mapping
• Ingress traffic policing, egress shaping, packet marking and remarking
• Pre-built Auto-QoS templates optimized for VoIP, video conferencing, IP surveillance and unified communications
• Dedicated expedite voice priority queue for IP phone traffic

Enterprise Security Suite

• IEEE 802.1X port-based NAC authentication with RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA identity integration
• DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard, uRPF anti-spoofing protection
• Hardware-accelerated Port ACL, VLAN ACL (VACL), Route ACL traffic filtering
• IEEE 802.1AE MACsec link encryption on all 10GE SFP+ uplink ports
• SSHv2 encrypted CLI management, SNMPv3 secure monitoring, encrypted startup-config files
• Control Plane Policing (CoPP) to protect supervisor CPU from DDoS attacks
• Cisco TrustSec security group tagging for end-to-end policy segmentation

Monitoring & Management

• Flexible NetFlow v9 full wire-speed flow export for deep application visibility and traffic analytics
• Dedicated isolated out-of-band Ethernet management port for offline device access
• USB / SD storage support for offline log capture, IOS image upgrades and configuration backup
• Smart Install zero-touch automated mass switch provisioning
• Cisco EnergyWise power efficiency monitoring to reduce idle port power draw

5. High Availability Capabilities (Core Differentiators vs Classic WS-C4948 / WS-C4948-10GE)

1. Dual hot-swappable redundant AC/DC power supplies (1+1 power failover protection)
2. Redundant variable-speed hot-swappable fan tray with individual fan fault detection
3. Full OIR Online Insertion and Removal support for power supplies and fan trays; live FRU replacement without chassis shutdown
4. VSS multi-chassis virtual switching with SSO, NSF and ISSU zero-downtime software upgrades (exclusive to E-series hardware)
5. Front-to-back cold-aisle compliant airflow eliminating hot/cold aisle mixing issues common on side-to-side legacy chassis
6. Expanded buffer and TCAM memory to avoid traffic drops under heavy virtualization workloads

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Medium Enterprise Data Center Top-of-Rack Leaf Switch

   48×1G copper ports connect server racks, storage arrays and virtualization hosts; four SFP/SFP+ uplinks deliver flexible 10G spine trunking, supporting leaf-spine architectures with VSS multi-switch virtualization for mission-critical enterprise data workloads.
2. Medium/Large Enterprise Multi-Floor Building Distribution Aggregation

   Cold-aisle compliant 1RU form factor fits standard data center and wiring closet racks; mixed 1G/10G uplinks aggregate dozens of Catalyst PoE access switches, consolidating unified VoIP, 4K surveillance and office video traffic for entire building blocks.
3. Large Regional Mission-Critical Branch Office Core Switch

   Full Layer 3 routing, redundant power and VSS virtual switching eliminate single points of failure for financial, healthcare and government remote branch networks, combining fiber WAN uplink aggregation and multi-VLAN unified communications.
4. Catalyst 4500 Modular Campus Core Uplink Expansion Companion

   Deployed as a high-density 10GE uplink companion switch to expand fiber backbone port capacity for WS-C4507R+E / WS-C4510R+E modular campus core chassis.
5. Legacy Catalyst 4948 Non-E Hardware Upgrade

   Drop-in performance upgrade for classic WS-C4948 / WS-C4948-10GE side-to-side airflow chassis; backward compatible with existing SFP transceivers while unlocking hardware IPv6, VSS virtual switching, front-to-back data center airflow and doubled uplink bandwidth.

7. Standard Package Contents

Items Sold Separately (Not Included)

• AC or DC hot-swappable redundant power supply units
• SFP (1G) / SFP+ (10G) optical transceivers for quad uplink slots
• RS232 serial console rollover cable, mini USB console cable
• Cable management accessories, fiber patch cords, SD memory cards

Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)