Cisco Catalyst WS-C4948E-F Full English Product Description
1. Short Sales Title
Cisco WS-C4948E-F Enhanced Back-to-Front Airflow 1RU Data Center Top-of-Rack Switch, 48×10/100/1000BASE-T Downlinks + 4×Dual-Speed SFP/SFP+ Uplink Slots, Rear Cold Air Intake / Front Hot Exhaust Airflow, Dual Hot-Swap Redundant AC/DC Power Supplies, Redundant Variable-Speed Hot-Swap Fan Tray, 176 Gbps Non-Blocking Fabric, 131 Mpps Wire-Speed Layer 2–Layer 4 Forwarding, Cisco IOS 12.2(54)XO / IOS 15SG, Hardware-Accelerated Full IPv4/IPv6 Dual-Stack Routing, VSS Virtual Switching System Support, End-of-Sale Mission-Critical Hot-Aisle Data Center ToR Leaf, Medium Enterprise Building Distribution & High-Availability Branch Core Switch Optimized for Hot-Aisle Rack Layouts
2. Official Product Overview
The Cisco Catalyst WS-C4948E-F is the back-to-front airflow variant of the Catalyst 4948E enhanced E-series fixed-form-factor 1RU Top-of-Rack (ToR) switch, released Oct 2009, End-of-Sale Oct 30, 2020, End-of-Support Oct 31, 2025Cisco. It ships as a bare chassis without power supplies; E-series AC/DC redundant power supplies and SFP/SFP+ transceivers are sold separately as standalone Field Replaceable Units (FRUs).
Hardware and software feature set is identical to WS-C4948E, with theonly distinguishing factor being reversed airflow direction:
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WS-C4948E: Front-to-back (cold air enters port side, exhaust from PSU rear, burgundy labeling)
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WS-C4948E-F: Back-to-front (cold air drawn in from rear power supply compartment, hot air exhausted out front panel port side, blue color coding)Cisco
Fan trays and power supplies arenot cross-interchangeablebetween the two airflow variants due to reversed internal thermal routingCisco.
Designed for hot-aisle containment data center rack architectures, the WS-C4948E-F delivers low-latency wire-speed multilayer switching, native hardware IPv4/IPv6 routing, hierarchical MQC QoS, comprehensive enterprise security, Flexible NetFlow analytics, and VSS multi-chassis virtual switching for redundant core resiliency. All critical FRUs (power supplies, fan tray) support live hot-swap replacement without full chassis shutdown to eliminate maintenance-related network outages.
Compared to legacy non-E WS-C4948 / WS-C4948-10GE models, this E-series platform provides expanded packet buffers, larger TCAM/routing tables, dual-speed SFP/SFP+ uplinks, hardware IPv6 acceleration, and VSS virtual switching capabilities unavailable on older generation hardware.
Model Suffix Breakdown
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WS-C: Cisco Catalyst LAN Switch Platform Identifier
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4948: Catalyst 4900 fixed server switch series, 48 copper downlink ports
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E: Enhanced E-series switching fabric, scalable 10G uplink support, hardware IPv6, VSS virtual switching
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-F: Back-to-front airflow variant (Rear intake, front exhaust; optimized for hot-aisle data center rack design)
Chassis Port Layout Definition
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Front Panel Downlinks: 48×10/100/1000BASE-T auto-sensing RJ45 copper ports for servers, virtualization hosts, IP phones and surveillance cameras
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Front Uplink Slots: 4×dual-speed SFP/SFP+ slots supporting 1G SFP or 10G SFP+ optical transceivers (mixed 1G/10G uplink deployment supported)
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Out-of-Band Management Interfaces:
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RJ45 RS232 serial console port
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Mini USB console port (IOS 15SG supervisor models)
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Isolated 10/100BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port
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Front Diagnostic LED Bank: System, power, fan, module, port link/activity, fault, UID beacon status indicators
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Rear Compartment: Dual independent hot-swappable power supply bays + integrated redundant variable-speed hot-swap fan tray
Airflow Key Specification
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Airflow path: Back-to-front (cold air intake from rear PSU side, hot air exhaust from front port panel)
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Color coding: Blue-marked fan tray and power supplies to differentiate from burgundy front-to-back WS-C4948E hardware
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Use case fit: Data center racks with hot aisles at the front of cabinets and cold aisles at the rear
Supported Transceivers & Power Options
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Optical transceivers: All Cisco SFP (1G) and SFP+ (10G SR/LR/ER/ZR) optical modules
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Power supply variants: AC 1100W / 1400W hot-swap PSU (F-suffix airflow specific), DC 1100W triple-input telecom negative power PSU
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No PoE support; purpose-built for server/data center rack aggregation workloads only
3. Hardware & Physical Specifications
Core Switching Performance
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Total non-blocking switching fabric capacity: 176 Gbps full-duplexCisco Russ...
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Wire-speed forwarding rate: 131 Mpps IPv4 hardware forwarding; 110 Mpps hardware IPv6 forwardingCisco Russ...
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Shared dynamic packet buffer memory: 32 MB global shared buffer pool across all ports
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Main CPU: High-performance multi-core processor; system memory: 1 GB SDRAM, 4 GB internal flash storage
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MAC address table capacity: Up to 131,072 MAC address entries
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Routing table scale: IPv4 256,000 CEF routes; IPv6 128,000 hardware forwarding routes
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TCAM flow table: Up to 128,000 concurrent ACL/QoS/security flow entries
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Maximum VLANs: 4094 standard 802.1Q tagged VLANs
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SVI routed interfaces: Up to 4094 inter-VLAN routed SVIs
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Jumbo frame support: Up to 9216 bytes MTU across all copper/fiber interfaces
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Link aggregation: Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC) and 10GE EtherChannel (max 8 ports per logical bundle)
Power & Cooling System
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Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots enabling 1+1 N+1 power failover protection
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AC input range: 100–240V 50/60Hz; DC –48V standard telecom negative power
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Fan tray: Integrated variable-speed multi-fan hot-swappable assembly with per-fan fault detection; single fan failure triggers SNMP alert without traffic loss
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Airflow direction: Back-to-front (cold air rear intake, hot air front exhaust)
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Real-time monitoring: Fan speed, internal temperature, PSU voltage and hardware fault logging via console syslog and SNMP traps
Physical & Environmental Parameters
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Rack form factor: 1 RU standard 19-inch rack mount
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Dimensions (H × W × D): 4.4 cm × 43.97 cm × 41.0 cm (1.73 × 17.31 × 16.14 inches)
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Weight: 14.5 kg (32 lbs) bare chassis without power supplies; fully loaded max weight 18.2 kg (40 lbs) with dual PSUs installed
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Operating temperature: 0°C to 40°C (32°F–104°F); operating altitude up to 3000 meters
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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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Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, RoHS compliant
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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
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IEEE 802.1D STP, 802.1w Rapid STP, 802.1s MSTP (10,000 MST instances)
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Maximum 4096 VLANs, 802.1Q trunking + ISL trunk encapsulation, DTP dynamic trunk negotiation
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VTP v1/v2/v3 VLAN Trunking Protocol, Private VLAN, Q-in-Q VLAN stacking for service provider multi-tenant segmentation
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Port security, static/dynamic secure MAC address learning, MAC filtering
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802.3ad LACP EtherChannel link aggregation (max 8 ports per bundle)
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Broadcast/multicast/unicast storm suppression
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IGMPv1/v2/v3 snooping, CGMP for VoIP and IPTV multicast optimization
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Voice VLAN auto-detection for Cisco IP phone uplink aggregation
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Local SPAN, RSPAN remote traffic mirroring (8 bidirectional wire-speed monitoring sessions)
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802.3x full-duplex flow control
Layer 3 Routing & Multicast Features (IP Base / IP Services License)
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Static routing, RIP v1/v2, full multi-area OSPFv2, EIGRP, BGPv4/BGPv6 inter-domain routing
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Wire-speed hardware SVI inter-VLAN routing for IPv4 and native hardware-accelerated IPv6 forwarding
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Full PIM-DM / PIM-SM / PIM-SSM multicast routing, MSDP support
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ECMP equal-cost multi-path load balancing across multiple 1G/10GE uplinks
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Policy-Based Routing (PBR) available with IP Services IOS license
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Multi-VRF Lite multi-tenancy segmentation
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VSS Virtual Switching System: Pair two WS-C4948E-F 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
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Hierarchical Modular QoS Command-Line (MQC) policy framework
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8 hardware priority queues per physical port, bidirectional 802.1p CoS / DSCP mapping
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Ingress traffic policing, egress shaping, packet marking and remarking
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Pre-built Auto-QoS templates optimized for VoIP, video conferencing, IP surveillance and unified communications
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Dedicated expedite voice priority queue for IP phone traffic
Enterprise Security Suite
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IEEE 802.1X port-based NAC authentication with RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA identity integration
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DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard, uRPF anti-spoofing protection
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Hardware-accelerated Port ACL, VLAN ACL (VACL), Route ACL traffic filtering
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IEEE 802.1AE MACsec link encryption on all 10GE SFP+ uplink ports
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SSHv2 encrypted CLI management, SNMPv3 secure monitoring, encrypted startup-config files
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Control Plane Policing (CoPP) to protect supervisor CPU from DDoS attacks
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Cisco TrustSec security group tagging for end-to-end policy segmentation
Monitoring & Management
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Flexible NetFlow v9 full wire-speed flow export for deep application visibility and traffic analytics
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Dedicated isolated out-of-band Ethernet management port for offline device access
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USB / SD storage support for offline log capture, IOS image upgrades and configuration backup
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Smart Install zero-touch automated mass switch provisioning
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Cisco EnergyWise power efficiency monitoring to reduce idle port power draw
5. High Availability Capabilities
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Dual hot-swappable redundant AC/DC power supplies (1+1 power failover protection)
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Redundant variable-speed hot-swappable fan tray with individual fan fault detection
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Full OIR Online Insertion and Removal support for power supplies and fan trays; live FRU replacement without chassis shutdown
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VSS multi-chassis virtual switching with SSO, NSF and ISSU zero-downtime software upgrades (exclusive to E-series hardware)
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Expanded buffer and TCAM memory to avoid traffic drops under heavy virtualization workloads
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Back-to-front airflow optimized for hot-aisle containment data center rack layouts, eliminating hot air recirculation inside cabinets
6. Typical Deployment Scenarios
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Medium Enterprise Hot-Aisle 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 in hot-aisle rack deployments.
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Medium/Large Enterprise Multi-Floor Building Distribution Aggregation
Back-to-front airflow design fits hot-aisle standard data center 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.
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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.
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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 with hot-aisle rack infrastructure.
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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 classic SFP transceivers while unlocking hardware IPv6, VSS virtual switching and hot-aisle optimized back-to-front airflow.
7. Standard Package Contents
1 × WS-C4948E-F Enhanced E-series 1RU fixed ToR switch chassis (back-to-front blue-label airflow)
1 × Pre-installed integrated variable-speed hot-swappable F-series fan tray (non-interchangeable with E-series fan trays)
19-inch standard rack mount rail kit; optional 23-inch rack mounting hardware
Hardware installation guide, global safety & compliance documentation
Items Sold Separately (Not Included)
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F-series AC or DC hot-swappable redundant power supply units (back-to-front airflow specific PSUs incompatible with WS-C4948E)
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SFP (1G) / SFP+ (10G) optical transceivers for quad uplink slots
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RS232 serial console rollover cable, mini USB console cable
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Cable management accessories, fiber patch cords, SD memory cards
Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)
The Cisco Catalyst WS-C4948E-F is an End-of-Sale enhanced 1RU fixed-form-factor data center ToR switch from the Catalyst 4900 E-Series, supplied bare without power supplies (F-series airflow-specific PSUs and SFP/SFP+ transceivers sold separately). Hardware and feature set identical to WS-C4948E, differentiated solely by back-to-front rear-intake front-exhaust airflow optimized for hot-aisle data center rack layouts. It features 48×10/100/1000BASE-T copper downlinks plus four dual-speed SFP/SFP+ 1G/10GE uplink slots, dual hot-swappable redundant power supply bays and variable-speed hot-swap redundant F-series fan tray, built on a 176 Gbps non-blocking fabric delivering 131 Mpps wire-speed Layer 2–Layer 4 forwarding. Running Cisco IOS 12.2(54)XO / IOS 15SG with native hardware IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack routing, VSS virtual switching, advanced MQC QoS, enterprise security suite and Flexible NetFlow. Optimized for hot-aisle medium data center leaf-spine, high-density building distribution and high-availability branch core deployments with full OIR hot-swap FRU support and zero-downtime VSS failover capabilities. Fan trays and power supplies are non-interchangeable with front-to-back WS-C4948E variant. Compliant with global safety, EMI and RoHS industrial standards, covered by Cisco limited hardware warranty during active support lifecycle.
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