Cisco Catalyst WS-C6506 Full English Product Description

1. Short Sales Title

2. Official Product Overview

Critical Hardware Differences vs WS-C6506-E Enhanced Variant

1. Passive shared bus backplane architecture with maximum 256 Gbps total system bandwidth; lacks dedicated 80 Gbps per-slot fabric of E-series chassis, cannot run Supervisor 2T (S2T) high-performance supervisorsCisco.
2. Restricted power delivery: Native compatibility limited to 950W / 1300W AC/DC PSUs; cannot support 2700W/3000W high-wattage power supplies required for full-density ePoE and dense multi-10G E-series line cardsCisco.
3. Split supervisor slot rules: Legacy Sup1A/Sup2 must install in Slots 1/2; Sup32/Sup720 require Slots 5/6 and mandatory upgrade to WS-C6K-6SLOT-FAN2 high-speed fan tray (420 CFM) to meet thermal requirementsCisco.
4. No built-in high-speed switching fabric modules (SFM) support; all forwarding relies on supervisor PFC daughter card and shared bus, creating single fabric failure risk compared to E-series independent fabric design.
5. Front-to-back standard airflow, not optimized for modern hot/cold aisle data center containment layouts.

Core High-Availability Design

Model Suffix Breakdown

• WS-C: Cisco Catalyst LAN Switch Platform Identifier
• 6506: Catalyst 6500 modular series, total 6 horizontal slot classic non-enhanced chassis
• No suffix: Original non-E passive shared bus chassis, limited power and high-performance supervisor compatibility, no S2T supervisor support

Chassis Slot Layout Definition (Horizontal Slots 1–6, Top to Bottom)

1. Slot 1: Multi-purpose primary slot – Primary Sup1A/Sup2 Supervisor Engine or line card/service module
2. Slot 2: Multi-purpose secondary slot – Secondary redundant Sup1A/Sup2 Supervisor Engine (1+1 HA pair) or second line card/service module
3. Slot 3: Fixed general line card slot for Ethernet, PoE, FlexWAN, FWSM, ACE, VPN SPA modules
4. Slot 4: Fixed general line card slot for Ethernet, PoE, FlexWAN, FWSM, ACE, VPN SPA modules
5. Slot 5: Multi-purpose high-speed slot – Primary Sup32/Sup720 Supervisor Engine or high-density 10G line card
6. Slot 6: Multi-purpose high-speed slot – Secondary redundant Sup32/Sup720 Supervisor Engine (1+1 HA pair) or high-density 10G line card
7. Rear Compartment: Two independent hot-swappable power supply bays supporting 1+1 N+1 power redundancy, limited to max dual 1300W AC/DC PSUs
8. Front lower bay: Single integrated hot-swappable fan tray; two options available: standard WS-C6K-6SLOT-FAN (227 CFM) or high-speed WS-C6K-6SLOT-FAN2 (420 CFM, mandatory for Sup32/Sup720)Cisco

Supported Supervisor Engines (Strict Slot & Thermal Compatibility Rules)

1. Fully supported legacy supervisors (Slots 1/2 only): Supervisor Engine 1A (WS-X6K-S1A-MSFC2), Supervisor Engine 2 (WS-X6K-S2-PFC2 / WS-X6K-S2U-MSFC2) with MSFC2 multilayer routing and PFC2 policy feature card
2. Conditional limited support (Slots 5/6 only, high-speed fan tray required): Supervisor Engine 32, Supervisor Engine 720/720-10GE with PFC3BXL daughter card
3. Fully unsupported hardware: Supervisor Engine 2T (S2T), all E-series exclusive high-power ePoE line cards, WS-C6500-SFM fabric modules
4. Redundancy rule: Dual standby supervisors must be identical model with matching MSFC/PFC daughter cards to enable SSO/NSF failover functionality

Supported Line Card & Integrated Service Modules

1. Gigabit copper access modules: 24/48-port 10/100/1000BASE-T, IEEE 802.3af PoE-capable line cards
2. Fiber uplink modules: GBIC-based Gigabit Ethernet, X2 10GE uplink line cards (WS-X6708-10G, WS-X6724-SFP)
3. Integrated Layer 4–7 service modules: FWSM Firewall Services Module, ACE Application Control Engine load balancer, FlexWAN WAN aggregation (T1/E1/OC-3/OC-48 POS), IPsec VPN SPA modules, NAM Network Analysis Module
4. Limitation: High-power ePoE and dense multi-10G E-series line cards cannot be deployed due to backplane and power trace constraints

3. Hardware & Physical Specifications

Core Switching & Routing Performance

• Total passive shared bus backplane capacity: Max 256 Gbps full-duplex system-wide bandwidth
• Wire-speed forwarding rate: Up to 150 Mpps Layer 2 bridging / IPv4 CEF hardware routing (restricted by shared bus architecture)
• Dynamic shared packet buffer pool, size determined by installed supervisor PFC generation
• MAC address table capacity: 32,768 MAC entries (PFC2) / 131,072 MAC entries (PFC3BXL on Sup720)
• IPv4 routing table scale: 64,000 CEF routes (Sup2) / 256,000 CEF routes (Sup720); Sup2 only supports software-only IPv6 forwarding, Sup720 delivers full hardware IPv6 acceleration
• TCAM ACL/QoS/security flow entries: 64,000 (PFC2) / 128,000 (PFC3BXL)
• Maximum VLANs: 4094 standard 802.1Q tagged VLANs, ISL proprietary trunk encapsulation fully supported
• SVI routed inter-VLAN interfaces: Up to 4094 SVIs
• Jumbo frame MTU support: Up to 9198 bytes across all copper/fiber ports
• Link aggregation: Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC), 10GE EtherChannel, maximum 8 ports per logical bundle

Power & Cooling System

• Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots, compatible with 950W / 1300W AC-input or DC-input PSUs; higher wattage 2500W/2700W PSUs are physically incompatible
• AC input voltage range: 100–240V 50/60Hz; optional –48V DC telecom negative power PSU
• Fan tray options: Standard low-speed (227 CFM) for Sup1A/Sup2 only; high-speed (420 CFM) mandatory for Sup32/Sup720 operation
• Airflow path: Fixed front-to-back cold air intake at port panel, hot exhaust from rear power supply compartment
• Real-time hardware monitoring: Fan speed, internal temperature, PSU voltage and module fault alerts via front panel LEDs, console syslog and SNMP traps

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Rack form factor: 12 RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 53.34 cm × 43.97 cm × 40.64 cm (21 × 17.31 × 16 inches)
• Bare chassis weight: 18.1 kg (40 lbs) without power supplies; maximum fully loaded weight 40.8 kg (90 lbs) with dual PSUs, dual supervisors and all six slots populated
• Operating temperature range: 0°C to 40°C (32°F–104°F); certified altitude up to 3000 meters
• Storage temperature range: -40°C to 75°C (-40°F–167°F)
• Relative humidity: 10%–90% non-condensing for operation, 5%–95% non-condensing for storage
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, RoHS compliant

Supervisor Out-of-Band Management Interfaces (Dual Supervisors Identical Ports)

• RJ45 RS232 serial console port for local CLI access
• PCMCIA flash card slot for IOS image storage and configuration backup archives
• Isolated dedicated 10/100BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port
• Dual uplink slots (GBIC/SFP/X2 for 1G/10GE transceivers based on supervisor model)
• Front panel diagnostic LED bank: System status, power, fan, module, port link/activity, fault, UID beacon indicators

4. Full Layer 2 & Layer 3 IOS Feature Set (Cisco IOS 12.1E / 12.2SX / CatOS 8.x)

Layer 2 Switching Features

• IEEE 802.1D STP, 802.1w Rapid STP, 802.1s MSTP multi-instance spanning tree
• 802.1Q trunking + ISL proprietary trunk encapsulation, DTP dynamic trunk negotiation
• VTP v1/v2/v3 VLAN Trunking Protocol, Private VLAN host isolation, Q-in-Q VLAN stacking for service provider multi-tenant segmentation
• Port security, static/dynamic secure MAC address learning, MAC address filtering
• 802.3ad LACP standard EtherChannel link aggregation
• Broadcast/multicast/unicast storm suppression per physical port
• IGMPv1/v2/v3 snooping, CGMP for VoIP and IPTV multicast traffic optimization
• Voice VLAN auto-detection for Cisco IP phone uplink aggregation
• Local SPAN, RSPAN remote traffic mirroring for network monitoring
• 802.3x full-duplex flow control for congestion management

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

• Static IPv4 routing, RIP v1/v2, multi-area OSPFv2, EIGRP, BGPv4 inter-domain routing protocols
• Wire-speed hardware CEF SVI inter-VLAN routing (IPv4 only hardware on Sup2; Sup720 adds native hardware IPv6 forwarding)
• PIM-DM / PIM-SM / PIM-SSM IP multicast routing, MSDP inter-domain multicast support
• ECMP equal-cost multi-path load balancing across multiple 1G/10GE uplink trunks
• Policy-Based Routing (PBR) enabled with IP Services IOS license
• Multi-VRF Lite multi-tenant network segmentation (Sup32/Sup720 only)
• VSS Virtual Switching System multi-chassis virtualization support limited exclusively to Sup720 generation supervisors

Advanced MQC QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Hierarchical Modular QoS Command-Line (MQC) policy framework for granular end-to-end traffic control
• 8 hardware egress priority queues per physical port, bidirectional 802.1p CoS / IP DSCP mapping and re-marking
• Ingress traffic policing, egress bandwidth shaping, packet marking and reclassification
• Pre-built Auto-QoS optimized templates for VoIP telephony, 4K video conferencing and IP surveillance streams
• Dedicated expedite voice priority queue for low-latency IP phone traffic

Enterprise Security Suite

• IEEE 802.1X port-based NAC authentication with RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA identity management
• DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard, uRPF anti-spoofing protection
• Hardware-accelerated Port ACL, VLAN ACL (VACL), Route ACL traffic filtering
• SSHv2 encrypted CLI remote management, SNMPv3 secure monitoring, encrypted startup configuration files
• Control Plane Policing (CoPP) to protect supervisor control CPU from DDoS flood attacks
• Cisco TrustSec security group tagging (Sup720 only)
• Native support for FWSM integrated inline firewall service modules for perimeter security

Monitoring & Management Tools

• NetFlow v9 traffic export; limited Flexible NetFlow functionality only available on Sup720 supervisors
• Isolated out-of-band Ethernet management port for offline device access during production outages
• PCMCIA flash storage for offline IOS image upgrades and configuration backup archives
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) for automatic neighbor device discovery
• Cisco EnergyWise power efficiency monitoring to reduce idle PoE port power consumption

5. High Availability Capabilities (Core Differentiators vs Smaller 6503/6504 Chassis)

1. Dual hot-swappable redundant 950W/1300W AC/DC power supplies delivering 1+1 power failover protection
2. Full OIR Online Insertion and Removal support for fan tray, power supplies, supervisors and all line/service modules; live FRU replacement without chassis power shutdown
3. Dual redundant supervisor deployment (designated paired slots for matching Sup engines): SSO Stateful Switchover, NSF Nonstop Forwarding, ISSU In-Service Software Upgrade for zero-downtime core firmware maintenance
4. Dual redundant variable-speed fan tray options with individual fan fault detection and real-time SNMP fault alerting
5. Four dedicated general line card slots (vs two slots on WS-C6504) for doubled port density and flexible mixing of PoE copper access, fiber uplink and security/WAN service modules
6. Limitation: Passive shared bus backplane creates single fabric failure point; independent SFM switching fabric modules are unsupported on this classic non-E chassis

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Large Enterprise Multi-Building Campus Core Switch
   12RU horizontal rack form factor balances ultra-high port density and expandability; dual redundant supervisors eliminate single point of failure for enterprise-wide multi-building campus backbone, aggregating dozens of building distribution switches via 10GE fiber trunks and supporting campus-wide IPTV unified communications, wireless mobility and centralized surveillance.
2. Ultra-High-Density Multi-Floor Building Distribution Aggregation
   Six-slot design supports mixed full-density PoE copper access and 10G fiber uplink line cards, consolidating thousands of IP phones, workstations and 4K surveillance cameras for entire multi-story office towers without large 9-slot WS-C6509 chassis footprint.
3. Large Regional Mission-Critical Headquarters Core Switch
   Financial, healthcare and government headquarters require complete supervisor + power redundancy to avoid site-wide catastrophic outages, integrating FlexWAN T1/E1 WAN aggregation, FWSM inline firewall and high-density ePoE Wi-Fi AP deployments in a single compact chassis.
4. Medium-to-Large Enterprise Data Center Aggregation / Spine Switch
   Gigabit and 10GE fiber line cards connect hundreds of server racks, storage arrays and virtualization hosts; wire-speed Layer 3 CEF forwarding enables scalable leaf-spine data center architectures with redundant supervisor failover for business-critical database and virtualization workloads.
5. Legacy Catalyst 6000 Series Hardware Upgrade
   Drop-in performance upgrade for aging WS-C6006 chassis, fully backward compatible with legacy Sup2 supervisors and existing GBIC/SFP optical transceivers to extend legacy network hardware lifecycle with increased total backplane bandwidth and extra line card slot capacity.

7. Standard Package Contents

Items Sold Separately (Not Included)

• Supervisor Engine (1A / 2 / 32 / 720 variants; minimum two identical units required for full HA redundancy)
• Dual 950W / 1300W AC or DC hot-swappable redundant power supply units (higher wattage PSUs incompatible)
• Classic 6500 series copper/fiber PoE line cards, FWSM, FlexWAN, ACE, VPN SPA, NAM service modules
• GBIC / SFP / XFP / X2 optical transceivers for supervisor uplink ports
• Optional WS-C6K-6SLOT-FAN2 high-speed fan tray for Sup32/Sup720 operation
• RS232 serial console rollover cable, PCMCIA flash memory cards, fiber patch cords and cable management accessories

Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)