Cisco Catalyst WS-C6880-X Full English Product Description

1. Short Sales Title

2. Official Product Overview

1. WS-C6880-X: Standard large forwarding tables (2M IPv4 routes, expanded TCAM) for carrier PoP and large campus core
2. WS-C6880-X-LE: Limited-entry smaller table scale for mid-size enterprise campus distribution

1. Extensible modular design with four half-wide hot-swappable port card slots, supporting flexible expansion of 10G SFP+, 40G QSFP line cards up to total 80×10G ports per chassis (16 fixed base + 4×16-port modular cards)Cisco
2. Massive 2 Tbps single-chassis non-blocking fabric, double the capacity of WS-C6840-X 960 Gbps platform, optimized for leaf-spine data center and MPLS backbone high-throughput workloadsCisco
3. Heavy-duty 3000W high-wattage redundant power supplies supporting full-density multi-10G/40G port card loads without power constraints (legacy 6500 non-E limited to 1300W max PSUs)Cisco
4. Native Supervisor 2T architecture with industry-leading route/TCAM scale: up to 2 million IPv4 CEF routes, 128,000 hardware IPv6 entries, 128k TCAM security/QoS flows, and full Flexible NetFlow scale for multi-tenant virtualization
5. VSS Virtual Switching System to pair two WS-C6880-X into a single logical redundant core with SSO Stateful Switchover, NSF Nonstop Forwarding and ISSU In-Service Software Upgrade for zero-downtime core firmware maintenanceCisco
6. Side right-to-left airflow (intake right, exhaust left) with high-capacity redundant fan tray, supporting full thermal load under fully populated port card configurations
7. Integrated enterprise + carrier-grade feature set including full MPLS, VPLS, EVPN, Cisco Instant Access remote access switch virtualization, TrustSec MACsec encryption, Medianet video optimization and AVC application visibility

Model Suffix Breakdown

• WS-C: Cisco Catalyst LAN Switch Platform Identifier
• 6880-X: Catalyst 6800-X extensible modular aggregation series, 16 fixed base 10G SFP/SFP+ ports + four half-wide modular port card slots
• No LE suffix: Large extended forwarding table variant (2M IPv4 routes, carrier-grade scale)
• LE suffix: Limited-entry reduced table size for mid-size enterprise deployments

Chassis Port Layout Definition

1. Front Fixed Base Uplink/Downlink Ports: 16×dual-speed SFP/SFP+ slots supporting 1G SFP or 10G SFP+ optical transceivers (permanent base ports integrated on chassis backplane)
2. Front Modular Port Card Slots: 4×half-wide hot-swappable empty slots for pluggable port cards (C6880-X-16P10G 16×10G SFP+ modules; each card adds 16×10G ports, max total 80×10G system-wide)Cisco
3. Out-of-Band Management Interfaces:
   • RJ45 RS232 serial console port
   • Mini USB console port
   • Isolated dedicated 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port
   • External USB Type-A flash storage slot for IOS image upgrades, configuration backup and syslog export
4. Front Diagnostic LED Bank: Global system status, power (PS1/PS2), fan tray, modular port card, port link/activity, fault alarm, UID blue beacon indicator
5. Rear Compartment Layout:
   • Dual independent hot-swappable 3000W power supply bays supporting 1+1 N+1 power redundancy
   • Single integrated multi-fan hot-swappable variable-speed fan tray (C6880-X-FAN)
6. Airflow Specification: Right-to-left side airflow (cold air intake right side panel, hot air exhaust left side panel; incompatible with standard front-to-back cold aisle rack design)Cisco

Supported Modular Port Cards, Transceivers & Power Options

1. Modular port cards: C6880-X-16P10G (16×SFP/SFP+ 10G half-wide card); 40G QSFP line card support for high-speed backbone uplinks
2. Optical transceivers: All Cisco SFP (1G), SFP+ (10G SR/LR/ER/ZR), QSFP (40G SR4/LR4) fiber modules
3. Power supply variants: C6880-X-3KW-AC (3000W AC hot-swap PSU), C6880-X-3KW-DC (3000W –48V DC telecom negative power PSU)
4. No PoE support; purpose-built for backbone aggregation, server virtualization and service provider PoP workloads only

3. Hardware & Physical Specifications

Core Switching & Routing Performance

• Single-chassis non-blocking fabric total capacity: 2 Tbps full-duplex
• Wire-speed forwarding rate: 1500 Mpps Layer 2 bridging, full hardware CEF IPv4 and native hardware-accelerated IPv6 routing
• Dynamic shared low-latency packet buffer pool: 64 MB global buffer for bursty video, virtualization and multi-tenant VPN traffic
• System memory: 8 GB high-speed SDRAM, 16 GB internal flash storage, expandable via external USB flash
• MAC address table capacity: 1,048,576 MAC entries (1M scale for large PoP/server virtualization deployments)
• Routing table scale (WS-C6880-X non-LE): IPv4 2,097,152 (2M) CEF FIB routes; IPv6 131,072 hardware forwarding routes
• TCAM ACL/QoS/security flow entries: 128,000 concurrent shared TCAM entries
• Flexible NetFlow v9 scale: Up to 3 million concurrent flow records system-wide for deep application visibility
• Maximum VLANs: 4094 standard 802.1Q tagged VLANs, ISL legacy trunking supported for interoperability
• SVI routed inter-VLAN interfaces: Up to 4094 SVIs
• Jumbo frame MTU support: Up to 9216 bytes MTU for bridged and routed traffic
• Link aggregation: Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC), 10GE EtherChannel, 40GE EtherChannel; maximum 8 ports per logical bundle
• VSS dual-chassis combined fabric capacity: 4 Tbps full-duplex non-blocking

Power & Cooling System

• Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots enabling 1+1 N+1 power failover protection, dual 3000W max total power delivery
• AC input voltage range: 100–240V 50/60Hz; DC input range: –40.5 ~ –72 VDC telecom negative power
• Fan tray: Integrated multi-fan variable-speed hot-swappable assembly with per-fan fault detection; single fan failure triggers SNMP alert without throughput degradation
• Airflow direction: Right-to-left side intake, left exhaust
• Real-time hardware monitoring: Fan RPM, internal chassis temperature, PSU voltage, module and transceiver fault logging via console syslog and SNMP v1/v2c/v3 traps

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Rack form factor: 4 RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 17.78 cm × 44.45 cm × 48.26 cm (7 × 17.5 × 19 inches)
• Bare chassis weight: 21.77 kg (48 lbs) without power supplies/fan tray; fully loaded max weight 39.92 kg (88 lbs) with dual 3000W PSUs, full fan tray and four populated 16-port 10G modular cardsCisco
• Operating temperature range: 0°C to 40°C (32°F–104°F); certified altitude up to 2000 meters
• Storage temperature range: -20°C to 65°C (-4°F–149°F)
• Relative humidity: 5%–90% non-condensing operating; 5%–95% non-condensing storage
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, RoHS compliant
• MTBF: 320,000 hours under standard data center and service provider PoP operating conditions

4. Full Layer 2 & Layer 3 IOS Feature Set (Cisco IOS 15SX Universal Image)

Layer 2 Switching Features

• IEEE 802.1D STP, 802.1w Rapid STP, 802.1s MSTP multi-instance spanning tree (10,000 MST instances)
• 802.1Q trunking + ISL legacy 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 across mixed 1G/10G/40G ports
• 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, ESPAN enhanced remote traffic mirroring (8 bidirectional wire-speed monitoring sessions)
• 802.3x full-duplex flow control for congestion management
• Cisco Instant Access: Remote access switches function as virtual remote line cards of WS-C6880-X for unified policy managementCisco

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

• Static routing, RIP v1/v2, multi-area OSPFv2, EIGRP, BGPv4/BGPv6 inter-domain routing protocols
• Wire-speed hardware CEF SVI inter-VLAN routing for native IPv4 and fully hardware-accelerated IPv6 forwarding
• Complete carrier-grade MPLS service suite: MPLS LDP, VPLS, VPWS, EVPN readiness, MPLS VPN IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack, MPLS over GRE
• PIM-DM / PIM-SM / PIM-SSM IP multicast routing, MSDP inter-domain multicast support
• ECMP equal-cost multi-path load balancing across mixed 1G/10G/40G uplink trunks
• Policy-Based Routing (PBR) enabled with IP Services IOS license
• Multi-VRF Lite multi-tenant network segmentation for enterprise and service provider PoP deployments
• VSS Virtual Switching System: Pair two WS-C6880-X chassis via 10G/40G VSL links into a single logical redundant switch supporting SSO Stateful Switchover, NSF Nonstop Forwarding and ISSU In-Service Software Upgrade for zero-downtime core firmware maintenanceCisco

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 real-time unified communications traffic
• Medianet media optimization for enterprise video and telepresence workloads

Enterprise & Service Provider Security Suite

• IEEE 802.1X port-based NAC authentication with RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA identity management, Cisco ISE 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 10G/40G fiber uplink ports (Cisco TrustSec)
• 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 for end-to-end policy segmentation across campus and data center domains
• Native compatibility for external firewall, IDS/IPS and load balancer service appliances

Monitoring & Management Tools

• Flexible NetFlow v9 full wire-speed flow export for deep application visibility and traffic analytics (up to 3M concurrent flows)
• Isolated out-of-band Ethernet management port for offline device access during production outages
• USB flash storage for offline IOS image upgrades, configuration backup archives and syslog export
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) for automatic neighbor device discovery
• Smart Install zero-touch automated mass switch provisioning for access layer deployments
• Cisco EnergyWise power efficiency monitoring to reduce idle port power consumption
• Real-time environmental telemetry and fault alerting via SNMP, email and syslog

5. High Availability Capabilities (Core Differentiators vs WS-C6840-X Fixed Switch & Legacy WS-C6509 Non-E)

1. Dual hot-swappable high-wattage 3000W AC/DC redundant power supplies (1+1 power failover protection, stable under full 80×10G port load)
2. Redundant variable-speed hot-swappable fan tray with individual fan fault detection and real-time SNMP fault alerting
3. Full OIR Online Insertion and Removal support for fan tray, power supplies and modular port cards; live FRU replacement without chassis power shutdown
4. VSS multi-chassis virtual switching with sub-second Layer 2/Layer 3 convergence, SSO, NSF and ISSU zero-downtime firmware upgrades (exclusive to Catalyst 6800-X series)
5. Extensible modular port card slots for flexible expansion of 10G/40G port density without full chassis replacement
6. Massively expanded routing tables, TCAM and Flexible NetFlow scale optimized for MPLS carrier PoP and large virtualization leaf-spine data center architectures
7. Supervisor 2T high-performance ASIC architecture delivering full hardware IPv6 acceleration and 2M IPv4 route capacity unavailable on legacy Sup2/Sup720 6500 non-E chassis
8. Heavy-duty power rails supporting full-density multi-10G port card loads unsupported on low-wattage 6500 non-E PSUs

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Medium-to-Large Enterprise Data Center Aggregation / Spine Switch
   16 fixed base 10G ports + four modular 16×10G port cards deliver up to 80×10G downlinks connecting server racks, storage arrays and virtualization hosts; mixed 10G/40G uplinks form scalable leaf-spine architectures with VSS multi-switch virtualization for mission-critical enterprise data center east-west traffic workloads.
2. Large Multi-Building Enterprise Campus Core Backbone Switch
   4RU horizontal rack form factor balances extreme port expandability and unified Catalyst IOS feature compatibility; dual redundant supervisors eliminate single point of failure for enterprise-wide multi-building campus backbone, aggregating dozens of Catalyst 9300/3850 PoE access switches and supporting campus-wide IPTV unified communications, wireless mobility domains and centralized 4K surveillance for tens of thousands of end-users.
3. Large Regional Mission-Critical Headquarters / Government Core Switch
   Financial, healthcare and government headquarters require complete supervisor, power and cooling redundancy to avoid site-wide catastrophic outages; integrates MPLS metro Ethernet WAN aggregation, inter-VLAN routing and multi-VRF multi-tenant segmentation in a single unified extensible chassis without oversized 13-slot WS-C6513 rack footprint.
4. Service Provider Mid-Size PoP Edge Aggregation Switch
   Native full MPLS/VPLS/EVPN carrier-grade feature set and 2M IPv4 routing table capacity make WS-C6880-X ideal for carrier PoP edge deployments, terminating hundreds of 10G enterprise customer access circuits and 40G core backbone trunks with massive forwarding scale for VPN service delivery.
5. Legacy Catalyst 6509-E Modular Campus Core Upgrade Replacement
   Drop-in performance upgrade for WS-C6509-E modular chassis deployments; unified IOS feature compatibility with existing Catalyst 6500-E network infrastructure while unlocking higher 2 Tbps fabric capacity, modular port card expandability, Supervisor 2T ASIC scale and simplified fixed-extensible rack form factor.

7. Standard Package Contents

Items Sold Separately (Not Included)

• C6880-X-3KW-AC / C6880-X-3KW-DC hot-swappable 3000W redundant power supply units
• C6880-X-FAN integrated hot-swappable variable-speed fan tray (airflow-specific, non-interchangeable with 6840-X fan trays)
• C6880-X-16P10G half-wide 16×SFP/SFP+ modular port cards
• SFP (1G) / SFP+ (10G) / QSFP (40G) optical fiber transceivers for base fixed ports and modular port card slots
• RS232 serial console rollover cable, mini USB console cable
• USB flash memory sticks for IOS image and configuration storage
• Fiber patch cords, cable management accessories, rack cable guides

Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)