Cisco N2K-C2348TQ-E Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• Core enhanced advantages: 32 MB deep shared dynamic packet buffer for bursty storage, database and virtualization workloads, native lossless FCoE support over CAT6a/CAT7 copper, BiDi transceiver compatibility for existing fiber cable reuse, and a low-power architecture optimized for 1G-to-10G data center migration.
• Uplink flexibility: Six 40G QSFP+ fabric ports each support breakout to four independent 10G SFP+ channels via splitter cables, expanding total uplink capacity to 24×10G ports.
• Carrier-grade redundancy: 1+1 hot-swappable redundant AC power supplies and 2+1 hot-swappable fan trays for nonstop production operation; dual airflow options (port-side exhaust / port-side intake) to match any hot/cold aisle rack layout.

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown & Model Differentiation

Full PN Breakdown

1. N2K: Nexus 2000/2300 Series Fabric Extender product family
2. C2348TQ-E: 1RU enhanced cost-optimized copper FEX chassis model
   • 48 × auto-negotiating 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper host ports
   • T = 10GBASE-T copper host interfaces;Q = Six integrated 40G QSFP+ fabric uplink ports
   • E = Enhanced: Deep shared packet buffers, optimized lossless FCoE transport, BiDi optic support and low-power design for cost-effective 10G migration deployments
3. No fixed airflow preset: Power supply and fan trays are ordered separately to select port-side exhaust (forward airflow) or port-side intake (reverse airflow) cooling direction.

Key Hardware Comparison vs Standard N2K-C2348TQ

Factory Bare Chassis Included Hardware

1. 1RU standard 19-inch EIA horizontal rack-mount passive chassis
2. Rear panel fixed port bank:
   • 48 × auto-sensing 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 copper host ports for virtualization servers, blade servers and entry all-flash storage
   • 6 × 40G QSFP+ fabric uplink ports for parent switch interconnection; each QSFP+ port supports breakout splitter cables to 4×10G SFP+ channels; native BiDi optic compatibility
3. Front panel redundant FRU slots: Dual AC power supply bays, three hot-swappable fan tray slots (2+1 cooling redundancy)
4. Integrated out-of-band management suite: HDMI-format RJ45 serial console, dual 10/100/1000BASE-T out-of-band management Ethernet, USB Type-A diagnostic flash port
5. Full status LED indicators: Global system health, individual power supply fault, fan tray fault, per-port link/activity, UID rack locator beacon
6. Standard 19-inch rack mounting rails, front cable management brackets, hardware installation guide and global safety compliance documentation

Items Not Included (Must Be Ordered Separately)

• Hot-swappable AC power supplies (single PSU for basic operation, dual PSUs mandatory for 1+1 N+1 power redundancy; airflow must match fan tray direction)
• Three hot-swappable fan trays (2+1 redundant cooling; mismatched airflow directions trigger thermal protection shutdown)
• 40G QSFP+ transceivers, BiDi optical modules, passive Twinax DAC, active AOC and 40G-to-4×10G breakout splitter cables for six fabric uplink ports
• Optional accessories: Lockable front door, air filter panel, airflow optimization sleeve, serial console rollover cable

Supported Parent Switch Platforms

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Rear Panel Fixed Ports

1. 48 × 100M/1G/10GBASE-T RJ45 Host Ports
   Triple-speed auto-sensing copper interfaces compliant with IEEE 802.3an 10GBASE-T and IEEE DCB lossless standards (802.1Qbb PFC, 802.1Qaz ETS). Delivers lossless FCoE transmission over CAT6a/CAT7 cabling with maximum 30-meter reach. All Layer 2 switching, SAN and security policies are enforced centrally on the parent switch rather than the FEX itself.
2. 6 × 40G QSFP+ Fabric Uplink Ports
   Wire-speed 40G Ethernet/FCoE uplinks for high-capacity leaf-spine fabric connectivity to upstream parent aggregation/spine switches. Each QSFP+ port breaks out to four independent 10G channels via dedicated splitter cables, expanding total uplink 10G capacity to 24 ports. Native BiDi transceiver support enables reuse of existing single-fiber rack cabling infrastructure. All six uplinks can be bundled into LACP port-channels for load balancing and full link failure redundancy.

Front Panel Redundant FRU Slots

1. Two independent hot-swappable AC power supply bays (1+1 redundant deployment supported for nonstop production operation)
2. Three independent hot-swappable fan tray slots (2+1 N+1 cooling architecture eliminates single cooling failure points)

Front Panel LED Status Array

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Total host port capacity: 48×10G wire-speed downlink ports, total 480 Gbps aggregate host bandwidth
2. Fabric uplink bandwidth: 6×40G full-duplex uplinks, total 240 Gbps aggregate upstream bandwidth
3. Fixed oversubscription ratio: 2:1 (480G host bandwidth / 240G uplink bandwidth)
4. Full-duplex switching capacity: 480 Gbps; wire-speed forwarding throughput: 2160 Mpps (64-byte minimum frame size)
5. Dynamic shared packet buffer: 32 MB user-configurable deep shared buffer, optimized for bursty virtualization, OLTP database, big-data and FCoE storage workloads
6. VLAN support: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q VLANs, configured and managed exclusively on the parent switch
7. Port-channel scaling: Supports up to 16 physical host ports per LACP host port-channel / vPC trunk
8. Zero-touch provisioning: Automatic firmware synchronization, configuration download and bulk firmware upgrades triggered via a singleinstall allcommand on the parent switch
9. Hardware offload & lossless features (controlled by parent NX-OS):
   • IEEE DCB standards (PFC Priority Flow Control, ETS Enhanced Transmission Selection) for lossless FCoE transport over copper host ports
   • vPC dual-homing, PVLAN private VLAN, MSTP multi-instance spanning tree, four-level hardware QoS traffic classification per port
   • VNTag virtual machine-aware traffic tagging for multi-tenant virtualized environments
   • Jumbo frame support up to 9216-byte MTU for storage and big-data workloads
   • Expanded buffer utilization and granular drop debug counters for storage burst troubleshooting

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 1 RU (43.7 mm height), standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 43.7 mm × 439.4 mm × 433.6 mm (1.72 × 17.3 × 17.07 inches)
• Bare chassis weight (no PSUs/fans/transceivers): ~7.8 kg (17.2 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (dual PSUs + three fans + full transceivers): ~10.0 kg (22.0 lbs)
• Operating temperature range: 0°C ~ 40°C (32°F ~ 104°F); certified altitude up to 3,000 meters
• Storage temperature range: -40°C ~ 70°C (-40°F ~ 158°F)
• Operating relative humidity: 8%–80% non-condensing; storage humidity 5%–95% non-condensing
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, GR63 seismic compliance, RoHS 6 validated

AC Power Supply FRU Specifications (Sold Separately)

• Input: Universal 90–264V AC, 47–63Hz
• Typical full-load power consumption: 260W with all 48 host ports active; maximum 310W peak power draw
• Hot-swappable OIR replacement, supports 1+1 redundant power deployment

5. NX-OS Feature Set (Managed Centrally on Parent Switch)

Layer 2 Ethernet & Converged FCoE Fabric

• Single centralized management plane; all FEX ports appear as logical HIF (Host Interface) interfaces on the parent NX-OS switch
• 802.1Q VLAN tagging, PVLAN private VLAN isolation (max 4094 VLANs)
• MSTP multi-instance spanning tree, vPC dual-active peer-link redundancy for server high availability
• Hardware slow drain detection and buffer credit isolation to eliminate FCoE packet loss over copper host ports
• NPV/NPIV FCoE edge virtualization for unified LAN-SAN data center convergence
• POAP zero-touch automatic provisioning for mass rack FEX deployment
• Port security, static MAC locking to restrict unauthorized server/storage device attachment
• Auto-sensing 100M/1G/10G operation on all RJ45 host ports without transceiver replacement

QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Four hardware priority queues per port (10GBASE-T copper and 40G QSFP+ uplinks)
• Ingress policing, egress bandwidth shaping to throttle low-priority tape backup and replication traffic
• Pre-built QoS templates optimized for OLTP databases, all-flash NVMe storage, virtual server farms and big-data clusters
• DCBX auto-negotiation for lossless FCoE LAN/SAN traffic over CAT6a/CAT7 copper cabling
• Configurable per-port queue limits and shared buffer allocation to prevent buffer starvation for latency-sensitive workloads

Monitoring & Automation Tools

• Cisco DCNM centralized converged fabric monitoring, provisioning and REST API automation
• Real-time streaming telemetry: port throughput, latency, frame error counters, QSFP optical transmit power, detailed buffer utilization statistics
• Fault alert notifications via email, syslog and SNMP v1/v2c/v3
• GOLD Generic Online Diagnostics for continuous FEX hardware health validation without production traffic interruption
• Unified bulk firmware upgrade: Single CLI command on parent switch upgrades all attached FEX devices simultaneously

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N2K-C2348TQ-E Bare Chassis

1. Cost-optimized 1G-to-10G data center migration: Low-power enhanced-buffer design reuses existing CAT6a copper cabling infrastructure, delivering smooth 10G server access migration with mild 2:1 oversubscription suitable for general enterprise IT workloads.
2. Mid-market enterprise unified LAN/FCoE storage rack: Deep 32MB buffer absorbs storage traffic bursts, supporting lossless FCoE over copper for medium-scale all-flash storage arrays without costly all-fiber infrastructure upgrades.
3. Blade server rack high-density access extension: Compact 1RU form factor pairs with multi-blade server enclosures, expanding 10G copper port density while preserving high-value 40G uplink ports on upstream parent spine switches.
4. Distributed storage & big-data cluster rack aggregation: Enhanced deep buffer architecture handles bursty traffic from distributed file systems and big-data compute nodes, minimizing packet loss during peak workloads.
5. Medium multi-tenant service provider PoP leaf access: High-density 10G copper rack-level port expansion with complete VLAN/VSAN tenant isolation controlled centrally on the upstream core parent switch; flexible six 40G uplinks support multi-link port-channels for tenant traffic separation.

7. Standard Package Contents of N2K-C2348TQ-E Bare Chassis SKU

Separately Mandatory Components (Not Included in This Bare Chassis Bundle)

• One or two hot-swappable AC power supplies (dual PSUs recommended for N+1 power redundancy, airflow matched to fan trays)
• Three matching airflow hot-swappable fan trays (three fans required for 2+1 cooling redundancy; airflow must align with power supplies to avoid thermal protection faults)
• 40G QSFP+ transceivers, BiDi optics, Twinax DAC breakout splitter cables for six fabric uplink QSFP+ ports
• Optional feature software licenses: All fabric, routing and storage features are licensed on the upstream parent Nexus switch; no separate FEX licenses required
• HDMI-format serial console rollover cable, mini USB console cable, fiber/copper patch cords, rack cable management accessories, lockable front door, air filter panel

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation