Cisco N3K-C3048TP-1GE Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

• Core model identifier breakdown:TP = Twisted Pair copper downlinks; 1GE = Base Gigabit copper platform variant; this base chassis does not include transceivers, power supplies or fan modules (all FRUs ordered separately).
• Key value propositions: Cost-effective 1G server rack access consolidation, unified LAN/FCoE compatibility with Nexus 2000/2300 FEX devices, deterministic low latency, large shared packet buffer for bursty virtualization and storage workloads, and single-pane management via Cisco DCNM alongside the full Nexus fabric portfolio.

2. Part Number Suffix Breakdown & Model Variation

Full PN Breakdown

1. N3K: Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Layer 2/3 data center switch family
2. C3048TP-1GE: Fixed 1RU copper ToR switch chassis
   • 3048: Base platform with 48 downlink ports
   • TP = Twisted Pair RJ45 Gigabit copper host interfaces
   • 1GE = Base Gigabit copper chassis variant, no factory pre-installed optics or power modules
3. Airflow flexibility: Separate forward (port-side exhaust) and reverse (port-side intake) power supply and fan tray FRUs are available to match hot/cold aisle standardized rack cooling layouts.

Hardware Comparison Table

Factory Bare Chassis Included Hardware

1. 1RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack-mount passive switch chassis
2. Rear panel port bank:
   • 48 × auto-sensing 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 copper downlink ports for rack virtualization servers, storage appliances
   • 4 × SFP+ multi-purpose uplink slots supporting 1G/10G Ethernet SR/LR/ER optical transceivers, passive Twinax DAC, active AOC fiber cables
3. Front panel integrated out-of-band management subsystem:
   • RJ45 RS232 hybrid serial console port
   • 10/100/1000BASE-T dedicated out-of-band MGMT Ethernet port
   • USB Type-A flash storage port for offline firmware upload, config backup and POAP provisioning files
4. Full front-panel LED status array: Global system health, PSU fault alarm, fan tray fault, per-port link/activity indicators, blue UID locator beacon for maintenance asset identification
5. Standard 19-inch rack mounting rails, front cable management brackets, hardware installation guide and global safety & regulatory compliance documentation
6. No transceivers, power supplies or fan trays pre-installed (all FRUs sold separately as spare parts)

Items Not Included (Must Be Ordered Separately)

• Hot-swappable AC or DC redundant power supplies (400W rating, forward or reverse airflow variants; dual PSUs recommended for 1+1 power redundancy)
• Single hot-swappable fan tray with dual redundant internal fans; airflow direction must match installed power supply modules
• SFP+ transceivers for 4 uplink ports: 1G/10G SR/LR/ER optical modules, Twinax DAC, active AOC fiber cables
• Optional accessories: Serial console rollover cable, out-of-band management Ethernet patch cord, lockable front door, air filter panel

Supported Parent & Fabric Compatibility

• Works with Cisco Nexus 5500/5600/6000/7000/7700 aggregation/core switches
• Compatible with Nexus 2000/2300 blade & rack FEX devices for end-to-end unified LAN/FCoE fabric
• Minimum NX-OS firmware version: 6.0(2)U6(1) for full Layer 2/3 feature activation
• FCoE lossless transport only functional with N5K/N6K parent platforms; Nexus 9000 Ethernet-only operation without FCoE support

3. Hardware Port & Slot Layout

Rear Panel Downlink & Uplink Ports

1. 48 × 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 Copper Host Ports
   Triple-speed auto-negotiation compliant with IEEE 802.3ab Gigabit Ethernet standards, supporting full/half duplex, auto MDI-X cable detection. Designed for direct server, virtualization host and storage appliance access; supports jumbo frames up to 9216-byte MTU and DCB lossless FCoE over CAT6a copper cabling. All Layer 2 switching, ACL and QoS policies are enforced locally on the switch hardware.
2. 4 × SFP+ 1/10G Uplink Ports
   Wire-speed multi-purpose fiber uplink ports for upstream connectivity to core aggregation switches. Each slot accepts standard 1G or 10G optical/cable transceivers; all four uplinks can be bundled into LACP port-channels to support vPC dual-active high-availability fabric topologies, eliminating STP blocked links and maximizing uplink bandwidth utilization.

Front Panel Redundant FRU Slots & Management Interfaces

1. Dual hot-swappable AC/DC power supply bays (1+1 redundant deployment for non-disruptive live PSU replacement without switch reboot)
2. Single hot-swappable fan tray slot containing two redundant internal fans; airflow direction locked by matching fan/PSU FRU selection (forward = port exhaust, reverse = port intake)
3. Dedicated out-of-band management block: Serial console, MGMT Ethernet port and USB flash port for offline configuration and firmware management independent of data plane traffic.

Front Panel LED Status Array

• Global health LED: Solid green = normal running state, solid amber = critical hardware fault
• Separate fault indicator LEDs for each power supply and fan tray assembly
• Per-port dual-color link/activity LEDs for all 48 RJ45 downlinks and 4 SFP+ uplink ports
• Blue UID beacon LED activated remotely via CLI to locate the switch rack unit during maintenance.

4. Hardware Performance Specifications

1. Total downlink bandwidth: 48 × 1G wire-speed ports, aggregate 48 Gbps full-duplex host bandwidth
2. Total uplink bandwidth: 4 × 10G full-duplex SFP+ ports, aggregate 40 Gbps upstream fabric bandwidth
3. Fixed oversubscription ratio: 2:1 (48G host bandwidth / 40G uplink bandwidth)
4. Total non-blocking switching fabric capacity: 176 Gbps full-duplex
5. Wire-speed forwarding throughput: 132 Mpps at minimum 64-byte Ethernet frames (all ports operate at full line rate L2/L3)
6. Shared packet buffer: 9 MB dynamic configurable shared buffer architecture optimized for virtualization, OLTP database and bursty FCoE storage workloads
7. MAC address table capacity: 128,000 MAC address entries
8. VLAN scaling: Up to 4094 standard IEEE 802.1Q tagged VLANs
9. Spanning tree support: 512 RSTP instances, 64 MSTP instances
10. Port-channel scaling: Max 52 EtherChannels (vPC compatible), up to 16 physical ports per LACP port-channel
11. Zero-touch POAP provisioning: Automatic firmware sync and configuration download via DHCP on first boot
12. Hardware lossless & offload features (NX-OS controlled):
    • IEEE 802.1Qbb PFC and 802.1Qaz ETS DCB lossless transport for FCoE unified LAN/SAN convergence
    • vPC, FEX vPC and Enhanced vPC (EvPC) redundant Layer 2 multipathing
    • Four-tier hardware QoS priority queues per port with WRR/DRR scheduling
    • PVLAN private VLAN isolation, UDLD link monitoring, broadcast/multicast storm control
    • IEEE 1588 PTP boundary clock for precise time synchronization in financial and big-data environments
    • Built-in Ethanalyzer Wireshark-based packet capture tool for control-plane troubleshooting
    • Jumbo frame support up to 9216-byte MTU for storage replication workloads

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Form Factor: 1 RU (43.7 mm height) standard 19-inch rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 43.7 mm × 439.4 mm × 500 mm (1.72 × 17.3 × 19.7 inches)
• Bare chassis weight (no PSUs, fans, transceivers): ~5.7 kg (12.6 lbs)
• Fully loaded maximum weight (dual PSUs + fan tray + full uplink transceivers): ~7.8 kg (17.2 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: 10%–85% 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)

• AC input range: 100–240 VAC, 50/60 Hz, typical efficiency 89–91%
• DC input range: -40 to -72 VDC negative DC telecom power
• Typical full-load power consumption: 120W with all 48 downlink ports active
• Typical heat dissipation: 409 BTU/hour at full load
• Hot-swappable OIR replacement; no full switch reboot required during PSU swap

5. NX-OS Software Feature Set (Centrally Managed via CLI / Cisco DCNM)

Layer 2 Core Data Center Features

• IEEE 802.1Q trunking, PVLAN private VLAN isolation, transparent VTP mode
• RSTP/MSTP spanning tree with BPDU guard, root guard and UDLD aggressive mode
• Static & dynamic LACP EtherChannels, vPC dual-active high availability to eliminate STP bottlenecks
• DHCP snooping, dynamic ARP inspection, port security MAC locking, broadcast storm control
• DCB PFC/ETS lossless Ethernet for Fibre Channel over Ethernet unified storage access
• IEEE 1588 PTP precision time synchronization for latency-sensitive financial workloads

Layer 3 Routing Features (Requires N3K-BAS1K9 Base License)

• Unicast routing: Static routes, OSPFv2, EIGRP, RIPv2, BGP-4, 32-way ECMP multi-path load balancing
• Multicast routing: IGMPv2/v3, PIM-SM, MSDP for video streaming and storage replication traffic
• First-hop redundancy protocols: HSRP, VRRP for gateway failover
• Hardware IP ACLs, prefix lists, route redistribution and route-map traffic segmentation policies
• Maximum routing table capacity: 16,000 IPv4 prefix entries, 8,000 multicast routes

Security, Monitoring & Automation Tools

• AAA authentication (TACACS+/RADIUS/Local user database), SSHv2 encrypted management sessions
• SNMP v1/v2c/v3, remote syslog logging, RMON traffic statistics collection
• Cisco DCNM single-pane graphical fabric monitoring, automated provisioning and REST API integration
• GOLD online non-disruptive hardware diagnostics for continuous switch health monitoring
• Bulk fleet-wide firmware upgrade via single parent switch CLI command for uniform fabric rollouts
• Real-time streaming telemetry for port latency, buffer utilization and error counter visibility

6. Typical Deployment Scenarios for N3K-C3048TP-1GE Bare Chassis

1. Enterprise Gigabit virtualization server rack ToR access: 48-port copper design reuses existing CAT6 structured cabling infrastructure for legacy 1G server migration, with four flexible 10G fiber uplinks to upstream core aggregation switches and mild 2:1 oversubscription balanced for general IT virtualization workloads.
2. Mid-market big-data & HPC cluster rack aggregation: Large shared buffer architecture absorbs bursty parallel compute cluster traffic, low power consumption reduces rack cooling load, and vPC high availability eliminates single points of failure for distributed storage clusters.
3. Small-scale unified LAN/FCoE data center edge: Compatible with Nexus 2000 blade FEX devices for mixed blade + rack server consolidation, supporting lossless FCoE over copper to eliminate separate SAN access switches for small storage deployments.
4. Cost-optimized legacy 1G data center refresh: Low entry-cost bare chassis SKU allows customers to select airflow-matched power/fan FRUs and custom uplink transceivers based on existing facility cooling and fiber cabling standards, avoiding over-provisioned 40G high-density hardware for pure Gigabit server environments.
5. Multi-tenant service provider low-density PoP leaf access: 48 copper ports isolate tenant general-purpose server traffic via independent VLAN segmentation, four 10G uplinks support multi-link LACP port-channels for high-bandwidth tenant traffic separation, with centralized policy management on upstream core Nexus switches.

7. Standard Package Contents of N3K-C3048TP-1GE Bare Chassis SKU

Separately Mandatory Components (Not Included in Base Chassis Bundle)

• One or two hot-swappable AC/DC power supplies (forward or reverse airflow variant selected to match fan trays; dual PSUs recommended for 1+1 power redundancy)
• One matching airflow hot-swappable fan tray (required for system cooling; mismatched airflow modules trigger thermal protection shutdown)
• SFP+ 1G/10G transceivers, Twinax DAC and active AOC fiber cables for four uplink SFP+ ports
• Optional feature software licenses: N3K-BAS1K9 base license required to unlock full Layer 3 routing functionality; Layer 2 switching features active without license activation
• Auxiliary accessories: RJ45 serial console rollover cable, out-of-band management Ethernet patch cords, lockable front door, air filter panel

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation