Cisco C9400-LC-12QC Full Product Description

1. Short Overview

Suffix Breakdown

• C9400: Catalyst 9400 modular core/aggregation switch platform
• LC: Line Card modular high-speed uplink module
• 12: Total 12 front-facing QSFP port slots
• QC: Quad-speed QSFP+/QSFP28 multi-rate interface (40G QSFP+ native, upgradable to 100G QSFP28 on ports 9–12; Q = QSFP+, C = 100G-capable QSFP28)

Critical Compatibility Restriction

Core Differentiators

1. vs C9400-LC-24XY: LC-24XY maxes at 25G SFP28; LC-12QC supports native 40G and 100G high-density backbone uplinks for data center core/spine.
2. vs 1G/10G fiber line cards (LC-24S / LC-24XS): Delivers far higher single-port bandwidth for fabric interconnection, optimized for core backbone instead of campus access aggregation.
3. vs copper PoE line cards (LC-48H/48HN): Pure high-speed fiber uplink module without inline PoE, designed for long-distance core trunking rather than end-user wired access.

2. Hardware & Bandwidth Specifications

Port Speed Modes & Port Group Rules

1. Default Mode (40G All Ports): Ports 1–12 run 40G QSFP+ natively; each QSFP+ port can breakout to 4×10G via QSA adapters for 10G leaf downlinks.
2. 100G High-Speed Mode (enable mode 100G CLI required):
   • Ports 9–12 support 100G QSFP28 or 4×25G via QSA adapters
   • Each active 100G/25G port on 9–12 disables one paired port from group 5–8 (bandwidth partitioning constraint)
     Supported transceivers & adapters:

• QSFP+: 40GBASE-SR4/LR4/ER4 fiber optics, QSFP+ copper twinax
• QSFP28: 100GBASE-SR4/LR4 single/multimode fiber transceivers
• QSA (QSFP-to-SFP28 adapter): Breaks out each QSFP port into four independent 10G or 25G SFP28 channels

Backplane Bandwidth & Throughput

• Per-slot full non-blocking bandwidth: 480 Gbps bidirectional (only with C9400X-SUP-2XL flagship supervisors)
• Aggregate full-duplex peak throughput: 480 Gbps for all 12 ports simultaneously
• Jumbo frame support: Layer 2–Layer 4 jumbo frames up to 9216 bytes for large cloud/server workloads

Built-In Hardware Acceleration

1. IEEE 802.1AE MACsec-256 port-level hardware encryption for secure core fiber backbone transport
2. IEEE 1588v2 / 802.1AS PTP hardware timing for low-latency audio/video broadcast and industrial control networks
3. Wire-speed L2/L3/L4 ACL filtering, QoS policing, NAT, and full IPv4/IPv6 routing forwarding

Physical & Power Parameters

• Form Factor: Standard full-width Catalyst 9400 line card, fits all empty line card slots of C9404R / C9407R / C9410R chassis
• Typical full-load power consumption: 260W
• Rated MTBF: 486,750 hours under nominal standard operating environment
• Asset tracking: Front-mounted passive UHF RFID tag for enterprise network asset lifecycle management
• Cooling: Passive multi-heatsink design, relies entirely on chassis side-to-side shared airflow; no independent onboard fan
• No PoE function: This module does not supply IEEE 802.3af/at/bt inline power to connected end devices

Maximum Chassis Port Density (Fully Populated with LC-12QC)

Supported Supervisor Engines

3. Front Panel Layout & Status LEDs

1. 12 QSFP+/QSFP28 port slots arranged in two horizontal rows (6 ports per row)
2. Per-port bi-color link/activity LED for each transceiver slot:
   • Solid Green: Valid optical link, normal operational status
   • Blinking Green: Bidirectional data transmission/reception
   • Solid Amber: Link down, missing transceiver, port error or hardware fault alarm
3. Global module status indicators at card edge:
   • STATUS LED: Green = online fully operational; Amber = booting/initialization/warning; Red = critical module failure
   • LOCATE blue beacon LED: Activated remotely to identify the line card during rack maintenance
4. Dual mechanical ejector latches on both sides to support OIR hot insertion/removal without full chassis power shutdown

4. IOS XE Comprehensive Software Feature Set

Layer 2 Campus Switching Functions

• IEEE 802.1Q VLAN trunking (4096 maximum VLANs), PVLAN private VLAN segmentation for multi-tenant isolation
• Cross-line-card LACP/PAGP EtherChannel link aggregation for redundant high-speed core trunks
• RSTP/MSTP spanning tree suite with BPDU guard, root guard, loop guard and UplinkFast fast convergence
• DHCP Snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard and MAC address port security
• IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet to reduce power draw on idle unused ports

Layer 3 & SD-Access EVPN Fabric Capabilities

• Hardware-accelerated IPv4 / IPv6 unicast & multicast routing (static routes, OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, IS-IS, MPLS L3VPN/VPLS edge features)
• Up to 32-way ECMP equal-cost multi-path uplink load balancing for fabric resiliency
• Native hardware VXLAN EVPN data plane forwarding for Cisco SD-Access enterprise fabric core/border nodes
• Anycast gateway, LISP host mobility and large-scale overlay multi-tenant traffic aggregation
• Hardware VRF-lite multi-tenancy segmentation, supporting up to 1000 independent isolated VRF instances

Security & QoS Hardware Features

• 8 independent hardware priority queues per port, WRR/DRR congestion scheduling, traffic policing, marking and shaping
• L2/L3/L4 hardware ACL policy enforcement, CoPP control plane policing to protect supervisor CPU resources
• TrustSec SGT tag classification and end-to-end policy propagation across the entire enterprise fabric
• Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) for hidden malware threat detection over encrypted core uplinks
• IEEE 802.1X, MAB, WebAuth wired access authentication, AAA TACACS+/RADIUS/LDAP secure authentication

Enhanced Automation, Programmability & Observability

• Model-driven programmability: NETCONF, RESTCONF, YANG standardized data models, REST API
• Embedded x86 supervisor CPU supports Docker container hosting for custom third-party network applications
• POAP zero-touch automated provisioning for mass fabric and data center deployment
• High-precision real-time streaming telemetry, IPFIX flow export, continuous port latency/buffer utilization monitoring
• GOLD non-disruptive online diagnostic tests for ongoing line card hardware health inspection
• Full native integration with Cisco DNA Center single-pane-of-glass lifecycle management, topology visualization and automated firmware orchestration

5. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Hyperscale SD-Access EVPN Fabric Core / Border Node
   100G-capable QSFP ports provide high-bandwidth inter-chassis core trunking between Catalyst 9400 core switches; cross-card EtherChannels deliver redundant low-latency overlay traffic transport for large multi-building campus EVPN deployments.
2. Medium-to-Large Hybrid Data Center Spine Switch Backbone
   40G/100G fiber uplinks connect leaf switches to spine core chassis; breakout QSA adapters split 40G ports into four 10G downlinks for server rack top-of-switch aggregation, multi-VRF segmentation logically isolates enterprise, cloud and virtual machine tenant workloads.
3. Ultra-Dense Wi-Fi 6/6E Wireless Controller Aggregation Backbone
   High-speed 40G fiber trunks aggregate thousands of enterprise wireless access points to campus core switches; hardware QoS prioritizes voice, video and real-time wireless client traffic for large campus wireless networks.
4. Industrial Smart Building & Broadcast Video Backbone
   Long-distance single-mode fiber links connect distributed industrial controllers, IP surveillance subnets and broadcast media gateways; hardware MACsec encryption secures critical control and video transport, PTP timing ensures synchronized audio/video delivery, TrustSec segmentation isolates vulnerable IoT subnets from corporate user networks.
5. Service Provider Enterprise Handover & Hybrid Cloud Core
   Mixed 40G/100G fiber uplinks to carrier routers and cloud provider gateways, redundant EtherChannel design guarantees resilient internet breakout and multi-cloud connectivity for large enterprise tenants.

6. Standard Package Contents of C9400-LC-12QC SKU

Separately Mandatory & Optional Add-On Components

1. Mandatory Accessories for Full Functionality
   • QSFP+ (40G) / QSFP28 (100G) optical transceivers or QSA breakout adapters
   • Single/multi-mode fiber patch cords, QSFP copper twinax cables
   • Catalyst 9400 series chassis, C9400X-SUP-2 / SUP-2XL Gen2 supervisors, fan tray and power supplies (sold independently)
2. Optional Upgrade Items
   • Additional QSA breakout adapters for 10G/25G port splitting
   • Extended-reach single-mode QSFP transceivers for long-distance inter-building trunking
3. Software Licenses
   • DNA Advantage perpetual license required for full VXLAN EVPN SD-Access, advanced MACsec security, streaming telemetry and end-to-end automation feature set
   • DNA Essentials base license for fundamental Layer 2/Layer 3 switching functionality

Short Commercial Catalog Summary for Quotation