The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series Switch is a fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet aggregation platform that delivers best-in-class scalability, simplified network virtualization, and integrated network services for space-constrained environments in campus networks.
The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X simplifies network virtualization with support for Virtual Switching System (VSS) and Easy Virtual Network (EVN). With VSS, this platform provides a single point of management while offering up to 1.6 Tbps of switching capacity. VSS also enables cross-chassis high-availability capabilities such as In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU), Nonstop Forwarding (NSF), and Stateful Switchover (SSO). EVN simplifies deployment of scalable Layer 3 network segmentation. The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X enables emerging applications and lowers total cost of ownership by, providing zero-touch deployment for new switches (Smart Install Director), integrating network services for video (Medianet), security (Cisco TrustSec technology), and application visibility (Flexible NetFlow and Wireshark)
Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series Switch Family
Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series provides scalable, fixed-campus aggregation solutions in space-constrained environments. The solution provides flexibility to build desired port density through two versions of base switches along with optional network module, providing line-rate 10GE capability. Both the 32-port and 16-port versions can be configured with optional network modules and offer similar features. The Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP+) interface supports both 10Gigabit Ethernet and 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports, allowing customers to use their investment in 1 Gigabit Ethernet SFP and upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet when business demands change, without having to do a comprehensive upgrade of the existing deployment. The uplink module is hot swappable.
Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series Switch Family with and without Optional 8-Port Pluggable Module and Rear Pane
Following are key offering from this product family:
- 32 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port switch with optional module slot
- 16 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port switch with optional module slot
- 8 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port uplink module
32 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port Switch with Optional Uplink Module Slot
16 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port Switch with Optional Uplink Module Slot
8 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Port Uplink Module
In addition, both 32 port and 16 port versions are available with front-to-back and back-to-front airflow. The front‑to‑back airflow switch comes with matching burgundy color fan and power supply handle to indicate warm side. Similarly, back-to-front airflow switch fan and power supply handles are color-coded in blue to indicate cool side.
Front-to-Back Airflow Rear View
Back-to-Front Airflow RearView
Cisco Catalyst 4500-X switch provides redundant hot swappable fans and power supplies for highest resiliency with no single point of failure.
Redundant Fan and Power Supply
Catalyst 4500-X Deployed in Campus Aggregation and Branch Collapsed Core Environments
Dotted-line oval rings indicate optional Virtual Switching System (VSS) configuration
Performance and Scalability Specifications
- 800 Gbps bi-directional switching capacity
- Up to 250 Mpps IPv4 or 125 Mpps IPv6 forwarding rate
- Up to 256K IPv4 or 128K IPv6 routes or a combination of the two
- Multicast replication in hardware with multicast replication rate of up to 250 Mpps
- Up to 55K unicast and 32K multicast MAC entries
- MAC learning rate of 20,000 mac entries per second
- 32-MB shared egress buffer
- Up to 64K quality-of-service (QoS) classifications and 64K access control list (ACL) entries per direction
- Maximum of 8 bidirectional SPAN sessions or 16 unidirectional SPAN sessions
- 4096 active VLANs and Switched Virtual Interfaces (SVIs)
- 3K Spanning Tree Protocol instances
Software Innovation and Services
The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X is capable of up to 1.6 Tbps when configured in a dual-switch VSS topology. VSS increases operational efficiency with:
- Single point of management with a single IP address and configuration file
- Elimination of need for First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP) like HSRP or VRRP
- Multichassis EtherChannel (MEC), which creates all edge links forwarding in simplified loop-free topologies
- Nonstop communications with interchassis stateful failover and sub second virtual switch recovery
The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series includes Flexible NetFlow (FnF) for optimized application performance. FnF helps Cisco customers determine how to optimize resource usage, plan network capacity, and identify the optimal application layer for QoS. FNF can play a critical role in network security by monitoring traffic and detecting denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and network-propagated malware. With FnF, customers get these added benefits over traditional NetFlow:
- Extensibility with an extensive selection of primary and non-primary fields
- Flexibility in creating many user-defined flow records that can be applied to many different flow monitors
- FNF processes are performed in hardware at line rate in a custom, integrated NetFlow ASIC
- Application and traffic monitoring scalability with up to 128K cached flows in a large Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) array
The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series supports a modular operating system, Cisco IOS XE Software, which takes advantage of the 4500X’s dual-core CPU. Cisco IOS XE Software enables the Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series to be an open service platform and support third-party applications such as Wireshark
Operational Manageability
The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series enables operational manageability and automation for fast provisioning, diagnosis, and reporting through:
- Auto Smart Ports and AutoQoS for simplified and streamlined deployment
- Smart Install Director for IOS image-management and auto-configuration of directly-connected client switches
- Flexible NetFlow, Mediatrace, and IP service-level agreements (SLAs) for enhanced visibility
- Embedded Event Manager (EEM) integration with NetFlow and third-party applications
- Smart Call Home, Cisco Generic Online Diagnostics (GOLD), and digital optical monitoring (DOM) for simplified operations
- Cisco EnergyWise technology for simplified and effective power management (Standalone mode only)
- ISSU, SSO, and NSF for simplified change management and high availability with VSS
- Configuration rollback for improved configuration management
In a word, the Cisco Catalyst 4500-X: smallest size, highest scalability, and richest services, revolutionizing 10 Gigabit Ethernet fixed campus aggregation.
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