Cisco Catalyst 4503 Datasheet

Data Sheet
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Line Cards
Secure, Flexible, Nonstop Communications
Product Benefits
® ®
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches provide scalable nonblocking Layer 2–4 switching with
secure, flexible, nonstop communications, enabling business resilience for enterprises, small and
medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and Metro Ethernet customers deploying business-critical
applications. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 delivers predictable and scalable high performance, with
advanced dynamic quality-of-service (QoS) capabilities and configuration flexibility for enterprise
wiring closets and SMB access/core. Integrated resiliency features in both hardware and software
maximize network availability, helping to ensure workforce productivity, profitability, and customer
success. Its centralized, innovative, and flexible system design helps ensure smooth migration to
wire-speed IPv6 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The flexibility, scalability, and forward and backward
compatibility between generations of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series extend deployment life,
providing exceptional investment protection, reducing the total cost of ownership.
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series is a high-performance next-generation extension to the Cisco
Catalyst 4500 Series. The new "E-Series" is composed of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series
Supervisor Engine 6-E, E-Series line cards, and E-Series chassis that are designed for secure,
flexible, nonstop communications with superior backward and forward compatibility delivering
exceptional investment protection for organizations of all sizes.
Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series and Classic Line Cards
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series offers two classes of line cards: classic and E-Series. Classic line
cards provide 6 gigabits of switching capacity per slot. E-Series line cards increase the per slot
switching capacity to 24 gigabits. This increase in per slot switching capacity with the E-Series line
cards requires the Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series chassis and the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series
Supervisor Engine 6-E. Classic line cards may be deployed in both classic and E-Series chassis
with either classic Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series supervisor engines or with the Supervisor Engine 6-
E. With the Supervisor Engine 6-E, the classic line cards per slot switching capacity remains at 6
gigabits per slot. However, because of the centralized switching architecture of the Cisco Catalyst
4500, the classic line cards will adopt all of the new Supervisor Engine 6-E features such as eight
queues per port, dynamic QoS, and hardware-based IPv6 routing. Please refer to the Supervisor
Engine 6-E data sheet for more feature details. Classic line cards and E-Series line cards may be
mixed and matched within a Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series chassis with no performance
degradation: classic line cards will operate at 6 gigabits per slot, and E-Series line cards will
operate at 24 gigabits per slot. Table 1 summarizes the chassis and supervisor support for both
classic and E-Series line cards.
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