The Cisco Catalyst® 4948 Switch is a wire-speed, low-latency, Layer 2 to 4, 1-rack-unit (1RU), fixed-configuration switch for rack-optimized server switching. Based on the proven Cisco® Catalyst 4500 Series hardware and software architecture, the Cisco Catalyst 4948 offers exceptional performance and reliability for low-density, multilayer aggregation of high-performance servers and workstations. High performance and scalability of intelligent network services is made possible with dedicated specialized resources known as ternary content addressable memory (TCAM). Ample TCAM resources (64,000 entries) enable high feature capacity, providing wire-speed routing and switching performance with concurrent provisioning of services such as quality of service (QoS) and security, and helping ensure scalability for today's network requirements with ample room for future growth.

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 offers 48 ports of wire-speed 10/100/1000BASE-T with four alternative wired ports that can accommodate optional 1000BASE-X Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) optics.^[1] Exceptional reliability and serviceability are delivered with optional internal AC or DC 1+1 hot-swappable power supplies and a hot-swappable fan tray with redundant fans

Features and Benefits

Wire-Speed Performance for 10/100/1000 Connectivity

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 delivers wire-speed throughput with low latency for data-intensive applications, using a 96-Gbps switching fabric with a forwarding rate of 72 million packets per second (mpps) in hardware for Layer 2 to 4 traffic. Switching performance remains high regardless of the number of route entries or Layer 3 and 4 services enabled. Hardware-based Cisco Express Forwarding routing architecture enables increased scalability and performance.

Power Supply Redundancy for Nonstop Operation

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 provides reliability for critical applications, with 1+1 redundant hot-swappable internal AC or DC power supplies. The 1+1 power supply design provides A-to-B failover when power supplies are connected to different circuits. AC and DC power supplies can be mixed in the same unit for outstanding deployment flexibility. The Cisco Catalyst 4948 also has a hot-swappable fan tray with four redundant fans for additional serviceability and availability.

Wire-Speed Performance for 10/100/1000 Connectivity

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 delivers wire-speed throughput with low latency for data-intensive applications, using a 96-Gbps switching fabric with a forwarding rate of 72 million packets per second (mpps) in hardware for Layer 2 to 4 traffic. Switching performance remains high regardless of the number of route entries or Layer 3 and 4 services enabled. Hardware-based Cisco Express Forwarding routing architecture enables increased scalability and performance.

Power Supply Redundancy for Nonstop Operation

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 provides reliability for critical applications, with 1+1 redundant hot-swappable internal AC or DC power supplies. The 1+1 power supply design provides A-to-B failover when power supplies are connected to different circuits. AC and DC power supplies can be mixed in the same unit for outstanding deployment flexibility. The Cisco Catalyst 4948 also has a hot-swappable fan tray with four redundant fans for additional serviceability and availability.

Comprehensive Management

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 includes a single, dedicated 10/100 console port and a single, dedicated 10/100 management port for offline disaster recovery. Remote in-band management is available with the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Telnet client, Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP), and Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). Support for local or remote out-of-band management is delivered through a terminal or modem attached to the console interface. The management port helps enable the Cisco Catalyst 4948 to reload a new image from a TFTP server within seconds.

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 delivers a comprehensive set of management tools to provide the visibility and control required for server switching. Managed with CiscoWorks solutions and embedded CiscoWorks CiscoView, the Cisco Catalyst 4948 can be configured and managed to deliver device, VLAN, traffic, and policy management. These web-based management tools offer numerous services, including software deployment and quick isolation of error conditions.

Features and Specifications at a Glance

Performance and Switching

- 96 Gbps nonblocking switch fabric
- 72 mpps Layer 2 forwarding (hardware)
- 72 mpps Layer 3 and 4 forwarding: IP routing and Cisco Express Forwarding (hardware)
- Layer 2 to 4 hardware-based switch engine (application-specific integrated circuit [ASIC]-based)
- Unicast and multicast routing entries: 32,000
- Support for 4096 active VLANs and 4096 VLAN IDs per switch
- Layer 2 multicast addresses: 16,384
- MAC addresses: 32,768
- Policers: 512 ingress and 512 egress
- Access control list (ACL) and QoS entries: 32,000
- Uplinks: 4 alternatively wired SFP ports with Cisco Gigabit EtherChannel support
- Latency: 6 microseconds for 64-byte packets
- SVIs: 2048
- Spanning Tree Protocol instances: 1500
- Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping entries: 16,000

Power Supply

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 offers a choice of 300W AC or DC power supplies. The switch can operate with one power supply present. When two power supplies are installed, the switch shares the power load between the two supplies

New Cisco IOS Software Packaging for the Cisco Catalyst 4900 Series

Cisco provides a new Cisco IOS Software package for the Cisco Catalyst 4900 Series, creating a new foundation for features and functions and offering consistency across all Cisco Catalyst switches. The new Cisco IOS Software release is designated Release 12.2SG.

The Cisco IOS Software images for the Cisco Catalyst 4900 Series, formerly known as Basic Layer 3 (Standard Multilayer Image [SMI]) and Enhanced Layer 3 (Enhanced Multilayer Image [EMI]) images, are now called the IP Base and Enterprise Services images, respectively. Unless otherwise specified, all currently shipping Cisco Catalyst 4900 Series software features based on Cisco IOS Software are supported in the IP Base image; however, note the following points regarding the IP Base image:

- The IP Base image does not support the following routing-related features: BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, IPX, AppleTalk, VRF-lite, and PBR).

- The IP Base image supports the EIGRP stub for Layer 3 routing on all Cisco Catalyst 4900 Series supervisor engines.