Cisco WS-X4516-10GE Supervisor Engine V-10GE Catalyst 4500 Control Processor

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE continues the nonblocking, robust Layer 2-4 switching found in previous Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series supervisor engines with the addition of wire-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks, 136-Gbps capacity, and 102-mbps throughput, and additional features to further enhance resilient control of converged data, voice, and video networks with high availability to help enable business resiliency for enterprise and metropolitan (metro) Ethernet customers. Network control extends from the backbone to the edge with intelligent services such as granular quality of service (QoS), Internet security, and network management. Scalability of these intelligent network services is made possible with dedicated specialized resources known as ternary content addressable memory (TCAM). Ample TCAM resources (192,000 entries) enable "high feature capacity," which provides wire-speed routing/switching performance with concurrent provisioning of services such as QoS and security. This helps ensure scalability for today's network requirements with ample room for future growth.

 

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE includes dual wire-speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports (X2 optics) as well as 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports (Small Form-Factor Pluggable [SFP] optics) on the faceplate to maximize the flexibility of deployment options. The combination of Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports on the same supervisor engine allows for network future-proofing with an easy migration path from Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet by simply adding 10 Gigabit Ethernet optical interfaces. The ability to support both Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks on a single supervisor engine further enhances the investment protection of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series architecture.

 

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE offers port scalability for resilient Layer 2-4 and routing for both enterprise and service provider market segments. Optimized for the enterprise LAN, branch-office backbones, or Layer 3 distribution points, this supervisor engine provides the performance and scalability to handle the network applications of today and the future.

 

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series modular architecture provides a "pay-as-you-grow" model, reducing operational expenses and capital expenditures. The Supervisor Engine V-10GE is backward-compatible with all classic Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series line cards and can be used in both the classic Cisco Catalyst 4500 chassis with the Cisco Catalyst 4503, 4506, 4507R, and 4510R Switch chassis as well as the Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series Chassis: Cisco Catalyst 4503-E, 4506-E, 4507R-E, 4507R+E, 4510R-E, and 4510R+E Switches.

 

Predictable Performance and Scalability

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE delivers a 136-Gbps switching fabric with a 102-mpps forwarding rate in hardware for Layer 2-4 traffic. Switching performance is independent of the number of route entries or Layer 3 and 4 services enabled. The hardware-based Cisco Express Forwarding routing architecture allows for increased scalability and performance. Two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports are provided for high-speed uplinks and switch-to-switch communication. Table 1 provides a comparison of the performance and scalability features of all of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 enhanced Layer 3 supervisor engines.