High-Density Enterprise LAN Access Supervisor Engine with Dual Wire-Speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet Uplinks
The Cisco® Catalyst® 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE (Figure 1) integrates security and resiliency for advanced control of converged networks.
Figure 1. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE
Overview
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-mpps 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, 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.
Table 1. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Enhanced Layer 3 Supervisor Engine Performance and Scalability Features
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series is optimized for multimedia applications with its advanced multicast support. The Supervisor Engine V-10GE supports Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), Source-Specific Multicast (S SM), and Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM), providing end users with additional scalability to support multimedia applications. Also supported is IGMP snooping in hardware, enhancing performance and reducing network traffic by allowing a switch to dynamically add hosts to and remove hosts from a multicast group.
Chassis and Line-Card Support
The Supervisor Engine V-10GE is backward-compatible with all classic Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series line cards and can be deployed in single-chassis, nonredundant mode in the Cisco Catalyst 4503, 4503-E, 4506, and 4506-E or in redundant mode as an option in the Cisco Catalyst 4507R, 4507R-E, 4510R, and 4510R-E chassis. (See Table 2.)
Table 2. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE Performance per Chassis
Note: The Supervisor Engine V-10GE allows slot 10 on the Cisco Catalyst 4510R to accommodate any and all line cards. However, in a 4510R and 4510R-E only, if the option to simultaneously provision both 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and four Gigabit SFP uplinks is enabled, then slot 10 becomes a flex slot.
High Availability and Uplinks
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series was designed for nonstop communications with noninterrupted hardware switching. In addition to redundant power supplies, fans, and clock modules, the Cisco Catalyst 4510R, 4510R-E, 4507R, and 4507R-E chassis support 1+1 supervisor redundancy. The primary supervisor is active and is responsible for normal system operation. The other supervisor serves as a secondary standby, monitoring the operation of the primary supervisor.
Alerts are generated to the network-monitoring software if either of the redundant supervisors fails. Hot-swapping of supervisor engines is supported and does not disrupt system operation. Switchover of supervisor engines can be forced by software, or by the user with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The resiliency features of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 prevent network outages that could result in lost business and revenue.
Nonstop Forwarding with Stateful Switchover (NSF/SSO) offers continuous packet forwarding during supervisor engine switchover. Information is fully synchronized between supervisors to allow the standby supervisor to immediately take over in subsecond time if the primary fails. In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) allows customers to upgrade or downgrade complete Cisco IOS Software images with minimal to no disruption to the network when using a redundant Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series system with dual supervisors. It enables rapid, nondisruptive software upgrade for new line cards, new power supplies, new features, or bug fixes. ISSU offers continuous packet forwarding during the supervisor engine switchover running different Cisco IOS Software versions.
NSF/SSO and ISSU dramatically improve the network reliability and availability in a Layer 2 or Layer 3 environment. NSF/SSO and ISSU are essential for business-critical applications such as voice over IP (VoIP). As a result, VoIP calls are not dropped.
Table 3 shows the high-availability and uplink options for all of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 enhanced Layer 3 supervisor engines.
Table 3. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Enhanced Layer 3 Supervisor Engines High Availability and Uplink Options
* Simultaneous use of Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet is supported in Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2(25) SG and later.
** NSF/SSO and ISSU will be supported in a CY Q1 2008 Cisco IOS Software Release.
Please refer to the "Features at a Glance" section of this data sheet for a complete listing of supported features.
IP v6 Support
The Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is important for the future of IP networking and is critical for the expansion of IP address space in the future. IPv6 capability is required by many companies and is being mandated by governments worldwide. IPv6 has been supported on the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE since Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2(20) EW with software-based forwarding. Please refer to the "Features at a Glance" section of this data sheet for a complete listing of supported features.
Intelligent Network Services with QoS and Sophisticated Traffic Management
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE offers superior per-port QoS features to help ensure that network traffic is classified, prioritized, and scheduled optimally to efficiently handle bandwidth-hungry multimedia, time-sensitive (voice), and mission-critical applications. The Supervisor Engine V-10GE can classify, police, and mark incoming packets, allowing the administrator to differentiate between traffic flows and enforce policies. Sharing, shaping, and strict-priority configurations determine scheduling of egress traffic. The Supervisor Engine V-10GE also supports Dynamic Buffer Limiting (DBL), a congestion-avoidance feature. For details about the QoS features (including DBL) on the Supervisor Engine V-10GE, refer to the QoS on Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Cisco IOS Software-Based Supervisor Engines overview at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps4324/prod_white_papers_list.html.
Table 4 provides QoS feature highlights for all of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 enhanced Layer 3 supervisor engines.
Table 4. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Enhanced Layer 3 Supervisor Engine QoS Feature Summary
* Supported in Q1 CY `08 Release.
** Hardware performance for nonblocking Gigabit Ethernet ports and software performance for all other ports.
Please refer to the "Features at a Glance" section of this data sheet for a complete listing of supported features.
Comprehensive Management
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE features a single console port and a single IP address to manage all system features. Remote in-band management is available with SNMP, Telnet client, 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 Cisco Smartports macro Cisco Catalyst solution is also supported, simplifying the configuration of the critical features for the Ethernet networks.
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine V-10GE delivers a comprehensive set of management tools to provide the required visibility and control in the network. Managed with CiscoWorks solutions, Cisco Catalyst switches can be configured and managed to deliver end-to-end device, VLAN, traffic, and policy management. The CiscoWorks LAN Management Solution (LMS) bundle offers tools such as CiscoWorks Resource Manager Essentials and CiscoView. These Web-based management tools offer several services, including automated inventory collection, software deployment, easy tracking of network changes, views into device availability, and quick isolation of error conditions. (See Table 5.)
Table 5. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Enhanced Layer 3 Supervisor Engines- Management Feature Highlights
Please refer to the "Features at a Glance" section of this data sheet for a complete listing of supported features.
Advanced Security
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series offers a rich set of industry-leading, integrated security features to proactively lock down your critical network infrastructure. It reduces network security risks with a rich set of Network Admission Control (NAC) capabilities and 802.1x-based user authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA). The security policy enforcement is uncompromised with the wire-rate, dedicated access control lists (ACLs) to fend off ever-increasing virus and security attacks. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series offers powerful, easy-to-use tools to effectively prevent untraceable man-in-the-middle attacks, control plane resource exhaustion, IP spoofing, and flooding attacks, without any change to the end-user or host configurations. Secure remote access, file transfers, and network management are accomplished with the Secure Shell (SSH Version 1 and Version 2) Protocol, Secure Copy Protocol (SCP), and SNMPv3, respectively. (See Table 6.)
Table 6. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Enhanced Layer 3 Supervisor Engines: Security Feature Highlights