The Cisco® Catalyst® 4500 Series with CenterFlex technology provides 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.
CenterFlex technology is enabled by the centralized application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in the Cisco Metro Supervisor Engine 6-E, which deliver the high-speed centralized performance and configuration flexibility in the industry. The Metro Supervisor Engine 6-E also has a flexible network processing unit (NPU) to support the industry-leading Ethernet Virtual Circuit (EVC) infrastructure, which enables granular optimization of real-time data, voice, and video communication, enhancing performance and the end-user experience. With forward and backward compatibility spanning multiple generations, the new Catalyst 4500 E-Series provides exceptional investment protection and deployment flexibility to meet the evolving needs of organizations of all sizes.
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series includes two series of chassis: the Catalyst 4500 E-Series and classic Catalyst 4500 Series chassis. Catalyst 4500 E-Series chassis (Figure 1) are extremely flexible and support both 6 Gbps and 24 Gbps per line card slot. The classic Catalyst 4500 Series chassis supports 6 Gbps per line card slot. There are four models of Catalyst 4500 E-Series and classic Catalyst 4500 chassis: 10-slot, 7-slot, 6-slot, and 3-slot. Integrated resiliency in the Catalyst 4500-E and classic Catalyst 4500 Series include 1+1 supervisor engine redundancy (10-slot and 7-slot only), redundant fans, software-based fault tolerance, and 1+1 power supply redundancy. Integrated resiliency in both hardware and software minimizes network downtime, helping to ensure workforce productivity, profitability, and customer success.
Figure 1. Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series extends control to the network edge with intelligent network services, including sophisticated quality of service (QoS) and Hierarchical QoS, predictable performance, advanced security, comprehensive management, and integrated resiliency. Scalability of these intelligent network services is made possible with dedicated, specialized resources known as ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) and industry-leading EVC infrastructure. Ample TCAM resources (up to 384,000 entries) enable "high feature capacity," which provides wire-speed routing/switching performance independent of provisioning of services such as QoS and security.
The Metro Supervisor Engine 6-E supports up to 256,000 MAC addresses, 64,000 Ethernet flow points, and 32,000 bridge domains. This helps ensure scalability for today's network requirements with ample room for future growth.
Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series Chassis
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series offers four chassis options and seven supervisor engine options (Table 1). It provides a common architecture that can scale up to 388 ports. The Cisco Catalyst WS-C4507R-E and WS-C4510R-E offer high availability by supporting 1+1 redundant supervisor engines with subsecond failover time and full-image In Service Software Upgrades (ISSUs). Using the same line cards as the widely deployed Catalyst 4000 Series Switches and classic Catalyst 4500 Series Switches, the Catalyst 4500-E Series furthers Cisco's commitment to affordable enterprise and branch scalability.
Table 1. Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series Chassis Features
1Slot 1 is reserved for supervisor engine only; slots 2 and higher are reserved for line cards.
2Slots 3 and 4 are reserved for supervisor engines only in Cisco Catalyst 4507R-E; slots 1-2 and 5-7 are reserved for line cards.
3Slots 5 and 6 are reserved for supervisor engines only in Cisco Catalyst 4510R-E; slots 1-4 and 7-10 are reserved for line cards; slots 8-10 support only classic line cards.
4Classic Catalyst 4000 or 4500 Series chassis operate at 6 Gbps per slot.
5The 1400W AC, 4200W AC, and 2800W AC power supplies are required to support a fully loaded Cisco Catalyst 4510R. The 1000W AC and 1300W AC power supplies can be deployed in the Catalyst 4510R; however, power management is required.
Configuration Alternatives
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series offers a powerful and flexible network solution that can be built with eight supervisor engine alternatives. Each provides a high-performance, centralized, shared-memory switch fabric, protecting your line card investment by supporting the addition of optional higher-layer engines (Table 2).
Table 2.
a.Cisco Catalyst 4500-E Series Supervisor Engine Support and Performance
Feature
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor II-Plus-TS
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor II-Plus
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor II-Plus-10GE
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor IV
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor V
Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor V-10GE
Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor 6-E
Catalyst 4500 Series Metro Supervisor 6-E
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4503-E Chassis
64 Gbps
48 mpps
28 Gbps
21 mpps
72 Gbps
54 mpps
28 Gbps
21 mpps
28 Gbps
21 mpps
72 Gbps
54 mpps
136 Gbps
102 mpps
136 Gbps
102 mpps
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4506-E Chassis
Not supported
64 Gbps
48 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
280 Gbps
210 mpps
280 Gbps
210 mpps
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4507R-E Chassis
Not supported
64 Gbps
48 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
68 Gbps
51 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
280 Gbps
210 mpps
280 Gbps
210 mpps
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4510R-E Chassis
Not supported
Not supported
Not supported
Not supported
96 Gbps
72 mpps
136 Gbps
102 mpps
320 Gbps
250 mpps
320 Gbps
250 mpps
b.Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine Support and Performance
Feature
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor II-Plus-TS
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor II-Plus
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor II-Plus-10GE
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor IV
Catalyst 4500 Supervisor V
Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor V-10GE
Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor 6-E
Catalyst 4500 Series Metro Supervisor 6-E
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4503 Chassis
64 Gbps
48 mpps
28 Gbps
21 mpps
72 Gbps
54 mpps
28 Gbps
21 mpps
28 Gbps
21 mpps
72 Gbps
54 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4506 Chassis
Not supported
64 Gbps
48 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
100 Gbps
75 mpps
100 Gbps
75 mpps
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4507R Chassis
Not supported
64 Gbps
48 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
64 Gbps
48 mpps
68 Gbps
51 mpps
108 Gbps
81 mpps
100 Gbps
75 mpps
100 Gbps
75 mpps
Cisco Catalyst WS-C4510R Chassis
Not supported
Not supported
Not supported
Not supported
96 Gbps
72 mpps
136 Gbps
102 mpps
136 Gbps 102 mpps
136 Gbps 102 mpps
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series has flexible interface types and port densities that allow network configurations to be mixed and matched to meet the specific needs of campus networks (Table 3).
Table 3. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Port Densities
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switching Modules
Number of Interfaces Supported per Line Card
Cisco Catalyst 4503-E
Cisco Catalyst 4506-E
Cisco Catalyst 4507R-E
Cisco Catalyst 4510R-E
Switched 10/100 Fast Ethernet (RJ-45)
24, 32, or 48
96
240
240
384
Switched 10/100 Fast Ethernet (RJ-45) with IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE)
24 or 48
96
240
240
384
Switched 10/100 Fast Ethernet (RJ-21) with or without IEEE 802.3af PoE
48
96
240
240
384
Switched 100 FX Fast Ethernet (MT-RJ)
24 or 48
96
240
240
384
Switched 100 LX-10 (MT-RJ) or 100 BX-D (LC) Fast Ethernet
48
96
240
240
384
Switched 1000BASE-X (fiber)
2, 6, 18, or 48
104
244
244
388
Switched 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet
24 or 48
108
240
240
384
Switched 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet with IEEE 802.3af PoE
24 or 48
108
240
240
384
Switched 10 Gigabit Ethernet
6
14
32
34
34
Configuration Flexibility and Modular Superiority
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series line cards can be mixed and matched to suit numerous LAN access, server connectivity, SMB, or branch-office deployments. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series supports the following line cards, listed in Table 4 by part number:
Table 4. Catalyst 4500 E-Series Line Cards and Modules
Product Number
Description
ME-X4624-SFP-E
Catalyst 4500 E-Series Metro 24-Port HQoS GE (SFP)
