Cisco C9500-24Q-M Full English Product Description
Product Overview
The Cisco Catalyst C9500-24Q-M is a high-density 1RU fixed core/aggregation switch preloaded with Network Merit perpetual license, part of the Catalyst 9500 flagship enterprise switching family built on UADP 3.0 ASIC and Cisco IOS XE. Positioned between Network Essentials (E) and Network Advantage (A), Merit delivers mid-tier balanced routing, security, and automation features. It provides wire-speed 24×40G QSFP+ high-density fiber ports, StackWise-480 stacking, and redundant power/cooling, designed for medium-to-large campus aggregation, mid-sized leaf-spine data centers, and inter-building backbones that require more advanced capabilities than Essentials without the full premium Advantage suiteCisco.
Port Configuration
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24 non-blocking native 40G QSFP+ fiber ports; each QSFP+ supports breakout to four 10G SFP+ via split cables, expanding to max 96×10G fiber links
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Out-of-band management interfaces: 1×RJ45 console, 1×Mini-USB console, 1×USB Type-A, 1×1G dedicated OOB management port
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No copper/PoE ports, fully optimized for high-speed fiber aggregation and backbone interconnection
Hardware Specifications
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Switching Capacity: 1920 Gbps full-duplex non-blocking
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Forwarding Rate: 1440 Mpps wire-speed packet forwarding
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Form Factor: 1U rack-mount, front-to-back airflow
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Memory & Storage: 16 GB DDR4 DRAM, 16 GB SSD flash, large shared deep packet buffer for burst traffic absorption
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Stacking: StackWise-480 (480 Gbps stacking bandwidth), up to 8 switches per logical stack; compatible with StackWise Virtual dual-box virtualization
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Power & Cooling: Dual hot-swappable 950W platinum high-efficiency AC power supplies; N+1 redundant field-replaceable fan trays
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Environment: Operating 0°C–40°C; storage -20°C–65°C; 5%–90% non-condensing humidity
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MTBF: Over 230,000 hours for 24/7 core network reliability
Scalability Table Capacities
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MAC Address Table: 64,000 entries
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IPv4 Routes: 64,000 indirect routes + 32,000 host routes
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IPv6 Routes: 32,000 indirect routes + 16,000 host routes
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Combined IPv4/IPv6 Multicast Routes: 48,000
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Hardware-Accelerated Security ACLs: 18,000 entries
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Hardware-Accelerated QoS ACLs: 18,000 entries
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Flexible NetFlow Records: Up to 512,000
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VLAN Support: 4,094 VLAN IDs, full SVI Layer 3 inter-VLAN routing
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Jumbo Frame Support: Up to 9198 bytes
Network Merit (M License) Mid-Tier Feature Suite
Layer 2 & Enhanced Layer 3 Routing
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Complete Layer 2 stack: STP/RSTP/MSTP, LACP, Q-in-Q private VLAN, SPAN/RSPAN/limited ERSPAN
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Full dynamic routing upgrade over Essentials: Static, RIP, multi-area OSPF, full EIGRP, basic BGP, HSRP, VRRP, PIM-SM/SSM
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Dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 wire-speed forwarding, full static NAT/PAT, basic VRF-lite multi-tenant segmentation
Mid-Tier Hardware Security
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Secure boot, image signature validation, built-in Trust Anchor module
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802.1X authentication, full 256-bit hardware MACsec port encryption, CoPP control plane protection
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Partial Cisco TrustSec SGT segmentation, baseline threat filtering, ACL logging, ZTP zero-touch provisioning
Enhanced Automation & Monitoring
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Full CLI, Web UI, SNMP v2/v3, complete NETCONF/YANG RESTCONF API support
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Comprehensive Flexible NetFlow, extended telemetry, Embedded Event Manager (EEM)
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Full Cisco DNA Center compatibility for inventory, assurance, policy automation; limited SD-Access fabric functionality (full SD-Access requires Network Advantage)
High Availability
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SSO/NSF graceful restart, cross-stack LACP, ISSU hitless stacking firmware upgrade
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Hot-swappable redundant power supplies and fans for non-disruptive maintenance
Advanced QoS & Multicast
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Full hierarchical QoS, traffic policing/shaping, WRED congestion control, dedicated hardware multicast replication for IPTV and large video conferencing
Feature Tier Comparison Brief
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Network Essentials (E): Basic single-area routing, limited security, partial DNA Center support
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Network Merit (M): Multi-area OSPF/full EIGRP/basic BGP, full MACsec, partial TrustSec, complete DNA Center automation (no full SD-Access/VXLAN/MPLS)
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Network Advantage (A): Merit features + full BGP, IS-IS, MPLS L2/L3 VPN, full TrustSec micro-segmentation, native SD-Access, VXLAN, container hosting, full ERSPAN telemetry
Typical Deployment Scenarios
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Mid-to-large enterprise campus aggregation requiring multi-area OSPF and EIGRP without full SD-Access fabric
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Medium leaf-spine data centers with mixed 10G/40G fiber aggregation and basic BGP interconnection
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Inter-campus backbone links needing enhanced security (full MACsec) and unified DNA Center visibility
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Cost-optimized core deployments that outgrow Essentials but do not require full Advantage SD-Access/MPLS capabilities
Short Catalog Version (For BOM & Quotation)
Cisco C9500-24Q-M Catalyst 9500 24-Port 40G QSFP+ Switch, Network Merit License
1RU high-density core aggregation switch with 24×40G QSFP+ fiber ports (breakout to 96×10G), UADP 3.0 ASIC, 1920Gbps switching capacity, StackWise-480 stacking, dual redundant platinum AC power supplies, pre-installed Network Merit IOS XE mid-tier license, multi-area Layer 3 routing, full hardware MACsec encryption, partial TrustSec segmentation and full Cisco DNA Center automation support, ideal for balanced-cost campus aggregation and medium data center high-speed fiber deployments.
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