Cisco C9500-32C-M Full English Product Description

Product Overview

Port Configuration

• 32 non-blocking QSFP28 universal fiber ports: support 40G QSFP+ or 100G QSFP28 transceivers natively
• Breakout capability: each QSFP28 can split into four 10G or 25G ports via breakout cables, expanding to up to 96×10G/25G fiber links
• Out-of-band management interfaces: 1×RJ45 console, 1×Mini-USB console, 1×USB Type-A storage port, 1×dedicated 1G OOB management port
• No copper/PoE ports; fully optimized for high-speed fiber backbone and spine interconnections
• All ports support hardware MACsec 256-bit encryption, LACP, jumbo frames up to 9198 bytes

Core Hardware Specifications

• Switching Capacity: 6.4 Tbps full-duplex non-blocking
• Forwarding Rate: 2 Bpps wire-speed packet forwarding for 64-byte frames
• Form Factor: 1U rack-mount, front-to-back airflow
• Memory & Storage: 16 GB DDR4 DRAM, 16 GB SSD flash storage, large shared deep packet buffer for burst traffic absorption
• Stacking: StackWise-480 stacking (480 Gbps stacking bandwidth), up to 8 switches per logical stack; compatible with StackWise Virtual dual-box chassis virtualization
• Power & Cooling: Dual hot-swappable platinum high-efficiency AC power supply slots; N+1 redundant field-replaceable fan trays for non-disruptive maintenance
• Environmental: Operating temperature 0°C–40°C; storage -20°C–65°C; humidity 5%–90% non-condensing
• Reliability: Extended MTBF for 24/7 mission-critical core network operation

Scalability Table Capacities

• MAC Address Table: Up to 82,000 entries
• IPv4 Routes: 256,000 combined direct & indirect routes
• IPv6 Routes: 256,000 combined direct & indirect routes
• Combined IPv4/IPv6 Multicast Routes: 48,000
• Hardware-Accelerated Security ACL Entries: 18,000
• Hardware-Accelerated QoS ACL Entries: 18,000
• Flexible NetFlow Records: Up to 512,000
• Supported VLAN IDs: 4,094; full SVI Layer 3 inter-VLAN routing

Network Meraki (M License) Complete Feature Suite

Unified Meraki Cloud + IOS XE On-Prem Dual Management

• Native Meraki Dashboard cloud orchestration: single pane of glass for zero-touch provisioning, centralized configuration, real-time telemetry, alerting and packet capture across Meraki MX/MR/MS and Catalyst 9500 switches
• Full local IOS XE CLI, on-box web UI access for granular advanced network tuning
• Meraki open API for cross-platform automation, unified asset inventory and cross-site visibility

Full Enterprise Layer 2 & Advanced Layer 3 Routing

• Complete Layer 2 toolkit: STP/RSTP/MSTP, LACP, private VLAN, Q-in-Q, SPAN/RSPAN/ERSPAN
• Full dynamic routing stack: Static routing, RIP, multi-area OSPF, full EIGRP, BGP, IS-IS, PIM-SM/SSM multicast, HSRP, VRRP, VRF-lite multi-tenancy, policy-based routing (PBR), NAT/PAT, MPLS L2/L3 VPN, MVPN

Hardware-Accelerated Zero-Trust Security

• Secure boot, Trust Anchor hardware module, digital image signature verification
• Port-level 256-bit MACsec encryption, 802.1X multi-factor authentication, CoPP control plane protection
• Cisco TrustSec SGT micro-segmentation, native ISE integration, hardware ACL filtering, threat traffic policing

Automation & Programmability

• Local management protocols: SNMP v2/v3, NETCONF/YANG, RESTCONF, Python Guest Shell, on-board container hosting
• Full compatibility with Cisco DNA Center for SD-Access fabric deployment, fabric border and intermediate aggregation node support

High Availability

• SSO/NSF graceful restart, cross-stack LACP link aggregation, ISSU hitless stacking firmware upgrades
• Hot-swappable redundant power supplies and fans with no service interruption during replacement

Advanced QoS & Multicast Optimization

• Hierarchical multi-level QoS scheduling, traffic policing/shaping, WRED congestion avoidance
• Dedicated hardware multicast replication for IPTV, enterprise video conferencing and large-scale media streaming

Key Difference vs C9500-32C-A (Network Advantage)

• C9500-32C-M: Network Meraki license, retains all full Layer3, security and SD-Access features of Network Advantage, plus native Meraki cloud dashboard unified management for hybrid Meraki-Cisco environments
• C9500-32C-A: Network Advantage license, primary DNA Center on-prem management, no built-in Meraki cloud integration

Typical Deployment Scenarios

• Hybrid Meraki + Catalyst unified enterprise core backbone
• Medium/large data center spine layer with dense 100G inter-spine links and 10G/25G leaf breakout aggregation
• Inter-campus long-distance fiber core interconnections
• SD-Access fabric border nodes requiring centralized Meraki cloud monitoring
• Enterprise networks mixing Meraki wireless access points, MX security appliances and Catalyst core switches

Short Catalog Version (For BOM & Quotation)