Cisco Catalyst C9300-48UXB-M Full Official English Description

1. Product Brief Overview

• Naming breakdown:
  • UXB: Multigigabit UPOE ports with higher-scale ASIC and 32MB deep packet buffer (double the buffer of standard UX models, enlarged MAC/ACL/multicast table capacity)
  • -M: Meraki Dashboard cloud management architecture, abandoning traditional perpetual Network Essentials/Advantage licenses and requiring term-based Meraki subscription licenses
    It features 48 Multigigabit UPOE RJ45 downlinks plus a hot-swappable modular uplink card slot (instead of fixed built-in SFP+ uplinks on non-M UXB variants). Purpose-built for high-burst workloads including dense Wi‑Fi 6/6E APs, 4K IP surveillance cameras, digital signage and mass IoT endpoints in multi-site distributed enterprises, retail chains and campus networks. It runs IOS XE with integrated Meraki cloud agent, supporting StackWise‑480 stacking and StackPower intelligent PoE power pooling.

2. Port Hardware Specification

Downlink Ports (48× Multigigabit Shielded RJ45 UPOE)

• Auto-negotiation line rates: 100 Mbps / 1 Gbps / 2.5 Gbps / 5 Gbps / 10 Gbps Multigigabit Ethernet
• Port speed partition: 36 ports max 2.5 Gbps; 12 dedicated high-speed ports support full 10 Gbps over Cat5e / Cat6A twisted pair copper
• PoE standard: Cisco UPOE (Universal Power over Ethernet), up to 60W DC power output per port
• Connector: Shielded RJ45 with full 4-pair power transmission for high-power endpoints

Modular Front Uplink Slot (Hot-Swappable, Non-Fixed Ports)

• 1 interchangeable uplink module bay, compatible with three standard uplink options:
  1. 4× SFP+ 10G uplink module
  2. 2× QSFP+ 40G uplink module
  3. Mixed 10G/25G SFP28 uplink module
• Supports 1G SFP, 10G SFP+, 25G SFP28, 40G QSFP+ optical and copper DAC transceivers

Management & Auxiliary Interfaces

• 1× RJ45 out-of-band Ethernet management port
• 1× RJ45 serial console port, compatible with USB‑C console adapter accessories
• 1× USB Type‑A storage port for offline firmware import, config backup and log archiving
• Rear StackWise‑480 dedicated stacking ports for cross-chassis logical stacking ring
• Rear StackPower power stacking ports to aggregate shared PoE power budget across stacked switch members

3. Switching & Forwarding Performance (UXB Deep-Buffer High-Scale ASIC)

• Full-duplex non-blocking switching capacity: 580 Gbps
• Combined IPv4 / IPv6 packet forwarding rate: 431.54 Mpps (Million Packets Per Second)
• Maximum MAC address table entries: 128,000 (2× capacity of baseline C9300‑48UX)
• IPv4 unicast route table capacity: 32,000
• IPv6 unicast route table capacity: 16,000
• Layer 2 / Layer 3 multicast group capacity: 32,000 entries
• Expanded ACL entry scale for heavy multi-policy traffic filtering
• Dynamic shared deep packet buffer pool: 32 MB (twice the 16 MB buffer of standard UX hardware), drastically reduces packet loss during peak bursty wireless, video and IoT traffic surges

4. Memory & Storage

• System DRAM: 8 GB DDR4
• Onboard flash storage: 4 GB eMMC, stores IOS XE firmware, Meraki cloud agent binary, running/startup configurations and system event logs

5. PoE & Power Supply Specifications

• Factory pre-installed PSU: PWR‑C1‑1100WAC-P auto-ranging AC power supply
• Total available UPOE power budget with single 1100W PSU: 490W
• Dual hot-swappable redundant AC power supply bays for power fault tolerance
• StackPower technology: Aggregate PoE power resources across up to 8 stacked switches, dynamically redistribute power to high-consumption 60W UPOE endpoints
• AC input voltage range: 100–240 VAC, auto-sensing 50/60 Hz
• Multi-tier per-port power delivery: IEEE 802.3af PoE (15.4W), IEEE 802.3at PoE+ (30W), Cisco proprietary UPOE (60W)

6. Stacking Capability

• Stacking architecture: Cisco StackWise‑480
• Full-duplex ring stacking bandwidth: 480 Gbps
• Maximum stack members: Up to 8 mixed Catalyst 9300‑M series switches (UXB‑M, UX‑M, UXM‑M) in one unified logical stack
• Supported high availability functions: Stateful Switchover (SSO), Nonstop Forwarding (NSF cloud-synchronized), Meraki-orchestrated In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU)
• Redundant ring topology enables automatic failover upon stacking cable disconnection without traffic blackout

7. Physical Mechanical Specifications

• Form factor: Standard 1RU front-access rack-mount chassis
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 1.73 in × 17.5 in × 22.2 in (4.4 cm × 44.5 cm × 56.4 cm)
• Unit weight with single 1100W PSU installed: ~9.3 kg / 20.5 lbs
• Front panel indicators: Per-port link/activity LED, global system power LED, stack status LED, PoE fault alarm LED, modular uplink card health LEDs
• Rear panel layout: StackWise stacking connectors, StackPower power stacking ports, dual PSU slots, dual hot-swappable variable-speed smart fan trays
• Cooling system: Redundant temperature-adaptive fan trays with auto speed adjustment for low-noise thermal regulation

8. Licensing Model: Meraki Cloud Term Subscription (-M Suffix)

Tier 1: Meraki Enterprise Base License

• Complete Layer 2 switching suite: 4096 VLANs, RSTP/MSTP, LACP, Private VLANs, Voice VLAN, jumbo frames up to 9198 bytes
• Limited Layer 3 routing: Static routes, RIP, EIGRP Stub, restricted OSPF
• Entry endpoint security: 802.1X, MAB, captive web authentication, port security, DHCP Snooping, DAI, IP Source Guard, 128-bit MACsec
• Standard QoS marking, policing and multi-queue scheduling for voice, video and IoT
• Core Meraki cloud visibility: Real-time port statistics, client fingerprinting, basic SPAN/RSPAN
• Zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), automatic cloud firmware staging, remote cable testing and packet capture

Tier 2: Meraki Advanced Upgrade License (Required for Premium Capabilities)

• Full enterprise routing stack: Full-scale OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, PIM sparse/dense multicast, Policy-Based Routing (PBR)
• Meraki Adaptive Policy (TrustSec equivalent): Cloud-defined security group tagging and end-to-end traffic segmentation
• Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), IPFIX Flexible NetFlow v10 with 64,000 concurrent flow monitoring entries
• Hardware-accelerated AES‑256 MACsec link encryption across all copper and modular uplink ports
• Hierarchical QoS (HQoS), Application Visibility & Control (AVC), full Embedded Event Automation
• Complete Meraki Dashboard assurance suite: Historical traffic reporting, cross-stack policy synchronization, site-wide network health alerts

Exclusive Meraki Cloud Native Features

• Single-pane Meraki Dashboard unified management for Catalyst 9300‑M wired switches + Meraki MR wireless APs
• Cloud-hosted centralized configuration backup, cross-site template deployment and global policy replication
• Fully remote troubleshooting without local CLI access, automated device inventory, real-time endpoint location tracking
• Scheduled ISSU and firmware rollouts orchestrated entirely via cloud portal

9. Base Operating System & Core Security Functions

• Operating system: IOS XE 17.x hybrid release train with embedded Meraki cloud agent
• Platform secure foundations: Secure Boot, firmware digital signature validation, encrypted local credentials, TACACS+/RADIUS AAA integration, Control Plane Policing (CoPP)
• Mobility & IoT optimizations: Fast Wi‑Fi client roaming, AP traffic priority queuing, configurable UPOE power time schedules
• Fallback local management: Limited emergency web UI access for offline configuration when cloud tunnel is unavailable
• Secure remote access: TLS 1.3 encrypted Meraki cloud persistent tunnel, SSHv2, SNMPv3 for third-party monitoring integration

10. Typical Deployment Scenario