Cisco Catalyst C9300-48HX-A Full Official English Description

1. Product Brief Overview

Naming Decoding

• 9300X: Enhanced high-speed UADP 2.0sec ASIC architecture with StackWise-1T 1 Tbps stacking, larger memory, expanded table scale and deeper packet buffers
• 48HX: 48-port Multigigabit RJ45 supporting full 10G line rate + UPOE+ (IEEE 802.3bt, up to 90W per port) high-power PoE
• -A: Perpetual Network Advantage license tier unlocking full enterprise routing, security, SD-Access and automation features

2. Port Hardware Specification

Downlink Ports (48× Multigigabit Shielded RJ45 UPOE+)

• Auto-negotiated speeds: 100 Mbps / 1 Gbps / 2.5 Gbps / 5 Gbps / 10 Gbps Multigigabit Ethernet
• All 48 ports support full 10 Gbps copper operation over Cat6A cabling (no port speed partitioning limit unlike standard UX models)
• PoE Standard: IEEE 802.3bt UPOE+, maximum 90W DC power delivery per port; backward compatible with 802.3af PoE (15.4W), 802.3at PoE+ (30W), Cisco UPOE (60W)
• Connector: Shielded RJ45, full 4-pair twisted pair power transmission for high-draw smart endpoints

Modular Hot-Swappable Uplink Bay (Front Slot)

• 1 interchangeable uplink module slot supporting multiple high-speed uplink options:
  1. 4× SFP+ 10G module
  2. 8× SFP28 25G module
  3. 2× QSFP+ 40G module
  4. 2× QSFP28 100G module
• Compatible transceivers: 1G SFP, 10G SFP+, 25G SFP28, 40G QSFP+, 100G QSFP28 optical, DAC and AOC cables

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 upload, configuration backup and log archiving
• Rear dedicated StackWise-1T stacking ports for 1 Tbps logical stacking ring
• Rear StackPower power stacking ports to aggregate shared PoE power budget across all stack members

3. Switching & Forwarding Performance (UADP 2.0sec High-Scale ASIC)

• Full-duplex non-blocking switching capacity: 1760 Gbps
• Combined IPv4 / IPv6 packet forwarding rate: 1309 Mpps (Million Packets Per Second)
• Maximum MAC address table entries: 128,000
• Maximum IPv4 unicast routes (Network Advantage full scale): 32,000
• Maximum IPv6 unicast routes: 16,000
• Layer 2 / Layer 3 multicast group capacity: 32,000 entries
• Hardware ACL scale: Doubled policy filter entry capacity for zero-trust multi-segment deployments
• Dynamic shared deep packet buffer pool: 32 MB, eliminates congestion drops during massive simultaneous wireless, video and IoT traffic bursts
• Hardware-accelerated IPsec, MACsec and Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) offloading

4. Memory & Storage

• System DRAM: 16 GB DDR4
• Onboard flash storage: 16 GB eMMC, stores IOS XE system images, startup/running configurations, telemetry logs and embedded container applications

5. PoE & Power Supply Specifications

• Factory default high-capacity AC PSU: PWR-C1-1900WAC-P 1900W auto-ranging power supply
• Total UPOE+ power budget with single 1900W PSU: Up to 1690W
• Dual hot-swappable redundant AC power supply bays for complete power fault tolerance
• StackPower technology: Pool PoE power resources across up to 8 stacked C9300X switches, dynamically redistribute power to 90W high-consumption endpoints
• AC input voltage range: 100–240 VAC, auto-sensing 50/60 Hz
• Per-port intelligent power scheduling, power priority queuing and overload protection for mission-critical devices

6. Stacking Capability (StackWise-1T Exclusive for 9300X Series)

• Stacking architecture: Cisco StackWise-1T
• Full-duplex ring stacking bandwidth: 1 Tbps per stack ring
• Maximum stack members: Up to 8 mixed Catalyst 9300X series switches in one unified logical stack
• High availability feature suite: Stateful Switchover (SSO), Nonstop Forwarding (NSF), In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU), cross-stack LACP aggregation
• Redundant ring topology delivers sub-second failover upon stacking cable disconnection without traffic outage

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 1900W PSU installed: ~10.2 kg / 22.5 lbs
• Front panel indicators: Per-port link/activity LED, global system power LED, stack status LED, PoE overload fault LED, modular uplink module health LEDs
• Rear panel layout: StackWise-1T 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 energy-efficient thermal management; ENERGY STAR certified

8. Software License Tier: Network Advantage (-A Suffix)

1. Full advanced Layer 3 routing suite: Full-scale OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, PIM sparse/dense multicast, Policy-Based Routing (PBR), VRF-lite
2. SD-Access fabric campus virtualization, end-to-end TrustSec SGT security group segmentation and Adaptive Policy
3. Hardware-accelerated AES-256 MACsec link encryption on all downlink and modular uplink ports
4. Complete Zero Trust security toolkit: 802.1X, MAB, WebAuth, Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), IP Source Guard, CoPP control plane policing, Umbrella DNS filtering
5. Advanced traffic analytics: Hardware Flexible NetFlow v9/v10, Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), 128,000 concurrent flow monitoring entries
6. Full QoS enhancements: Hierarchical QoS (HQoS), class-based marking, policing, shaping, multi-level per-port queuing optimized for bursty high-power endpoint traffic
7. Full network automation stack: RESTCONF, NETCONF, YANG data models, Python Guest Shell, embedded ASAc virtual firewall containers, full Cisco DNA Center assurance and zero-touch provisioning
8. Cross-stack high availability automation: SSO, NSF, ISSU, synchronized cross-stack QoS, security and routing policies

9. Base Operating System & Core Security Capabilities

• Operating System: Cisco IOS XE 17.x release train optimized for UADP 2.0sec high-performance ASIC
• Platform secure foundations: Secure Boot, hardware SUDI unique device identity, firmware digital signature validation, encrypted local credentials, TACACS+/RADIUS AAA authentication
• Mobility & smart building optimizations: Ultra-fast Wi-Fi client roaming, AP traffic priority scheduling, UPOE+ power time schedules, IoT device classification and access control
• Manageability suite: SNMP v3, SSHv2, TLS 1.3 HTTPS, local syslog, remote log forwarding, model-driven telemetry streaming, on-prem DNA Center orchestration

10. Typical Deployment Scenario