Full Official English Description – Cisco Catalyst C9300-48S-M

1. Product Overview

2. Port Hardware Specifications

• Downlink Interfaces: 48 × Gigabit SFP slots, compatible with 1000BASE-SX, LX, ZX, BiDi and CWDM transceivers for multi-mode and long-distance single-mode fiber connections
• PoE Functionality: No PoE power supply hardware, zero PoE power budget
• Rear Modular Uplink Bay: 1 hot-swappable uplink module slot, supports SFP+, SFP28, QSFP+ modules delivering 10G / 25G / 40G fiber uplink expansion
• Stacking Interfaces: Dedicated rear StackWise-480 stacking ports with 480 Gbps bidirectional stacking bandwidth; supports stacking of up to 8 switches into a single logical switching domain
• Management Interfaces:
  1 × RJ45 serial console port, 1 × USB Type-A console port
  1 × 1G out-of-band management Ethernet port
  1 × USB 3.0 storage port for offline firmware upgrade, log export and local configuration backup

3. Switching & Forwarding Performance

• Standalone Switching Capacity: 256 Gbps full-duplex
• Standalone Line-Rate Forwarding Rate: 190.47 Mpps
• Aggregated Stack Bandwidth: Up to 736 Gbps across full stack
• Stack Aggregated Forwarding Rate: 547.62 Mpps
• MAC Address Table Capacity: 32,000 MAC forwarding entries
• IPv4 Routing Table: 32,000 route entries
• IPv6 Routing Table: 16,000 route entries
• Multicast Group Table: 8,000 multicast group entries
• Shared Packet Buffer: 16MB hardware buffer for absorbing bursty fiber backbone traffic
• Hardware ACL Scale: 5,120 ingress rules + 5,120 egress rules
• Flexible NetFlow Flow Table: 64,000 flow entries

4. Power & Thermal Architecture

• Power Supply Support: 1 or 2 hot-swappable Platinum-efficiency AC power supplies with OIR (Online Insertion and Removal); factory default configuration ships with single 715W Meraki-certified AC PSU (PWR-C1-715WAC-P-M)
• StackPower Technology: Cross-stack power resource pooling to deliver N+1 power redundancy across stack members
• Cooling System: 3 field-replaceable variable-speed hot-swap fans with redundant cooling design, low acoustic noise for office and data center rack deployment
• Universal Input Voltage: 100–240V AC, 50/60Hz mains input
• Typical Power Consumption: 88.9W idle, maximum 158.3W under full load

5. Stacking & High Availability Technology

• StackWise-480: 480 Gbps high-speed stacking backplane, sub-50ms traffic convergence during stack member hardware failure
• SSO/NSF: Stateful Switchover and Nonstop Forwarding to eliminate traffic outages during stack supervisor role failover
• Mixed Stack Compatibility: Fully inter-stackable with all Catalyst 9300-M Meraki-managed switches (copper and fiber S/T/P/U variants); unified single logical stack domain managed under one Meraki dashboard view

6. Hardware-Accelerated Security (Tier-Locked by Meraki Subscription)

• MACsec 256-bit AES hardware link encryption supported on all fiber downlinks and uplink ports
• Trustworthy Systems secure boot, runtime integrity verification and digital firmware authenticity validation
• Endpoint authentication suite: IEEE 802.1X, MAB, cloud-managed captive WebAuth portal access control
• Layer 2 threat prevention: Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI), DHCP Snooping, IP Source Guard, BPDU Guard, broadcast/multicast storm suppression
• Secure management transport: SSH, HTTPS, SNMPv3, fully encrypted persistent cloud tunnel to Meraki Dashboard
• Tier-restricted advanced security features: Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), Adaptive Policy group-based microsegmentation and full IPFIX streaming telemetry require Meraki Advanced subscription license; only baseline threat mitigation available under Meraki Enterprise tier

7. Layer 2 & Layer 3 Protocol Support

Layer 2 Full Feature Set

Layer 3 Routing Protocols

• Restriction: Advanced routing protocols including BGP and full Policy-Based Routing (PBR) are unlocked exclusively with Meraki Advanced subscription license

8. Software & Meraki Cloud Licensing Ecosystem

• Operating System: Custom hybrid Cisco IOS XE image optimized for native Meraki Dashboard cloud orchestration
• Core Licensing Difference vs C9300-48S-E / C9300-48S-A: No perpetual Cisco DNA Network Essentials / Network Advantage licenses. The switch requires mandatory time-based Meraki term subscriptions (1/3/5/7/10-year) in two tiers:
  1. Meraki Enterprise: Base Layer 2/Light Layer 3 routing, basic telemetry, zero-touch provisioning, real-time dashboard monitoring, email/SMS event alerts
  2. Meraki Advanced: Adds ETA malware detection, full IPFIX streaming telemetry, Adaptive Policy microsegmentation, advanced remote packet capture and expanded OSPF route scale
• Unified Management Channels:
  1. Meraki Cloud Dashboard (primary): Graphical centralized configuration, template-based mass deployment, scheduled automatic firmware upgrades, historical traffic analytics, cross-site topology visualization
  2. Local CLI via console / SSH for emergency on-prem troubleshooting
• Programmability: Meraki REST API, on-box Python guest shell, limited NETCONF/YANG streaming telemetry export

9. Physical & Environmental Specifications

• Form Factor: 1 Rack Unit (1RU) standard 19-inch EIA rack-mount chassis
• External Dimensions: 445 mm (W) × 488 mm (D) × 44 mm (H) / 17.5 × 19.2 × 1.73 inches
• Chassis Weight (single PSU installed): 7.66 kg (16.89 lbs); maximum weight with dual PSUs: 8.0 kg (17.6 lbs)
• Operating Ambient Temperature: 0°C ~ +40°C
• Storage Temperature: -40°C ~ +70°C
• Operating Humidity: 5% – 90% non-condensing
• MTBF Rating: 178,600 hours under standard factory operating conditions
• Compliance Certifications: UL, CSA, CE, FCC Class A, ICES-003, RoHS, TAA compliant

10. Model Naming Breakdown

• C9300: Base Catalyst 9300 stackable enterprise switching hardware platform
• 48S: 48-port 1G SFP fiber non-PoE chassis
• M: Meraki Cloud-Managed variant, requires term-based Meraki Enterprise/Advanced subscription licenses, no perpetual Cisco DNA entitlements

11. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Multi-site enterprise campus inter-building fiber aggregation with centralized Meraki cloud monitoring
2. Fiber-to-the-desk office networks and EMI-isolated industrial workshop access without PoE power requirements
3. Medium-scale IP video surveillance backbone aggregation leveraging long-distance fiber links
4. Chain retail, distributed branch office fiber stacking deployments requiring zero-touch remote provisioning
5. Entry-level non-fabric distribution layers prioritizing unified cross-location cloud visibility

Key Distinction Note

• -M: Meraki cloud subscription-managed, feature tiers split by Enterprise/Advanced term licenses
• -E: On-prem DNA Center managed, perpetual Cisco DNA Network Essentials baseline license
• -A: On-prem DNA Center managed, perpetual Cisco DNA Network Advantage full-feature license suite