The Cisco® Catalyst® 4500 Series, with more than 500,000 chassis deployed, is the most widely deployed modular platform in the industry. Contributing to this success are key Catalyst 4500 features that are critical to enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and Metro Ethernet customers.

Investment Protection

The Catalyst 4500 is designed with investment protection as a key design element, helping customers to maximize their Catalyst 4500 investment for years to come.

• High performance: Cisco CenterFlex Technology, at the heart of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor 6-E, provides ample IPv4 and IPv6 performance (250Mpps) offering predictable high performance with concurrently enabled services.
• No major upgrade required: Line cards are backward- and forward-compatible. In addition, you can upgrade the performance and feature set of the entire series by simply changing the supervisor engine. Up to 85 percent of the investment (line cards, power supplies, and so on) can be protected when upgrading supervisor engines. All major components are field- replaceable.
• Flexibility: Significant deployment flexibility with a broad selection of supervisor engines, line cards, and power supplies helps meet current and future needs as business requirements change. Customers can mix and match the new E-series and classic line cards without performance degradation, providing connectivity of up to 388 Ethernet ports in a single chassis.
• Ample hardware resources: The Catalyst 4500 is designed with robust hardware resource that allow customers to meet their current and future services needs.
• Power over Ethernet (PoE) scalability: The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series supports 15.4W per port on all 48 ports per line card, with capability of supporting even higher wattage as standards develop.
• Smooth 10 Gigabit migration: The TwinGig modules supported on E-Series supervisors and line cards enable customers to migrate from Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet within seconds
• Optimized for IPv6 migration: The Catalyst 4500 is optimized for concurrent IPv4 and IPv6 deployments or for IPv6 migration

High-Availability

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series is optimized to minimize planned and unplanned downtime. It supports redundancy in both hardware and software delivering a highly available switch for organizations of all sizes:

• Redundant supervisor engines: The Cisco Catalyst 4507R-E and 4510R-E switches support 1+1 supervisor-engine redundancy for integrated resiliency. Redundancy helps ensure seamless supervisor engine switchover in a Layer 2/3 environment and protects mission-critical applications and IP voice.
• Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) with Stateful Switchover (SSO): NSF/SSO helps ensure that links stay up and that data and highly time-sensitive voice calls are not dropped during a subsecond failover.
• In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU): ISSU eliminates planned downtime and allows for the upgrade or downgrade of complete Cisco IOS® Software images with minimal to no effect on the switch or network.
• Redundant power supplies: Redundant (1+1) AC or DC power supplies provide redundancy in case of a power supply failure or a power circuit failure.
• Hot-swappable fan trays with redundant fans: Failure of a fan does not take down a switch or require a lengthy network outage to replace the fan or the entire switch, as in the case of a stackable unit. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series fan trays are easily hot-swappable and field-replaceable.
• Hot-swappable line cards: Cards can be added or replaced without disrupting data flow in the switch.
• Higher mean time between failure (MTBF): Line cards have minimal components, decreasing line-card complexity and delivering high MTBF.
• Independent TCAM resources: TCAM processes data traffic forwarding independently from processing wire-speed intelligent services such as QoS and security, preventing TCAM starving that can be caused by a denial-of-service (DoS) attack or by enabling too many services concurrently.
• Online diagnostics: Online diagnostics help detect potential hardware problems before they happen.

For more information on High Availability, please visit:
High Availability on the Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series At-a-Glance
Safe and Sound: Independent High Availability report showing 50ms Carrier Class

Ease of Use and Manageability

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series is designed for simplicity. Over time several innovative features have been added to further simplify the implementation and manageability of the switch. Also, because the supervisor engine is the only blade with intelligence, all the configurations are performed on the supervisor engine. First-time configurations, ongoing operations, and troubleshooting are greatly simplified, delivering a lower total cost of ownership (TCO):

• Single Cisco IOS® Software image: Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switches have one centralized supervisor engine (CPU) to configure and manage.
• Easy Cisco IOS Software updates: You can update the entire switch by updating one Cisco IOS Software image.
• Easy upgrade: You can upgrade the performance and feature set of the entire switch by simply upgrading the supervisor engine.
• Easy scalability: You can simply slide in a new line card as needed without having to rearrange rack space, run additional power, or rebalance the traffic loads.
• Power tracking: All 48 ports on a line card can be powered with 15.4W; there is no need to track which are or are not powered, simplifying PoE implementation and management.
• Compact flash: Cisco IOS Software images and configuration settings can be stored locally. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series supports centralized IT administration with easy distribution of configuration.
• NetFlow: NetFlow captures flow-based statistics. This data can be exported, collected, and analyzed for virus detection and You can simply slide in a new line card as needed without having to rearrange rack space, run additional power, or rebalance the traffic loads. mitigation, network-traffic accounting, usage-based network billing, network planning, and network monitoring.
• CPU monitoring: Using a CPU Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) port allows you to monitor traffic reaching the CPU. It provides troubleshooting visibility during times of high CPU usage.
• Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) and Remote Switched Port Analyzer (RSPAN): These protocols allow monitoring of ports or VLANs on a switch, as well as monitoring of multiple switches across the network from a single central switch.
• Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR): TDR allows you to test cable integrity from the switch without having to dispatch a technician.
• Disaster recovery port: This port allows direct access to ROMmon in case of Cisco IOS Software upgrade problems or corrupt Cisco IOS Software images.
• Reduced complexity: Functionally transparent line cards with minimal components reduce overall switch complexity.
• Cisco Network Assistant: You can use this free GUI tool for configuration and management.
• SmartPorts: SmartPorts provide prepackaged configurations in a single command.
• Auto QoS: Auto QoS automatically applies appropriate port settings when IP phones are attached.

Advanced Security

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series delivers a robust set of innovative security features to mitigate numerous types of typical LAN threats. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series supervisor engines provide ample hardware resources to concurrently activate all security features without affecting performance. Some of the main security features include:

• Identity and access control: Using features such as 802.1x, access control lists (ACLs), and private VLAN (PVLAN) prevents unauthorized user access to the network, servers, or applications and, if necessary, provides differentiated user access based on login information. You can limit damage from viruses by implementing Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC), which helps ensure that all devices trying to access the network meet corporate security policy.
• Data theft prevention: Prevent users from stealing usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information, including voice calls, by mitigating man-in-the-middle attacks with Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Snooping, dynamic Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) inspection, and IP Source Guard.
• Denial-of-service (DoS) mitigation: DoS mitigation prevents a deliberate or accidental attacks by enabling Port Security, Control Plane Policing, Dynamic Buffer Limiting, and NetFlow Anomaly Detection.
• uRPF: This feature (available with the new supervisor engine 6-E) mitigates DoS and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by forwarding only packets that have legitimate source IP addresses, helping protect the networks of Internet service providers (ISPs), their customers, and the rest of the Internet.

For more information about Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series security features, please visit:
Integrated Security Features on the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series
Cisco Catalyst Integrated Security - Enabling the Self-Defending Network.

Power over Ethernet

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series offers a selection of power supplies to meet specific customer needs, from data-only requirements to IP telephony implementations to support for any device requiring PoE:

• 15.4W per port: The Catalyst 4500 Series supports 15.4W simultaneously on every port in a fully loaded chassis (384 ports), with the capability to support higher wattage per port as standards develop.
• Wide selection of PoE line cards: You can mix and match PoE line cards as needed to meet your unique needs. Included are 10/100 PoE line cards with telco connectors that simplify cable management.
• Power flexibility: You can power the entire switch with PoE or distribute power as needed across the line cards.
• AC or DC power supplies: You can deploy the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series with AC or DC power based on your needs.

For more information about PoE on the Catalyst 4500 Series, please visit:
POE High Availability on the Cisco Catalyst 4500 At-a-Glance
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Power over Ethernet Capabilities

10 Gigabit Ethernet Line-Rate Connectivity

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine 6-E, V-10GE, and II-Plus-10GE models offer a nonblocking architecture with 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. These supervisor engines provide a configuration that is unique to modular switches:

• Dual interfaces: The supervisor engines (V-10GE and II-Plus-10GE) ship with both Gigabit Ethernet Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) ports and nonblocking 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports for flexibility and scalability.
• TwinGig converter modules: The supervisor engine 6-E ships standard TwinGig modules that allow for 10-Gigabit Ethernet X2 uplink ports or Gigabit Ethernet SFP ports.
• High density: The 6-port 10-Gigabit Ethernet E-Series line card for the Cisco Catalyst 4500-E allows fully loaded systems to scale up to 34 (2.5:1) 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports.

For more information about 10 Gigabit Ethernet on the Catalyst 4500 Series, please visit:
10 Gigabit Ethernet on the Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series At-a-Glance.
Investment Protection: Supervisor V-10GE Features and Value for Cat 4500 Series

Deployment Flexibility

With a broad selection of chassis, supervisor engines, line cards, and power supplies, the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series provides a flexible platform to meet the needs of organizations large and small. In addition, you can upgrade all components individually to increase the functions and performance of the platform without resorting to an expensive complete upgrade.

• Chassis: 3, 6, 7 and 10 slots (see Figure 2). For more information on chassis, please see the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Chassis Data Sheet.
• Supervisor engines: A selection of seven supervisor engines are available, offering robust Layer 2/3 services with up to 250 mpps. For more information about the latest Supervisor Engine 6-E, please refer to the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engine 6-E data sheet.
• Power supplies: Power supply options include 1000W to 4200W (AC or DC power options). For more information about power supplies, please refer to the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series PoE and Power Supplies Data Sheet.
• Line cards: You can deploy E-Series and Classic line cards in the same E-Series system with no performance degradation. Interface types include: 10/100, 10/100/1000, PoE, telco, 100BASE-LX10, 100BASE-BX-D, 100BASE-FX, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. For more information, please refer to the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Line Cards Data Sheet.
• IPv4-to-IPv6 migration: The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series is designed with innovative flexible resources (TCAMs) to enable and optimize IPv4-to-IPv6 concurrent operation or migration.

Compelling Price and Performance

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series provides a very compelling price point (compared to stackable switches) for converged networks that require high availability and 10/100/1000 PoE capabilities on all ports. (See Figure 3.)

Summary

The CenterFlex technology of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series truly delivers on important customer concerns, including:

• Investment protection
• High availability
• Security
• Flexibility
• Performance
• Ease of use

Its price-to-performance ratio is very compelling when compared to stackable switches. These characteristics of the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series have contributed to its global success.

Customers expect their investments to last much longer than ever before. With network convergence a possibility for most customers, selecting the right platform today is more critical than ever before. Today’s infrastructure investments will ultimately dictate the ability to run tomorrow’s converged services and applications successfully. The proven, scalable Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series with CenterFlex technology provides an ideal platform on which to build today’s networks and support convergence well into the future.