Data Sheet

Catalyst 5000 Family Supervisor III

Figure 1: Supervisor III Enables the Highest Level of Performance and Functionality for the Catalyst 5000 Family

Supervisor III Delivers Advanced Multilayer Features

The Supervisor III module can be deployed in any Catalyst 5500 Series or Catalyst 5000 Series chassis. In a Catalyst 5500, 5509, or 5505, the Supervisor III enables the 3.6-Gbps crossbar fabric, delivering superior levels of switching performance and system bandwidth.

The Catalyst Supervisor Engine III can support advanced multilayer switching features. The switching logic on Supervisor III is on a modular daughter card, allowing for multilayer switching options. Therefore, Cisco can provide customers with technological switching advances without requiring a new Supervisor module or new line modules. By deploying the NetFlow Feature Card II (NFFC II), a daughter card for the Supervisor module, users enable the following intelligent network services:

• High-performance multilayer switching—the Catalyst switching system provides multilayer switching performance that scales to gigabit speeds by embedding multilayer switching functions in silicon on the NFFC II. It identifies flows by using both network-and transport- layer information and switches packet by packet between subnets/virtual LAN (VLANs) using advanced application- specific integrated circuit (ASIC) switching hardware. The NFFC II uses any standard routing protocol, runs with any Catalyst line cards, and does not require any end-station changes.
  
  
• Quality of service (QoS)—deployed in a wiring-closet, the NFFC II can identify user applications and classify traffic with the appropriate priority level. The NFFC II enables a wiring-closet Catalyst 5000 Family switch to be a QoS edge device that is application-aware. It enables admission control in the closet to prevent unauthorized applications from being allowed on the network. The NFFC II can classify user data as high or low priority based upon physical source port, destination Media Access Control (MAC) address, or network and transport-layer source/destination addresses.
  
  
• Protocol filtering—on a port-by-port basis, the NFFC II is capable of filtering broadcast traffic by protocol, resulting in more efficient use of bandwidth for end stations.
  
  
• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping—the NFFC II enables Catalyst switches to intelligently forward multicast traffic such as video. This setup results in more bandwidth to the end user, as well as more efficient use of the workstation CPU.
  
  
• Accounting and traffic management—a key requirement when deploying Layer 3 switching is to provide visibility of flows as they are switched for troubleshooting, traffic management, and accounting purposes. The NFFC II enables detailed data collection of flow statistics maintained in hardware, with no impact on switching performance. The records for expired flows are grouped together and exported to applications such as Netsys for network planning and Remote Monitoring II (RMON II) traffic management and monitoring, as well as to accounting applications.
  
  
• Other features—more intelligent Cisco IOS^® services such as fast convergence, resilience, access lists, and others are described in the NFFC II data sheet.
  
  

Figure 2: "Best-in-Class" Modular Design Offers Maximum Flexibility

Modular Uplink Ports Provide Flexibility and Scalability

Supervisor III uplink ports are modular, allowing for the installation of the uplink module that best suits current bandwidth requirements while ensuring an easy migration path. Available options are four-port autosensing 10/100 Fast Ethernet (RJ-45), four-port 100BaseFX (MT-RJ), two-port autosensing 10/100 Fast Ethernet (RJ-45), two-port 100BaseFX (SC), and two-port Gigabit Ethernet SX, LX/LH (SC), or GBIC. Any Fast Ethernet uplink port can use Fast EtherChannel^® technology, which provides up to 800 MBps of wire-speed, resilient, and scalable bandwidth for both data center and backbone implementations.

Table 1  Supervisor III Now Offers Two-Port Gigabit Ethernet or Four-Port Fast Ethernet Uplink Modules for Added Bandwidth Capacity

Faster CPU and Increased Memory

Supervisor III's 150-MHz R4700 processor dramatically increases:

• Network management/spanning-tree performance
  
  
• SNMP/RMON response times
  
  
• Support for more concurrent software processes
  
  

Supervisor III increases DRAM size to 32 MB to support:

• More VLANs
  
  
• Larger virtual membership policy server (VMPS) databases
  
  
• Greater storage capacity for RMON history and alarms statistics
  
  

Unmatched Management Options

Supervisor III offers customers best-in-class design with the following features:

• Supervisor III has two slots for PCMCIA Flash memory to store multiple Catalyst software images for backup and easier software upgrades.
  
  
• Two Supervisor III's can be installed for redundancy. The modules are hot-swappable and provide the fastest failover recovery on the Catalyst platform.
  
  
• Auxiliary port provides remote out-of-band monitoring capability.
  
  

Feature Summary

Much of the functionality of the Catalyst 5000 Series switches can be summarized as features of the Supervisor Engine modules. Table 2 describes the features of Supervisor II, II G, III G, and III.

Catalyst 5000 Series Supervisor Software

The Catalyst Supervisor modules support industry-leading functionality, with features for scalability, bandwidth management, security services, network resiliency, and embedded manageability. Here are some of the highlighted features:

Scalability

• Fast EtherChannel
  
  
• Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP)
  
  
• Policy server, VMPS I
  
  
• Dynamic VLANs
  
  
• ISL Trunking Protocol
  
  
• Dynamic ISL (DISL)
  
  
• VTP, VTP version, and VTP pruning
  
  
• 802.1Q
  
  
• Token Ring VLANs
  
  
• ISL support for Token Ring
  
  

Bandwidth Management

• Broadcast suppression
  
  
• Link load balancing
  
  
• CGMP
  
  
• CGMP fast-leave processing
  
  

Security Services

• Port security by MAC address
  
  
• TACACS+ authentication
  
  
• IP permit list
  
  
• Traps and syslog messages sent on security violations
  
  

Network Resiliency

• Redundant supervisors
  
  
• Spanning-Tree Protocol (STP)
  
  
• Multiple spanning trees (spanning tree per VLAN)
  
  
• PortFast—STP enhancement
  
  
• UplinkFast—STP enhancement
  
  

Embedded Manageability

• CDP
  
  
• SNMP agent
  
  
• SNMPv2c agent
  
  
• MIB-II support
  
  
• RMON agent
  
  
• SNMP traps
  
  
• SPAN
  
  
• E-SPAN
  
  
• SPAN from multiple source ports
  
  
• Syslog support
  
  
• Telnet (outbound)
  
  
• DNS
  
  
• NTP
  
  
• Multiple module software image download
  
  
• Login banner for console
  
  

Memory

CPU (NMP Processor)

Supervisor Engine Indicators and Interfaces

• System status: green (operational)/red (faulty)
  
  
• Switch load: 1 to 100-percent aggregate switching usage
  
  
• Link good: green (good)/orange (disabled)/off (not connected)
  
  
• 100-Mbps Fast Ethernet: green (100 Mbps)
  
  
• Power supply status: green (on)/red (faulty)/off (not present)
  
  
• Fan status: green (on)/red (faulty)
  
  
• Auxiliary port: RJ-45 (female) DTE
  
  
• Supervisor Console: RJ-45 (female) DCE
  
  

Physical Specifications

• Occupies first slot in the Catalyst 5000 Series and 5500 Series (redundant supervisor engine in slot 2 for Catalyst 5500 Series)
  
  
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 1.2 x 14.4 x 16 in. (3 x 35.6 x 40.6 cm)
  
  

Environmental Conditions

• Operating temperature: 32 to 104º F (0 to 40º C)
  
  
• Storage temperature: -40 to 167º F (-40 to 75º C)
  
  
• Relative humidity: 10% to 90%, noncondensing
  
  

Regulatory Compliance

Safety Certifications

• UL 1950
  
  
• EN 60950
  
  
• CSA-C22.2 no. 950
  
  
• IEC 950
  
  
• TS 001
  
  
• AS/NZS 3260
  
  

Electromagnetic Emissions Certifications

• FCC 15J Class A
  
  
• VCCI Class B
  
  
• CE Marking
  
  
• EN 55022 Class B
  
  
• CISPR 22 Class B
  
  
• AS/NZS 3548 Class B