Cisco Catalyst 8500 and 8500L Series Edge Platforms Software Configuration Guide

Breakout support

Updated: February 6, 2026

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Overview

Sample commands to configure breakout support

Overview

Explains how to split high-speed native ports into multiple independent 10G logical ports. Use this feature to increase port density and provide flexibility for various network connectivity requirements.

Breakout support for a port helps to split a higher density port to multiple independent and logical ports. Starting from Cisco IOS XE 17.4, breakout support is introduced in Bay 2 of C8500-12X4QC that supports breakout capable 40G native ports. The breakout support is of 4X10G and uses a 3-tuple approach.

Note

Breakout support is only supported on C8500-12X4QC and not on C8500-20X6C.

This table explains the interface names when breakout is configured:

Table 1. Interface names when breakout support is configured for C8500-12X4QC
Interface names	Description
Te0/2/0, Te0/2/1, Te0/2/2, Te0/2/3, Te0/2/4, Te0/2/5, Te0/2/6, Te0/2/7, Te0/2/8, Te0/2/9, Te0/2/10, Te0/2/11	All three 40 G native ports working in 10G breakout mode
Fo0/2/0,Fo0/2/4, Te0/2/8, Te0/2/9, Te0/2/10, Te0/2/11	1st native port in 40G mode 2nd native port in 40G mode 3rd native port in 10G breakout mode
Fo0/2/0, Te0/2/4, Te0/2/5, Te0/2/6, Te0/2/7 Fo0/2/8	1st native port in 40G mode 2nd native port 10G breakout mode 3rd native port in 40G mode
Te0/2/0, Te0/2/1, Te0/2/2, Te0/2/3, Fo0/2/4, Fo0/2/8	1st native port in 10G breakout mode 2nd native port in 40G mode 3rd native port in 40G mode
1st native port in 10G breakout mode 2nd native port in 40G mode 3rd native port in 40G mode	1st native port in 40G mode 2nd native port in 10G breakout mode 3rd native port in 10G breakout mode
Te0/2/0, Te0/2/1, Te0/2/2, Te0/2/3, Te0/2/4, Te0/2/5, Te0/2/6, Te0/2/7, Fo0/2/8	1st native port in 10G breakout mode 2nd native port in 10G breakout mode 3rd native port in 40G mode
Te0/2/0, Te0/2/1, Te0/2/2, Te0/2/3, Fo0/2/4, Te0/2/8, Te0/2/9, Te0/2/10, Te0/2/11	1st native port in 10G breakout mode 2nd native port in 40G mode 3rd native port in 10G breakout mode

Breakout support configuration

This topic outlines commands and examples for configuring breakout support.

Note

Before using the breakout capability, ensure that Bay 2 is configured in 40G mode

Router(config)#hw-module subslot 0/2 breakout 10G port ?

all                configure all native ports in breakout mode
native_port_0      configure native port 0 in breakout mode
native_port_4      configure native port 4 in breakout mode
native_port_8      configure native port 8 in breakout mode

Sample commands to configure breakout support

When native_port 0 and 8 are in 10G breakout and native_port 4 is running in 40G mode

hw-module subslot 0/2 breakout 10g port native_port_0
hw-module subslot 0/2 breakout 10g port native_port_8

When all three native 40G ports have same breakout config

hw-module subslot 0/2 breakout 10g port all    
hw-module subslot 0/2 breakout none port all

When you want to remove breakout configuration from all ports

hw-module subslot 0/2 breakout none port all

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