Empowering core layer and edge services with higher speeds and scales

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches are purpose-built for resiliency at scale with the industry’s most comprehensive security and allows your business to grow at the lowest total operational cost. Built upon the foundation of the Catalyst 9000, the Catalyst 9600 Series offers scale and security when always-on is a must.

Figure 1: Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches are the modular switch for every network

As the industry’s first purpose-built 40,100, 200 and 400 Gigabit Ethernet line of modular switches targeted for the enterprise campus, Catalyst 9600 Series switches deliver unmatched table scale (MAC, route, and Access Control List [ACL]) and buffering for enterprise applications.

Cisco IOS XE Software opens a completely new paradigm in network configuration, operation, and monitoring through network automation. Cisco’s automation solution is open, standards-based, and extensible across the entire lifecycle of a network device. The various automation mechanisms are outlined below.

Automated device provisioning. Tristique aliquam morbi eget euismod eget facilisi dictum interdum elementum. Viverra adi piscing convallis quam id.

API-driven configuration. Tristique aliquam morbi eget euismod eget facilisi dictum interdum elementum.

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Trustworthy solutions built with Cisco Trust Anchor Technologies. Tristique aliquam morbi eget euismod eget facilisi dictum interdum elementum. Viverra adi piscing convallis quam id.

A fully-assembled Catalyst 9600 includes the chassis, one of two supervisor engines, a line card for network connectivity, a fan tray, and a power supply.

Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switches offers one chassis option, two supervisor options, and multiple line-card options. It provides a common architecture that can scale up to 192 10 Gigabit or 25 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series redundant chassis offer High Availability (HA) by supporting 1 + 1 redundant supervisor engines with full-image In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU). NSF/SSO and ISSU help ensure continuous packet forwarding during supervisor engine switchover to enable HA for business-critical applications.

The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series chassis is enterprise optimized, with efficient side-to-side airflow and full front accessibility for all removable components, including supervisors, line cards, power supplies, and fan tray. The chassis also supports optional rear accessibility for the fan tray to enable efficient cable management. The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series chassis, supervisor, line cards, power supply, and fan tray have embedded RFID tags that facilitate easy asset and inventory management using commercial RFID readers.

Figure 2: Cisco Catalyst 9606R chassis supports a wired switching capacity of up to 25.6 Tbps, with up to 6.4 Tbps of bandwidth per slot.

• 4 Line card slots and 2 Supervisor Engine slots (slots 3 and 4)
• Supervisor engine redundancy
• 4 power supply bays
• Support for 3000W AC, 2000W AC, and 2000W DC
• 1 fan tray bay

Table 1: Physical Specifications of Cisco Catalyst 9606 Chassis

Each Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series switch uses a single serviceable fan tray for cooling. The switches can optionally be accessed from the rear for flexible cable management. The chassis is optimized for enterprise closets, with side-to-side airflow. All fan trays are composed of multiple independently controlled fans. If any single fan fails, the system will continue to operate without a significant degradation in cooling.

Fan speeds change dynamically to compensate for fan failure. Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series fans have a barometric sensor, which allows slower fan speed curves at lower altitudes. The fans also have individual Pulse-Wide Modulation (PWM) fine-tuning to reduce variability in fan revolutions per minute (rpm) under throttled conditions. The measured acoustic noise in a formal NEBS test environment is 77.7 LWAd (dB). The chassis are designed to accommodate fanless operation of up to 90 seconds to enable serviceability.

The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series power supplies support two modes of operation.

Combined mode

In combined mode, the power available for the entire chassis is equal to the sum of the output power of all of the power supplies multiplied by the share ratio. Additional power supply units operate at ~90% capacity. In combined mode, the power supplies need to be of equal wattage. The power supplies can be AC and DC mixed provided AC input voltage is 220V. 

P = Power output of one PSU 

Total combined mode power = P + (N-1) * P * (share ratio) 

N = 1, 2, 3, or 4

Redundant N+1 Mode

The Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series chassis also supports N+1 redundancy, with N independent input circuits and safeguards against the failure of one (+1) of the circuits during a PSU failure. Additional PSUs operate at ~90% capacity. In redundant mode, the power supplies need to be of equal wattage. The power supplies can be AC and DC mixed provided AC input voltage is 220V.

Power supply specifications