Catalyst 9300

Built to reimage connection, reinforce security and redefine experience

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches are Cisco’s lead stackable enterprise access switching platform and as part of the Catalyst 9000 family, are build to transform your network to handle a hybrid world where the workplace is anywhere, endpoints could be anything, and applications are hosted all over the place.

The Catalyst 9300 Series, including the new Catalyst 9300X models, continues to shape the future with continued innovation that helps you reimagine connections, reinforce security and redefine the experience for your hybrid workforce big and small.

The many industry’s first include:

●      Up to 1TB of stacking bandwidth: With Stackwise-1T, Catalyst 9300 switches are the industry’s highest-density stacking bandwidth solution with the most flexible uplink architecture

●      Flexible and dense uplink offerings with 100G, 40G, 25G, Multigigabit, 10G, and 1G modular uplinks

●      Mixed Stacking with Backward Compatibility – Stack your Catalyst 9300X fiber switches with Catalyst 9300 and Catalyst 9300X Multigigabit switches, bringing stackable high-speed fiber to the access

●      Highest Multigigabit Ports: With standalone and Stackwise-1T, Catalyst 9300X models enable 48 mGig ports in standalone and 448 mGig ports with an 8-member stack

●      Highest 90W UPOE+ Density: Enable your OT/IT needs with up to 36 ports of 90W UPOE+ for standalone or 288 ports of 90W UPOE+ with a 8-member stack.

●      StackPower with Backward Compatibility: Enable power resiliency with higher power budgets in mixed Catalyst 9300 and Catalyst 9300X stack.

●      100G IPsec in hardware: With the new 2.0Sec UADP ASIC, the Catalyst 9300X comes with 100G line rate IPsec to enable various options for new edge connectivity

●      Secure Tunnel connectivity: With the new edge, the C9300X enables secure connections to Secure Internet Gateway, Cloud Service Providers and Site to Site connectivity using IPsec tunnel with AES-256 Encryption and speeds up to 100G.

●      Enhanced Application Hosting: With 2x capacity and additional RAM, QAT, and 2 x 10G AppGig Ports, multiple Cisco Signed performance savvy applications can be hosted on Catalyst 9300X

●      ThousandEyes Enabled: End-to-end visualization of the path from campus/branch to clouds/DC with Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics (included with Cisco DNA Advantage licenses)

●      Investment Protection: Catalyst 9300X redundant fans and power supplies, data stack and StackPower cables are backward compatible with the Catalyst 9300.

The Foundation of Software-Defined access

Advanced persistent security threats. The exponential growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Mobility everywhere. Cloud adoption. All of these require a network fabric that integrates advanced hardware and software innovations to automate, secure, and simplify customer networks. The goal of this network fabric is to enable customer revenue growth by accelerating the rollout of business services.

The Cisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA) with Software-Defined Access (SD-Access) is the network fabric that powers business. It is an open and extensible, software-driven architecture that accelerates and simplifies your enterprise network operations. The programmable architecture frees your IT staff from time-consuming, repetitive network configuration tasks so they can focus instead on innovation that positively transforms your business. SD-Access enables policy-based automation from edge to cloud with foundational capabilities. These include:

●      Simplified device deployment

●      Unified management of wired and wireless networks

●      Network virtualization and segmentation

●      Group-based policies

●      Context-based analytics

Cisco DNA Software

Cisco DNA Software offers a valuable and flexible way to buy software for the access, WAN, and data center domains. At each stage in the product lifecycle, Cisco DNA Software helps make buying, managing, and upgrading your network and infrastructure software easier. Cisco DNA Software provides:

●      Flexible licensing models to smoothly distribute customers’ software spending over time

●      Investment protection for software purchases through software services–enabled license portability

●      Access to updates, upgrades, and new technology from Cisco through CiscoSoftware Support Services (SWSS)

●      Lower cost of entry with the new Cisco DNA Subscription for Switching model

●      Access to end-to-end network visibility with Cisco Spaces and service assurance through Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics (included with Cisco DNA Advantage license)

Cisco DNA lets you manage your entire switching structure as a single, converged component. With one management system and one policy for wired and wireless networks, it offers an efficient way to provide more secure access.

Product overview

Product highlights

●      Highest wireless scale for Wi-Fi 6 and 802.11ac Wave 2 access points supported on a single switch with select models

●      Catalyst 9300 and Catalyst 9300L/LM models are based on the Cisco UADP 2.0 Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) with programmable pipeline and micro-engine capabilities, along with template-based, configurable allocation of Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding, Access Control Lists (ACLs), and Quality of Service (QoS) entries

●      Catalyst 9300X models are based on UADP 2.0sec ASIC which adds line rate support for Crypto, including 100G hardware-based IPsec

●      x86 CPU complex with 8-GB memory, and 16 GB of flash and external USB 3.0 SSD pluggable storage slot (delivering up to 240GB of storage with an option SSD drive) to host containers. C9300X models support 16GB of memory

●      USB 2.0 slot to load system images and set configurations

●      Up to 1 TBps of local stackable switching bandwidth with Catalyst 9300X models

●      Deeper buffer and higher scale model options for rich multi-media content delivery applications

●      Flexible and dense uplink offerings with 100G, 40G, 25G, Multigigabit, 10G, and 1G as fixed or modular uplinks

●      Easy transition from 40G to 100G and 10G to 25G with dual-rate optics

●      Flexible downlink options with 25G, 10G and 1G Copper and Fiber as well as the densest Multigigabit links

●      With a mix of Copper (1G up to 10G) and Fiber (1G up to 25G) supported in a single stack, multiple flexible deployment scenarios are enabled, including 2-Tier, 3-Tier and Hybrid architectures

●      Leading PoE capabilities with up to 384 ports of PoE per stack, PoE+, and 288 ports high density IEEE 802.3bt - 90W UPOE+, and 60W Cisco UPOE

●      Intelligent Power Management with Cisco StackPower technology, providing power stacking among members for power redundancy. StackPower pools the power supplies across the stack to be used redundancy and supplemental power purposes

●      Line-rate, hardware-based Flexible NetFlow (FNF), delivering flow collection of up to 128,000 flows with select models

●      IPv6 support in hardware, providing wire-rate forwarding for IPv6 networks

●      Dual-stack support for IPv4/IPv6 and dynamic hardware forwarding table allocations, for ease of IPv4-to-IPv6 migration

●      Support for both static and dynamic NAT and Port Address Translation (PAT)

●      IEEE 802.1ba AV Bridging (AVB) built in to provide a better audio and video experience through improved time synchronization and QoS

●      Precision Time Protocol (PTP; IEEE 1588v2) provides accurate clock synchronization with sub-microsecond accuracy making it suitable for distribution and synchronization of time and frequency over network

●      Cisco IOS XE, a modern operating system for the enterprise with support for model-driven programmability including NETCONF, RESTCONF, YANG, on-box Python scripting, streaming telemetry, container-based application hosting, and patching for critical bug fixes. The OS also has built-in defenses to protect against runtime attacks

●      End-to-end visualization of the path from campus/branch to clouds/DC with Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics (included with Cisco DNA Advantage license)

●      SD-Access: Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches form the foundational building block for SD-Access, Cisco’s lead enterprise architecture:

◦    Policy-based automation from edge to cloud

◦    Simplified segmentation and micro-segmentation, with predictable performance and scalability

◦    Automation through Cisco DNA Center

◦    Policy handled through the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

◦    Network assurance provided through the Cisco DNA Center

◦    Faster launch of new business services and significantly improved issue resolution time

●      Plug and Play (PnP) enabled: A simple, secure, unified, and integrated offering to ease new branch or campus device rollouts or updates to an existing network

●      Advanced security

◦    Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA): You benefit from the power of machine learning to identify and take actions toward threats or anomalies in your network, including malware detection in encrypted traffic (without decryption) and distributed anomaly detection

◦    Support for AES-256 with the powerful MACsec 256-bit encryption algorithm available on all models

◦    Trustworthy solutions: Hardware anchored Secure Boot and Secure Unique Device Identification (SUDI) support for Plug and Play, to verify the identity of the hardware and software

Platform details

Switch models and configurations

Table 1.        Product Family Configurations

The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series is made up of nineteen modular uplink switch models and fourteen fixed uplink switch models.

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches

Table 2 lists port scale and power details for the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series models.

Table 2.        Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switch configurations

Network Modules

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches (C9300X and C9300 SKUs) support optional network modules for uplink ports (Figure 2). These field-replaceable network modules with 25G and 40G speeds in the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series enable greater architectural flexibility and infrastructure investment protection by allowing a nondisruptive migration from 10G to 25G and beyond. The default switch configuration does not include the network module. When you purchase the switch, you can choose from the network modules described in Table 2.

Cisco Catalyst 9300X Network Modules

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Network Modules

Table 3.        Network module numbers and descriptions

^*C9300X-NM-4C is compatible only with C9300X-48HX, C9300X-48TX and C9300X-24Y models

Please note: Catalyst 3850 and Catalyst 9300 network modules are supported on the Catalyst 9300 models. Catalyst 9300X network modules are only supported on the Catalyst 9300X models.

For additional details, please read our FAQs: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-9300-series-switches/nb-09-cat-9k-faq-cte-en.pdf.

Power supplies

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches support dual redundant power supplies. The switches ship with one power supply by default, and the second power supply can be purchased when the switch is ordered or at a later time. If only one power supply is installed, it should always be in power supply bay #1. The switches also ship with three field-replaceable fans. Power Supplies are common across the Catalyst 9300 Series.

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Dual Redundant power supplies

Table 4 lists the different power supplies available in these switches and available PoE power.

Table 4.        Power supply models

Stacking

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switch models are designed for stacking switches as a single virtual switch, enabling customers to have a single management plane and control plane for up to 448 access ports.

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series modular uplink models stack (C9300/C9300X SKUs) and fixed uplink models stack
(C9300L SKUs)

Table 5 lists the supported stacking options.

Table 5.        Supported stacking options

Mixed stacking between Catalyst 9300X and Catalyst 9300 models are supported at StackWise-480 speeds.

Mixed stacking between Catalyst 9300 and Catalyst 9300X and Catalyst 9300 higher scale models (C9300-24UB, C9300-24UXB, C9300-48UB) is not supported. You cannot stack fixed uplink models (C9300L SKUs) with modular uplink models (C9300 SKUs) or other Catalyst switches, e.g. Cisco Catalyst 3850 and 3650 Series. Any combination of Catalyst 9300 models can form a stack. Separately, any combination of Catalyst 9300L models can form a stack.

Catalyst 9300 higher scale SKUs (C9300-24UB, C9300-24UXB, C9300-48UB) need to be stacked with other higher scale models.

StackWise cables that are available to configure stacking with Catalyst 9300 Series modular uplink models (C9300X and C9300 SKUs) come in lengths of 0.5m, 1m and 3m.

The optional StackWise-320 kit for Catalyst 9300 Series fixed uplink models (C9300L and 9300LM SKUs) consists of two stack adapters and a stacking cable. The default stacking cable is 0.5 m, but options of 1m and 3m are also available. Table 6 lists the stacking accessories.

Table 6.        Stacking accessories

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series fixed uplink models with optional stack kit

Fan

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches also come with three field-replaceable fans and support (N+1) redundancy. Table 7 lists the fan module part number.

Table 7.        Fan modules

Performance and scalability

Performance and scalability metrics for the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series are provided in Table 8.

Performance specifications

Table 8.        Performance specifications

Bandwidth specifications

Table 9.        Bandwidth specifications

All models are at wire-speed nonblocking performance for both IPv4 and IPv6. The forwarding rates in the table above are measured with 64 byte IPv4 packet sizes.

SD-Access architecture

What if you could give time back to IT? Provide network access in minutes for any user or device to any application – without compromise? SD-Access is the industry’s first policy-based automation from network edge to cloud. Your foundation for your digital network, Cisco SD-Access. Built on the principles of the Cisco DNA, SD-Access provides end-to-end segmentation to keep user, device and application traffic separate without a redesign of the network. It automates user access policy so organizations can make sure the right policies are set for any user or device with any application across the network. This is accomplished with a single network fabric across LAN and WLAN which creates a consistent user experience anywhere without compromising on security.

There are many challenges today in managing the network to drive business outcomes. These limitations are due to manual configuration and fragmented tool offerings. SD-Access provides:

●      A transformational management solution that reduces operational expenses and enhances business agility

●      Consistent management of wired and wireless network provisioning and policy

●      Automated network segmentation and group-based policy

●      Contextual insights for fast issue resolution and capacity planning

●      Open and programmable interfaces for integration with third-party solutions

For an overview of key use-cases SD-Access addresses, refer to SD-Access Solution Overview.

Platform benefits

Cisco IOS XE 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 is the ability to automate the process of upgrading software images and installing configuration files on Cisco Catalyst switches when they are being deployed in the network for the first time. Cisco provides both turnkey solutions such as Plug and Play and off-the-shelf tools such as Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) and Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) that enable an effortless and automated deployment.

●      API-driven configuration is available with modern network switches such as the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series. It supports a wide range of automation features and provides robust open APIs over NETCONF and RESTCONF and GNMI using YANG data models for external tools, both off-the-shelf and custom built, to automatically provision network resources.

●      Granular visibility enables model-driven telemetry to stream data from a switch to a destination. The data to be streamed is identified through subscription to a data set in a YANG model. The subscribed data set is streamed to the destination at specified intervals. Additionally, Cisco IOS XE enables the push model. It provides near-real-time monitoring of the network, leading to quick detection and rectification of failures.

●      Seamless software upgrades and patching supports OS resilience. Cisco IOS XE supports patching, which provides fixes for critical bugs and security vulnerabilities between regular maintenance releases. This support lets you add patches without having to wait for the next maintenance release.

Security

●      Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA) is a unique capability for identifying malware in encrypted traffic coming from the access layer. Since more and more traffic is becoming encrypted, the visibility this feature affords for threat detection is critical for keeping your network secure at different layers.

●      AES-256 MACsec encryption is the IEEE 802.1AE standard for authenticating and encrypting packets between switches. The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches support 256-bit and 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), providing the most secure link encryption.

●      IPsec encryption delivers secure end-to-end encrypted traffic between sites and connectivity to the Cloud. C9300X models support line rate IPsec up to 100 Gbps delivering uncompromised secure connectivity.

●      Trustworthy solutions built with Cisco Trust Anchor Technologies provide a highly secure foundation for Cisco products. With the Catalyst 9300 Series, these technologies enable hardware and software authenticity assurance for supply chain trust and strong mitigation against man-in-the-middle attacks that compromise software and firmware. Trust Anchor capabilities include:

◦    Image signing: Cryptographically signed images provide assurance that the firmware, BIOS, and other software are authentic and unmodified. As the system boots, the system’s software signatures are checked for integrity.

◦    Secure Boot: Cisco Secure Boot technology anchors the boot sequence chain of trust to immutable hardware, mitigating threats against a system’s foundational state and the software that is to be loaded, regardless of a user’s privilege level. It provides layered protection against the persistence of illicitly modified firmware.

◦    Cisco Trust Anchor module: A tamper-resistant, strong cryptographic, single-chip solution provides hardware authenticity assurance to uniquely identify the product so that its origin can be confirmed to Cisco. This provides assurance that the product is genuine.

Cloud Security

●      Umbrella DNS Integration:

Small to midsize networks reliant on managed service providers can now host Cisco Umbrella agent directly on their Catalyst 9300 Series switches. This allows the business to easily customize their DNS filtering policies granularly at user or group level to prevent BYOD or IoT guest or corporate users from accessing malicious or inappropriate websites, without having to rely on the MSP to push the policies out. It also lets them optimize use of bandwidth by allowing direct cloud access for trusted apps. Requires Cisco DNA Advantage License and Umbrella License per device.

Service Assurance

●      Cisco ThousandEyes Integration:

Deliver superior network and service experience for your users, employees and partners with groundbreaking observability from network to app. Cisco ThousandEyes network tests are now integrated into Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches with Cisco DNA Advantage licenses, giving you visibility beyond your campus perimeter so you solve issues faster. The Cisco ThousandEyes Network and Application Synthetics license is included by default upon the selection of a Cisco DNA Advantage option with a 3 year, 5 year or a 7 year subscription. Each Catalyst 9300 Cisco DNA Advantage subscription entitles the customer to run the equivalent of one Cisco ThousandEyes network or web test every 5 mins from a Cisco ThousandEyes enterprise agent (22 units per month), up to a maximum of 110,000 units per month of Cisco ThousandEyes test capacity per customer.

Resiliency and high availability

●      StackWise-1T: Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series modular uplink models (C9300X SKUs) support the industry’s highest back-panel stacking bandwidth solution (1Tbps) with StackWise-1T. Up to 8 Switches can be configured in a StackWise-1T with the special connector at the back of the switch using dedicated stack cables.

●      StackWise-480: Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series modular uplink models (C9300 SKUs) support high-speed back-panel stacking bandwidth solution (480 Gbps) with StackWise-480. Up to 8 Switches can be configured in a StackWise-480 with the special connector at the back of the switch using dedicated stack cables.

●      StackWise-320: Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series fixed uplink models (C9300L and C9300LM SKUs) support stacking bandwidth solution (320 Gbps) with StackWise-320. Up to 8 Switches can be optionally configured in a StackWise-320 with the special Stack Kit at the back of the switch using dedicated stack cables.

●      Cisco StackPower: Cisco StackPower is an innovative power interconnect system that allows the power supplies in a stack to be shared as a common resource among all the switches. This allows you to simply add one extra power supply in any switch of the stack and either provide power redundancy for any of the stack members or simply add more power to the shared pool. Up to 4 switches can be configured in a StackPower stack with the special connector at the back of the switch. However, with the use of XPS-2200 appliance, up to 8 switches can be configured in the StackPower stack. Cisco StackPower is only supported on the models with modular uplink stack - C9300 and C9300X SKUs. C9300X models support StackPower+ delivering more power over StackPower cables compared to C9300 models.

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series StackPower

●      High availability: The Catalyst 9300 Series supports high-availability features, including the following:

◦    Cross-stack EtherChannel provides the ability to configure Cisco EtherChannel technology across different members of the stack for high resiliency.

◦    Flexlink+: Flexlink+ allows the setting up of active and backup interfaces or port channels, which can provide Layer 2 failover redundancy without the use of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).

◦    Extended Fast Software Upgrade provides the ability to upgrade the platform software or to reload the system in under 30 seconds of traffic impact; both stand-alone and stack configurations.

◦    IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) provides rapid spanning tree convergence independent of spanning tree timers and also offers the benefit of Layer 2 load balancing and distributed processing.

◦    Per-VLAN Rapid Spanning Tree (PVRST+) allows rapid spanning tree (IEEE 802.1w) reconvergence on a per-VLAN spanning tree basis, providing simpler configuration than MSTP. In both MSTP and PVRST+ modes, stacked units behave as a single spanning tree node.

◦    Switch-port auto-recovery (“err-disable” recovery) automatically attempts to reactivate a link that is disabled because of a network error.

◦    The Catalyst 9300 Series platform delivers the best NSF/SSO resiliency architecture in a stackable solution with sub-50-ms failover.

◦    Always-On wireless network with stateful switchover when wireless functionality is enabled on stack of Catalyst 9300 Series switches.

Deep buffer Technology

Cisco Catalyst 9300 higher scale models have a deeper buffer to address the requirements of rich multi-media lossless content delivery and large routing tables in a fixed access solution with a wide range of uplink choices for deployment flexibility.

Flexible Netflow

●      Flexible NetFlow (FNF): Cisco IOS Software FNF is the next generation in flow visibility technology. It enables optimization of the network infrastructure, reduces operation costs, and improves capacity planning and security incident detection with increased flexibility and scalability. The Catalyst 9300 Series is capable of up to 64,000 flow entries on 48-port, 24-port and 12-port models and up to 128,000 flow entries on Multigigabit models.

Application visibility and control

●      NBAR2: Next-Generation Network-Based Application Recognition (NBAR2) enables advanced application classification techniques, accuracy with up to 1400 predefined and well-known application signatures and up to 150 encrypted applications on the Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches. The most popular applications included are Skype, Office 365, Microsoft Lync, Cisco WebEx, and Facebook, among many others that are predefined and easy to configure. NBAR2 provides the network administrator with an important tool to identify, control, and monitor end-user application usage while helping ensure a quality user experience and securing the network from malicious attacks. NBAR2 leverages FNF to report application performance and activities within the network to any supported NetFlow collector, such as Cisco Prime, Cisco Stealthwatch, or any compliant third-party tool.

QoS

●      Superior QoS: The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series offers Gigabit Ethernet speeds with intelligent services that keep traffic flowing smoothly, even at 10 times the normal network speed. Industry-leading mechanisms for cross-stack marking, classification, and scheduling deliver superior performance for data, voice, and video traffic at wire speed. Superior QoS includes granular wireless bandwidth management and fair sharing, 802.1p Class of Service (CoS) and Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) field classification, Shaped Round Robin (SRR) scheduling, Committed Information Rate (CIR), and eight egress queues per port.

Service discovery

●      Multicast DNS (mDNS) gateway: This service discovery gateway capability facilitates sharing of services advertised using the Apple mDNS (Bonjour) protocol, such as printers, Apple TVs, and file services across the network. Additionally, the administrator can create policies defining which services can be seen and accessed by the users in the network. This capability facilitates a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) rollout.

Smart operation

●      WebUI: WebUI is an embedded GUI-based device-management tool that provides the ability to provision the device, to simplify device deployment and manageability, and to enhance the user experience. It comes with the default image, so there is no need to enable anything or install any license on the device. You can use WebUI to build configurations, and to monitor and troubleshoot the device without having CLI expertise.

●      Efficient switch operation^*: Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches provide optimum power saving with Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) on the RJ-45 ports and low-power operations for industry best-in-class power management and power consumption capabilities. The ports support reduced power modes so that ports not in use can move into a lower power utilization state. Other efficient switch operation features are as follows:

◦    Per-port power consumption command allows customers to specify a maximum power setting on an individual port.

◦    Per-port PoE power sensing measures actual power being drawn, enabling more intelligent control of powered devices. The PoE MIB provides proactive visibility into power usage and allows you to set different power-level thresholds.

●      RFID tags: Catalyst 9300 Series switches have an embedded RFID tag that facilitates easy asset and inventory management using commercial RFID readers.

●      Blue beacon: Catalyst 9300 Series switches support a blue beacon LED for easy identification of the switch being accessed.

Open standards based fabric

The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches support modern fabric technologies such as VXLAN with BGP-EVPN control plane, with open APIs. This technology provides the flexibility to build open standards-based fabrics to secure infrastructure, users and data. This fabric architecture provides rich unicast and multicast protocol support to optimally route or bridge traffic as well as support for integrated campus services all of which can be automated via open APIs to effectively configure and monitor the network.

Programmability

Cisco IOS-XE provides open standards-based APIs such as NETCONF, RESTCONF, gNMI to simplify provisioning and configuration, that allows network administrators to save time when provisioning new network devices and to prevent the human errors that often are a byproduct of manual configuration. Integrating Zero Touch Provisioning with various DevOps toolkits allows network admins to drastically reduce the time and resources needed to onboard a device onto their network. The ability to collect real-time statistics through model driven telemetry through gRPC and gNMI allows administrator to integrate to many health monitoring tools to optimize their environments and to troubleshoot and provide alerts about any potential problems.

High-Performance IP routing

The Cisco Express Forwarding hardware routing architecture delivers extremely high-performance IP routing in Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches, based on:

●      IP unicast routing protocols (including static, Routing Information Protocol Version 1 [RIPv1], RIPv2, RIPng, and Open Shortest Path First [OSPF], Routed Access) are supported for small network routing applications with the Network Essentials stack. Equal-cost routing facilitates Layer 3 load balancing and redundancy across the stack.

●      Advanced IP unicast routing protocols (including Full [OSPF], Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol [EIGRP], Border Gateway Protocol Version 4 [BGPv4], and Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System Version 4 [IS-ISv4]) are supported for load balancing and for constructing scalable LANs. IPv6 routing (using OSPFv3 and BGPv6) is supported in hardware for maximum performance.

●      Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM) for IP multicast routing is supported, including PIM Sparse Mode (PIM SM), and Source-Specific Multicast (SSM).

●      IPv6 addressing is supported on interfaces with appropriate show commands for monitoring and troubleshooting.

Audio Video Bridging (AVB)

Starting with Cisco IOS XE Software Release 16.8, the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series supports the IEEE 802.1 AVB standard. This standard provided the means for highly reliable delivery of low-latency, time-synchronized audio and video streaming services through Layer 2 Ethernet networks. The standard also makes it easier to integrate new services and for AV equipment from different vendors to interoperate.

Benefits

●      Improves quality of experience by lowering jitter and latency for time-synchronized delivery of high-quality AV.

●      Provides scalability of applications across networked deployments, including expansive and complex AV infrastructure.

●      Lowers Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) with reduced cabling (lowers CapEx) and no license fees
(lowers OpEx).

For more details about AVB and specific models supported, check https://www.cisco.com/go/avb.

Multigigabit Ethernet technology

Cisco Multigigabit Ethernet technology allows you to achieve bandwidth speeds from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps over traditional Category 5e/6 cabling or above. This technology addresses the need for exponential increases in bandwidth with the enormous growth of 802.11ac Wave 2, to be eclipsed by the growth of Wi-Fi 6 and new wireless applications without having to replace current cabling infrastructure.

Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)

The Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches support Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) which combines the performance and capabilities of Layer 2 (data link layer) switching with the proven scalability of Layer 3 (network layer) routing. MPLS enables the explosive growth in network utilization while providing the opportunity to differentiate services without sacrificing the existing network infrastructure. MPLS support includes

●      MPLS L3 VPN: An MPLS Virtual Private Network (VPN) consists of a set of sites that are interconnected by means of a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) provider core network. At each customer site, one or more customer edge (CE) devices attach to one or more provider edge (PE) devices.

●      VPLS: VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) enables enterprises to link together their Ethernet-based LANs from multiple sites via the infrastructure provided by their service provider.

●      EoMPLS: EoMPLS is a category of Any Transport over MPLS (AToM) to transport Layer 2 packets over an MPLS backbone.

●      MPLS over GRE: L3VPN over GRE and VPLS over GRE, are supported to tunnel MPLS/VPLS packets over non-MPLS networks utilizing GRE tunneling

Power over ethernet leadership

Cisco Universal Power over Ethernet (Cisco UPOE and Cisco UPOE+): PoE removes the need for wall sockets to power each PoE-enabled device and eliminates the cost of additional electrical cabling and circuits that would otherwise be necessary in IP phone and WLAN deployments. Cisco UPOE extends the IEEE PoE+ standard to double the power per port to 60 watts. This facilitates delivery of network power to a broad range of devices requiring higher power, including virtual desktop terminals, IP turrets, compact switches, building management gateways, LED lights, wireless access points, and IP phones. Designed for smart building and IoT applications, Cisco Catalyst 9300 UPOE+ switches (delivering PoE power up to 90W) provide data and power over a single cable to power devices like wireless access points, digital signage, security cameras, thermal cameras with PTZ features, LED lighting fixtures and large display screens. UPOE+ offers reduced cabling and installation costs without need for permits, device daisy-chaining application that require higher power draw, real-time device information, centralized management and remote control, faster and flexible device installation where devices can be positioned in a practical location instead of proximity to the electrical outlets.

Catalyst 9300 Series modular uplink (C9300 and C9300X SKUs) models support Cisco UPOE+, Cisco UPOE, PoE+ and PoE, thereby addressing the largest range of network power needs.

Catalyst 9300 Series fixed uplink (C9300LM SKUs) models support Cisco UPOE+, Cisco UPOE or PoE+ and PoE.

Catalyst 9300 Series fixed uplink (C9300L SKUs) models support Cisco UPOE or PoE+ and PoE.

Tables 10 and 11 show the power supply combinations required for different PoE needs.

Table 10.     Power supply requirements for Catalyst 9300 Series modular uplink PoE/PoE+ models (C9300-xxP SKUs)

Table 11.     Power supply requirements for Catalyst 9300 Series UPOE models
(C9300-xxU/UB/UXM/UN, C9300L-xxUXG-xx SKUs)

Table 12.     Power supply requirements for Catalyst 9300 Series UPOE+ models (C9300-xxH SKUs)

Table 13.     Power supply requirements for Catalyst 9300 Series fixed uplink PoE/PoE+ models (C9300L-xxP SKUs)

●      Perpetual PoE: With Perpetual PoE, the PoE power is maintained during a switch reload. This is important for IoT endpoints such as PoE-powered lights, so that there is no disruption during switch reboot.

●      Fast PoE: When power is restored to a switch, PoE starts delivering power to endpoints without waiting for the operating system to fully load, thereby speeding up the time for the endpoint to start up.

Software requirements

Cisco DNA Software for Access Switching is available for the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series.

Cisco DNA Software for Access Switching offers comprehensive solutions for the enterprise campus and branch offices. Cisco DNA for Access Switching introduces a simpler and more economical way to deploy access, aggregation, and core switches across enterprise campus and branch locations.

The Cisco DNA Subscription for Switching offer delivers an unbound network on an open and extensible architecture to help you navigate the digital journey. This subscription offer simplifies the buying process and includes lower initiation costs and flexible terms. It includes: Cisco DNA Advantage with full Cisco DNA capabilities and SD-Access, bundled with ISE Base, ISE Plus, and StealthWatch.

For ordering information for Cisco DNA Software for the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series, go to https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/software/one-access/switching-part-numbers.html.

Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches run on Cisco IOS XE 16.5.1a release or later with the following exceptions. Catalyst 9300 Series 1G fiber models (C9300-xxS SKUs) are supported on Cisco IOS XE 16.11.1a release or later. Catalyst 9300 Series fixed uplink models (C9300L SKUs) are supported on Cisco IOS XE 16.11.1b release or later. These software releases includes all the features listed earlier in the Platform Benefits section.

Licensing Packaging

The Cisco Catalyst 9000 family of switches introduces a new and simplified licensing package in the form of base and add-on licenses.

●      The perpetual licensing package includes the Network Essentials and Network Advantage licensing options that are tied to the hardware. Between them, the base licensing packages cover switching fundamentals, management automation, troubleshooting, and advanced switching features. These Network licenses are perpetual.

The subscription licensing package includes the Cisco DNA Essentials and Cisco DNA Advantage options. In addition to on-box capabilities, the features available with this package provide Cisco innovations on the switch, as well as on Cisco DNA Center. The Cisco DNA subscription licenses are mandatory at the time of configuration. With Cisco DNA software licenses, customers receive embedded SWSS – which covers 24x7x365 Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) support, software release updates, advanced support analytics, and designated service management. This is valid only for the Cisco DNA software subscription stacks (Cisco DNA Essentials or Advantage).

Note: For full hardware support, including the perpetual network stack, customers will require Smart Net Total Care for 24x7x365 Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) support, proactive security and product alerts, and product lifecycle management. An additional option for hardware support is Solution Support for your multivendor Cisco solution environment.

License consumption is easily determined by the package itself. While perpetual licenses are always permanent and without an expiration date, subscription licenses have to be purchased for a 3-, 5-, or 7-year term (and hence are also known as term-based licenses). Table 14 shows the combinations of perpetual and subscription licenses that must be purchased.

Table 14.     Licensing combinations

Managing licenses with Smart Accounts

Creating Smart Accounts by using the Cisco Smart Software Manager (SSM) enables you to manage your software licenses from a centralized website. You can set up Cisco SSM to receive daily email alerts and to be notified of expiring subscription licenses that you want to renew.

You must order a Cisco DNA subscription term license in order to purchase a switch. When the license term expires, you can either renew the add-on license to continue using it or deactivate the add-on license and then reload the switch to continue operating with the base license capabilities.

Both the base and add-on licenses are also available for a 90-day evaluation period. An evaluation license is activated temporarily, without purchase. An expired evaluation license cannot be reactivated after reload.

Note:     It is not required to deploy Cisco DNA Center just to use one of the above packages.

Introduction to Smart Licensing

Cisco Smart Licensing is a flexible licensing model that provides you with an easier, faster, and more consistent way to purchase and manage software across the Cisco portfolio and across your organization. And it’s secure – you control what users can access. With Smart Licensing you get:

●      Easy Activation: Smart Licensing establishes a pool of software licenses that can be used across the entire organization—no more PAKs (Product Activation Keys).

●      Unified Management: My Cisco Entitlements (MCE) provides a complete view into all of your Cisco products and services in an easy-to-use portal, so you always know what you have and what you are using.

●      License Flexibility: Your software is not node-locked to your hardware, so you can easily use and transfer licenses as needed.

To use Smart Licensing, you must first set up a Smart Account on Cisco Software Central (software.cisco.com).

For a more detailed overview on Cisco Licensing, go to cisco.com/go/licensingguide.

Table 15 shows the features included in the Cisco DNA Essentials and Advantage packages.

Table 15.     Network Essentials and Advantage package features

Table 16.     Cisco DNA Essentials and Advantage package features (add a section for other software support and add Prime, ISE and Stealthwatch support)

Specifications

Dimensions, Weight, Acoustic, Mean time between failures

The table below shows the dimensions, weights, acoustic and mean time between failures of all models of Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series switches.

Table 17.     Model Dimensions, Weight, and Mean Time between failures metrics

Connectors

Table 18 shows the supported connectors for the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series.

Table 18.     Connectors

For the latest Cisco transceiver module compatibility information, refer to https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/interfaces-modules/transceiver-modules/products-device-support-tables-list.html.

Management and standards support

Table 19 shows management and standards support for the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series.

Table 19.     Management and standards support^*

Power supply specifications

Table 20 lists the power specifications for the Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series based on the kind of power supply used.

Table 20.     Power specifications

Table 21.     Power specifications – platinum rated power supplies

Power consumption of standalone 9300 Series Switches

Table 22 shows the power consumption of standalone Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches based on Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) testing using Internet Mix (IMIX) distribution stream traffic, with input voltage of 115VAC at 60 Hz and no PoE loading. The values given are the maximum possible power consumption numbers under the respective test scenarios.

Table 22.     Power Consumption of Standalone 9300 Series Switches (tested on IOS XE 16.5.1)