Specifications

Access Layer April 2014
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Cisco Catalyst 4500E Series are modular switches that support multiple Ethernet connectivity options, including
10/100/1000 Ethernet, 100-Megabit fiber, Gigabit fiber, and 10-Gigabit fiber. The Catalyst 4500E Series
Switches also have an upgradable supervisor module that enables future functionality to be added with a
supervisor module upgrade while maintaining the initial investment in the chassis and the modules.
• All key switching and forwarding components are located on the supervisor module; upgrading the
supervisor upgrades the line cards.
• The Cisco Catalyst 4500E Series Supervisor Engine 7-E and Supervisor Engine 7L-E have uplink
interfaces that can be configured as Gigabit Ethernet or 10-Gigabit interfaces, allowing organizations to
easily increase bandwidth in the future. The Supervisor Engine 8-E includes eight 10-Gigabit interfaces
on board, along with integrated wireless LAN controller hardware which can be enabled in the future,
and extends the range of performance up to 48-Gbps per slot and 928 Gbps system switching capacity.
• The Cisco Catalyst 4500E Series provides maximum PoE flexibility with support of IEEE 802.3af, 802.3at,
and now Cisco UPOE, and supplies up to 60 watts per port of power over Ethernet. Cisco UPOE line
cards are backward compatible to earlier PoE and PoE+ connected end points as well.
• The Cisco Catalyst 4507R+E chassis supports redundant supervisor modules and power supplies,
which increases system availability by providing 1:1 redundancy for all critical systems. When configured
with dual Supervisor modules, Stateful Switchover, which allows a supervisor switchover to occur with
minimum disruption to the network.
• With a dual Supervisor Engine system, the entire software upgrade process is simplified by using
In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU). Not only does ISSU help eliminate errors in the software upgrade
process, but additional checks are incorporated that allow the new software version to be tested and
verified before completing the upgrade.
Deployment Details
As you review this guide, you may find it useful to understand the IP addressing and VLAN assignments used.
Although your design requirements may differ, by addressing the various distribution layers at a location with
contiguous IP address space, you can summarize the IP address range to the rest of the network. This design
uses VLAN assignments that reflect the third octet of the IP address range for a given access layer switch
for ease of reference. Alternatively, many organizations may choose to reuse the same VLAN IDs in each
distribution—use and document the method that makes the most sense for your organization. The LAN Core IP
addressing is a combination of 30-bit subnets for point-to-point Layer 3 links, and 32-bit host addresses for
loopback addresses.