Today I will talk about the Line cards in the Chassis and explain you where to use which line card and how we design the network with the user count. People asked me so many questions on the line card part and they are always confuse about the use of the line cards in the chassis. The article is based on the Cisco devices where we are using the line cards to accommodate the users in the network at the access layer and to have the smooth traffic flow.
Below image shows the two different Chassis in VSS format where we connect the chassis back to back with the SUP engines. The SUP can be 2T or 6T depends upon the requirement and the design of the campus or enterprise network.
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| Fig 1.1- VSS using SUP Engines |
Let's talk about one by one in details, First I will talk about the Supervisor Engines 6T and 2T. I will not talk about the previous SUP engines as they are going or they are already at the verge of end of sale/support.
SUPERVISOR ENGINES
C6800-SUP6T : This is a Supervisor Engine SUP6T with with 8 ports 10GbE, 2 ports 40GbE and MSFC6 PFC4-E.
C6800-SUP6T-XL: This is also a Supervisor Engine SUP6T-XL with with 8 ports 10GbE, 2 ports 40GbE and MSFC6 PFC4-E XL
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| Fig 1.2- SUP 6T Supervisor Engine |
These above mentioned Supervisor Engines generally used in Cisco 6500,Cisco 6800 Series catalyst switch and is the latest edition by Cisco. Although you already knew that Cisco 6500 will be going end of support so if you are going to deploy new campus with the core or distribution layer go with the Cisco 6800 with SUP 6T or SUP 6T-XL. You have a benefit to connect to the uplinks with 10G or 40 G ports that is available in the SUP 6T to support the uplinks.
VS-S2T-10G : This is called as Supervisor 2T with 2 ports and having10GbE and MSFC5 PFC4
VS-S2T-10G-XL: This is called as Supervisor 2T with 2 ports and having 10GbE and MSFC5 PFC4XL
These above mentioned Supervisor Engines generally used in Cisco 6500/6800 and is widely used in the enterprise or campus network solution. These SUP will provide you the uplinks of 10G only. If your requirement to fulfil the higher bandwidth you can go with the SUP 6T modules instead of SUP 2T.
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| Fig 1.3- SUP 2T Supervisor Engines |
40 Gbps Ethernet Interfaces So we have many line cards who support 40 Gbps ethernet interfaces and these 40 Gbps line cards are as follows:
- WS-X6904-40G-2T (with DFC4): Cisco Catalyst 6900 Series 4-Port 40 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module with DFC4
- WS-X6904-40G-2TXL (with DFC4XL): Cisco Catalyst 6900 Series 4-Port 40 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module with DFC4XL
- WS-X6904-40G-2T= (with DFC4 spare): Cisco Catalyst 6900 Series 4-Port 40 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module with DFC4 Spare
- WS-X6904-40G-2TXL= (with DFC4XL spare): Cisco Catalyst 6900 Series 4-Port 40 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module with DFC4XL Spare
- CFP-40G-SR4 : 40GBASE-SR4 CFP (multimode fiber)
- CFP-40G-LR4: 40GBASE-LR4 CFP (single-mode fiber)
10 Gbps Ethernet Interfaces
Now after 40 Gbps Ethernet interfaces we have 10 Gbps Ethernet interfaces which can be used in Cisco catalyst switches and these are as follows
- WS-X6908-10G-2T (with DFC4) : 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6908-10G-2TXL (with DFC4XL) : 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6816-10T-2T (with DFC4): 16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Copper Module
- WS-X6816-10T-2TXL (with DFC4XL): 16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Copper Module
- WS-X6816-10G-2T (with DFC4): 16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6816-10G-2TXL (with DFC4XL): 16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6716-10T-3C : 16-port 10G BaseT Module with DFC3C
- 16-port 10G BaseT Module with DFC3CXL: WS-X6716-10T-3CXL
- WS-X6704-10GE: 4-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet
- WS-X6708-10G-3C: 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet
- WS-X6708-10G-3CXL: 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet
- WS-X6716-10GT-3C: 16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Copper Module
- WS-X6716-10GT-3CXL: : 16-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Copper Module
1 Gbps Ethernet Modules
Now lets talk about the gigabit ethernet interfaces and these are as follows:
- WS-X6824-SFP-2T (with DFC4): 24-Port Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6824-SFP-2TXL (with DFC4XL): 24-Port Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6848-SFP-2T (with DFC4): 48-Port Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6848-SFP-2TXL (with DFC4XL): 48-Port Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Module
- WS-X6848-TX-2T (with DFC4): 48-Port Gigabit Ethernet Copper Module
- WS-X6848-TX-2TXL (with DFC4XL): 48-Port Gigabit Ethernet Copper Module
- WS-X6748-SFP : Fabric-Enabled 48-Port SFP based Gigabit Ethernet Module
- WS-X6724-SFP : Fabric-Enabled 24-Port SFP-Based Gigabit Ethernet Module
- WS-X6516A-GBIC : 16-Port Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC)-Based Gigabit Ethernet Module
- WS-X6408A-GBIC : 8-Port GBIC-Based Gigabit Ethernet Module
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