Cisco® Catalyst® 4500-X Series Switch (Figure 1) is a fixed aggregation switch that delivers best-in-class scalability, simplified network virtualization, and integrated network services for space-constrained environments in campus networks. It meets business growth objectives with unprecedented scalability, simplifies network virtualization with support for one-to-many (Cisco Easy Virtual Networks [EVN]) and many-to-one (Virtual Switching System [VSS]) virtual networks, and enables emerging applications by integrating many network services.

The Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series offers key innovations, including:
- Platform Scalability: Delivers up-to 800 Gbps of switching capacity, capable of scaling up to 1.6-Tbps capacity with the VSS technology. Future-proof investment with modular uplink and auto-detect 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports.
- High Availability: Delivers the network availability demanded by business-critical enterprise applications through comprehensive high-availability capabilities, including VSS and EVN. Furthermore, innovative features such as redundant hot swappable fans and power supplies with AC to DC, and DC to AC failover remove single point of failure in network.
- Application Monitoring: Enhanced application monitoring through Flexible Netflow and eight ports of line rate bidirectional Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN)/Remote Switched Port Analyzer (RSPAN). In addition Cisco IOS® XE Software provides the ability to host third-party applications.
- Security: Support for Cisco TrustSec™ technologyas well as robust control plane policing (CoPP) to address denial of service attacks.
- Simplified Operations: Support for Smart Install Director, providing a single point of management enabling zero-touch deployment for new switches and stacks in in campus and branch networks.

Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series Switch Family
Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series provides scalable, fixed-campus aggregation solutions in space-constrained environments. The solution provides flexibility to build desired port density through two versions of base switches along with optional network module, providing line-rate 10GE capability. Both the 32-port and 16-port versions can be configured with optional network modules and offer similar features. The Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP+) interface supports both 10Gigabit Ethernet and 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports, allowing customers to use their investment in 1 Gigabit Ethernet SFP and upgrade to 10 Gigabit Ethernet when business demands change, without having to do a comprehensive upgrade of the existing deployment. The uplink module is hot swappable.

Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Switch Series Feature Highlights
Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series Switch provides nonblocking 10 Gigabit Ethernet per port bandwidth and Cisco IOS Flexible NetFlow for optimized application visibility. In addition to this, the enterprise-class Cisco Catalyst 4500-X offers the following:

Performance and scalability
- 800-Gbps switching capacity with up to 250 Mpps of throughput.
- External USB and SD card support for flexible storage options.
- 10/100/1000 RJ-45 console and management port.
- IPv6 support in hardware, providing wired-network-rate forwarding for IPv6 networks and support for dual stack with innovative resource utilization.
- Dynamic hardware forwarding-table allocations for ease of IPv4-to-IPv6 migration.
- Scalable routing (IPv4, IPv6, and multicast) tables, Layer 2 tables, and ACL and quality of service (QoS) entries to make use of eight queues per port and comprehensive security policies per port.

Infrastructure services
- Cisco IOS XE Software, the modular open application platform for virtualized borderless services.
- Maximum resiliency with redundant components, Nonstop Forwarding/Stateful Switchover (NSF/SSO), and In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) support in a VSS enabled system.
- Network virtualization through Multi-VRF technology for Layer 3 segmentation.
- Automation through Embedded Event Manager (EEM), Cisco Smart Call Home, AutoQoS, and Auto SmartPorts for fast provisioning, diagnosis, and reporting.

Cisco Borderless Networks services
- Optimized application performance through deep visibility with Flexible NetFlow supporting rich Layer 2/3/4 information (MAC, VLAN, TCP flags) and synthetic traffic monitoring with IP service-level agreement (SLA).
- Medianet capabilities to simplify video quality of service, monitoring, and security. In addition, multicast features such as Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) and Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) provide enterprise customers with the additional scalability to support multimedia applications.

Investment protection and reduced TCO
Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series eliminates the need for standalone solutions by integrating many network services. Customers can lower the total cost of ownership while streamlining management and accelerating deployment time. Integrated network services available on Cisco Catalyst 4500-X Series include:
- Application visibility and control (Flexible NetFlow, Cisco IOS Embedded Event Manager).
- Security with Cisco TrustSec1.
- Troubleshooting video or any User Datagram Protocol-based flows (Mediatrace).
- Video network readiness assessment (built-in traffic simulator with IP SLA Video Operation).
- Ability to run third-party applications (Wireshark).