Cisco Catalyst 9500

The Cisco Catalyst 9500 Series represents Cisco’s flagship fixed-core switching platform for enterprise campus and aggregation layers. As part of the Catalyst 9000 family, it is engineered for secure, cloud-driven, and IoT-ready networks, delivering high-density 10/25/40/100/400 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with strong focus on performance, automation, and resilience.

Performance & Scalability

Switching capacity up to 6.4 Tbps (and higher in 9500X variants)
High forwarding rates approaching multi-billion packets per second
Advanced Layer 2/3 capabilities including IPv4, IPv6, and multicast routing
Large-scale routing tables for enterprise and service provider environments

Advanced ASIC Architecture

Cisco Silicon One Q200 (9500X models) delivering up to 12.8 Tbps full-duplex throughput
Cisco UADP 3.0 ASIC providing optimised performance, telemetry, and policy enforcement
Integrated support for streaming telemetry and application visibility

Models and Port Configurations:
- Catalyst 9500X Models:
  - C9500X-28C8D: 28x 100G QSFP28 ports and 8x 400G QSFP-DD ports.
  - C9500X-60L4D: 60x 50G SFP56 ports and 4x 400G QSFP-DD ports.
- Catalyst 9500 High Performance Models:
  - C9500-32C: 32x 100G QSFP28 ports (2 ASICs).
  - C9500-32QC: 32x 40G or 16x 100G QSFP28 ports (1 ASIC).
  - C9500-48Y4C: 48x 25G SFP28 and 4x 100/40G QSFP28 ports.
  - C9500-24Y4C: 24x 25G SFP28 and 4x 100/40G QSFP28 ports.

Architecture & High Availability

Support for StackWise Virtual enabling simplified redundancy and scalability
Redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and fan modules
Designed for always-on campus core and distribution layers

Security & Automation

Built-in threat detection with behavioural analytics and encrypted traffic visibility
Integration with Cisco Catalyst Center and cloud-based management platforms
Support for SD-Access, EVPN, MPLS, and segmentation technologies

Use Cases

Ideal for enterprise core and aggregation layers, the Catalyst 9500 Series supports traditional three-tier architectures as well as modern fabric-based designs. It is particularly suited to high-bandwidth, hybrid work environments requiring automation, security, and future-ready scalability.