Cisco® Catalyst® 9200 Series switches extend the power of intent-based networking and Catalyst 9000 hardware and software innovation to a broader set of deployments. With its family pedigree, Catalyst 9200 Series switches offer simplicity without compromise – it is secure, always on, and IT simplified.

As foundational building blocks for the Cisco Digital Network Architecture, Catalyst 9200 Series switches help customers simplify complexity, optimize IT, and reduce operational costs by leveraging intelligence, automation and human expertise that no other vendor can deliver regardless of where you are in the intent-based networking journey.

Catalyst 9200 Series switches provide security features that protect the integrity of the hardware as well as the software and all data that flows through the switch. It provides resiliency that keeps your business up and running seamlessly. Combine that with open APIs of Cisco IOS XE and programmability of the UADP ASIC technology, Catalyst 9200 Series switches give you what you need now with investment protection on future innovations.

With full PoE+ capability, power and fan redundancy, stacking bandwidth up to 160 Gbps, modular uplinks, Layer 3 feature support, and cold patching, Catalyst 9200 Series switches are the industry’s unparalleled solution with differentiated resiliency and progressive architecture for cost-effective branch-office access.

Product overview

Product highlights

●    Up to 48 ports of full Power over Ethernet Plus (PoE+) capability

●    Resiliency with Field-Replaceable Units (FRU) and redundant power supply, fans, and modular uplinks

●    Flexible downlink options with data, PoE+ or mGig

●    Operational efficiency with optional backplane stacking, supporting stacking bandwidth up to 160 Gbps

●    UADP 2.0 Mini with integrated CPU offers customers optimized scale with better cost structure

●    Enhanced security with AES-128 MACsec encryption, policy-based segmentation, and trustworthy systems

●    Layer 3 capabilities, including OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS, RIP, and routed access

●    Advanced network monitoring using Full Flexible NetFlow

●    Cisco Software-Defined Access (SD-Access):

◦    Simplified operations and deployment with policy-based automation from edge to cloud managed with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

◦    Network assurance and improved resolution time through Cisco DNA Center

●    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

●    Cisco IOS XE: A Common Licensing based operating system for the enterprise Cisco Catalyst 9000 product family with support for model-driven programmability and streaming telemetry

●    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

Platform details

Switch models and configurations

1 Catalyst 9200 standalone and stack can support 25 Access Tunnels (for fabric enabled APs). Note: Over the top fabric deployments eventually migrating to fabric wireless architecture should consider this limit during design/deployment

2 Catalyst 9200-24PB-A, C9200-48PB-A PIDs supports 32 Virtual Networks. These skus cannot be stacked with C9200 SKUs with 4VNs

The Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series is made up of modular (C9200) and fixed (C9200L) switch models.

Figure 1.       

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches

Table 1.        Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series Switch configurations

Network modules

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches come with modular or fixed uplinks as indicated in Table 1. With modular SKUs, the field-replaceable network modules provide infrastructure investment protection by allowing a nondisruptive migration from 1G to 10G and beyond. When you purchase the switch, you can choose from the network modules described in Table 2.

Figure 2.       

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series Switch network modules

Table 2.        Network module part numbers and descriptions

1 Supported only on C9200-24PXG, C9200-48PXG

2 Not supported on C9200-24PXG, C9200-48PXG

For additional details, please read our FAQ: https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-9000/nb-09-cat-9k-faq-cte-en.pdf.

Platform resiliency

Power supplies

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches support dual field-replaceable power supplies (Figure 3). Each switch ships with one default power supply, and a second identical power supply can be purchased with the initial order or can be added at a later time. The second power supply can provide redundancy or additional power to PoE+ ports as needed.

Intelligent PoE+

●    IEEE 802.3at PoE+ (up to 30W per port) is supported on Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches to lower the total cost of ownership for deployments that incorporate Cisco IP phones, Cisco Aironet® wireless access points, or other standards-compliant PoE+ end devices. PoE+ removes the need to supply wall power to PoE-enabled devices and eliminates the cost of adding electrical cabling and circuits that would otherwise be necessary in IP phone and WLAN deployments. With Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches, PoE+ power allocation is dynamic, and power mapping scales up to a maximum of 1440W of PoE+ power.

●    Perpetual PoE is supported on Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches, and maintains the PoE+ power during a switch reload. This is important for critical endpoints such as medical devices and for Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints such as PoE-powered lights, so that there is no disruption during a switch reboot.

●    Fast PoE: When power is restored to a switch, Fast 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.

Figure 3.       

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series Switch dual redundant power supplies

Table 3 lists the PoE+ power availability for each model.

Table 3.        PoE+ Power with primary and secondary power supplies

* Limited by port number and port rating (for example, 24 PoE+ 30W ports = 720W)

Stacking

Cisco Catalyst 9200 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 384 access ports.

Table 4 lists the supported stacking options.

Table 4.        Supported stacking options

Mixed stacking is not supported. You cannot stack fixed (C9200L SKUs) with modular (C9200 SKUs) models, or other Catalyst switches, e.g. Cisco Catalyst 2960-X and 2960-XR Series.

The optional StackWise-160 and StackWise-80 kits consist of two adapters and a stacking cable. The default stacking cable is 0.5 m, but options of 1 m and 3 m are also available. Table 5 lists the stacking accessories.

Table 5.        Stacking accessories

Figure 4.       

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series Switch stacked units

Fan

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches also come with dual fans and support redundancy. Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches support redundancy with dual fans. On the C9200 SKUs, the fan units are field-replaceable, whereas on the fixed C9200L SKUs, the fan units are fixed. Table 5 lists the fan module part number.

Table 6.        Fan modules

Performance and scalability

Table 7 lists performance and scalability metrics for Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches. Table 8 lists the bandwidth specifications.

Table 7.        Performance specifications

Table 8.        Bandwidth specifications

*Measured with 64 byte packets

Software

Platform software benefits

Cisco IOS XE

Cisco IOS XE Software 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 turnkey solutions such as Plug and Play and Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) that enable an effortless and automated deployment.

●    API-driven configuration is available with modern network switches such as Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches. It supports a wide range of automation features and provides robust open APIs over NETCONF and RESTCONF 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. On Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches Cisco IOS XE supports cold patching with reboot, 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. Cold patching requires the switch to be rebooted after patching to allow the changes to take effect.

●    Trustworthy solutions built with Cisco Trust Anchor Technologies provide a highly secure foundation for Cisco products. With Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches, 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, Secure Boot, and Cisco Trust Anchor module.

●    High availability: Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches support 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.

◦    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 9200 Series platform delivers the best SSO resiliency architecture in a stackable solution with sub-50-ms failover.

The Foundation of Software-Defined Access

Secure Segmentation with SD-Access

The enterprise network lies at the heart of digital transformation. A network that is open, programmable, integrated, and secure maximizes business agility, allowing new business opportunities to be pursued and captured.

Cisco DNA with 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

●    SD-Access: Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches are the entry-level devices for SD-Access, Cisco’s lead enterprise architecture, with 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)

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

●    Assurance

◦    Full network visibility and monitoring

◦    End-to-end Quality of Experience (QoE)

◦    Fast issue resolution and network remediation

●    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

Cloud Security

●    Umbrella Integration:

Small to midsize networks reliant on managed service providers can now host Cisco Umbrella agent directly on their Catalyst 9200 series switches. This allows the business to easily customize their DNS filtering policies 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 DNA-Advantage License and Umbrella License per device.

Full Flexible NetFlow

●    Full Flexible NetFlow (FNF): Cisco IOS 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. Catalyst 9200 Series switches are capable of up to 16,000 flow entries on 48-port and 24 port models.

QoS

●    Superior QoS: Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches offer 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.

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.

●    RFID tags:

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches have an embedded RFID tag that facilitates easy asset and inventory management using commercial RFID readers.

●    Blue beacon:

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches support both front and back blue beacon LEDs for easy identification of the switch being accessed.

●    Efficient switch operation*:

Cisco Catalyst 9200 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.

●    Bluetooth ready:

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches have hardware support to connect a Bluetooth dongle to your switch, enabling you to use this wireless interface as an IP management port interface. The port can be used for configuration and troubleshooting using WebUI or the Command-Line Interface (CLI), and to transfer images and configurations.

High-performance ip routing

The Cisco Express Forwarding hardware routing architecture delivers extremely high-performance IP routing in Cisco Catalyst 9200 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], 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 EIGRPv6) 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.

Licensing

Packaging: Network and Cisco DNA licensing

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, Advantage, and Premier).

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 12 shows the combinations of perpetual and subscription licenses that must be purchased.

Supported licensing combinations

Table 9.        Licensing combinations

* At the time of license renewal, the Cisco DNA Essentials license can be purchased to be used with Network Advantage.

Cisco DNA Premier subscription

Cisco DNA Premier subscriptions offer a flexible way to buy software for the access, WAN, and data center domains. At each stage in the product lifecycle, Cisco DNA Premier subscriptions help make buying, managing, and upgrading your network and infrastructure software easier. Cisco DNA Premier subscriptions provide:

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

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

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

For ordering information for Cisco DNA Premier Software for Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches, go to: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/software/one-subscription-switching/nb-06-dna-sw-sub-access-sw-ctp-en.html.

Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches run on Cisco IOS XE Release 16.9.2 or later. This software release includes all the features listed earlier in the Platform Software Benefits section.

Managing licenses with Smart Accounts: Creating Smart Accounts by using the Cisco Smart Software Manager (Cisco SSM) enables you to order devices and licensing packages and also 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 add-on licenses that you want to renew.

You must order an add-on 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.

Tables 10 shows the features included in the Network Essentials and Advantage packages.

Table 11 shows the features included in the Cisco DNA Essentials and Advantage packages.

Network licensing

Table 10.     Network essentials and advantage package features

Cisco DNA licensing

Table 11.     Cisco DNA Essentials, Advantage, and Premier Package Features

Product Sustainability

Refer to the CSR/Social Responsibility section for more information on Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives.

Specifications

Dimensions, Eight, Acoustic, Mean time between failures

Table 12 shows the dimensions, weights, acoustic, and mean time between failures of all models of Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches.

Table 12.     Model Dimensions, Weight, and Mean time between failures metrics

Connectors

Table 13 shows the supported connectors for Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches.

Table 13.     Connectors

For the latest Cisco transceiver module compatibility information, refer to https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/interfaces_modules/transceiver_modules/compatibility/matrix/TMG_CM_Tool_User_Manual.html.

Management and standards support

Table 14 shows management and standards support for Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches.

Table 14.     Management and standards support*

Power supply specifications

Table 15 lists the power specifications for Cisco Catalyst 9200 Series switches based on the kind of power supply used.

Table 15.     Power supply specifications

* Use shielded cables for locations other than telecom centers

Power consumption of Standalone 9200 Series switches

Table 16 shows the power consumption of standalone Cisco Catalyst 9200 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 16.     Power consumption of Standalone Catalyst 9200 Series switches