Cisco C9600X-LC-56YL4C | Catalyst 9600 56-Port 50/25/10G Line Card, 4x 100/40G QSFP28

Q: Which Catalyst 9600 supervisor engines support this line card?
A: The C9600X-LC-56YL4C requires the C9600X-SUP-2 supervisor engine to achieve full 3.2 Tbps bandwidth and non-blocking performance across all 56 ports. It is not compatible with the C9600-SUP-1.

Q: What is the maximum port density achievable with this line card?
A: In a fully populated C9606R chassis with four C9600X-LC-56YL4C line cards, you can achieve up to 224 native SFP56 ports plus 16 QSFP28 uplink ports. With QSFP breakout cables, total density can reach 256 ports of 10/25G connectivity.

Q: Does this line card support MACsec encryption?
A: Yes, the C9600X-LC-56YL4C supports AES-256 MACsec and WAN MACsec encryption at line rate when paired with the C9600X-SUP-2 supervisor. WAN MACsec requires an HSEC license.

Q: Can I mix different speed optics in the SFP56 ports?
A: Yes, the SFP56 ports are multi-rate and support 50G, 25G, 10G, and 1G SFP transceivers. Note that with C9600X-SUP-2, only SFP-1G-SX and SFP-1G-LH optics are supported for 1Gbps speeds.

Q: What are the typical use cases for this line card?
A: This line card is ideal for high-density campus core and distribution layer aggregation, particularly in environments transitioning from 1G/10G access switches to multi-gigabit speeds. It provides flexible downstream connectivity to access switches and high-speed uplinks to data center or service provider networks.