C9606R – 4 Line Card Slots – 25.6 Tbps Switching Capacity – Catalyst 9600 Core Chassis

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C9606R Description

The C9606R is a Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series 6 Slot Chassis, a modular core switch for campus core and distribution layers. The chassis has four line card slots and two dedicated supervisor slots, up to 6.4 Tbps per line-card slot, 25.6 Tbps of wired switching capacity, four power-supply bays and an 8 RU height. Only the C9600-SUP-1 and C9600X-SUP-2 supervisors fit, and the engine decides which of the seven Catalyst 9600 line cards can be installed.

Quick Specs

Parameter

Specification

Product ID

C9606R

Chassis slots

6 total, 4 line card slots and 2 dedicated supervisor engine slots at positions 3 and 4

Switching capacity

Up to 25.6 Tbps, or 12.8 Tbps full-duplex

Bandwidth per line-card slot

6.4 Tbps (3.2 Tbps full-duplex) with C9600X-SUP-2, 2.4 Tbps (1.2 Tbps full-duplex) with C9600-SUP-1

Supervisor engines supported

C9600-SUP-1 and C9600X-SUP-2 only, with supervisor engine redundancy

Supported line cards

Seven cards; C9600X-LC-56YL4C and C9600X-LC-32CD need C9600X-SUP-2, C9600-LC-48S needs C9600-SUP-1

Maximum port density

8x 400G, 128x 100G and 256x 25G with C9600X-SUP-2; 48x 100G and 192x 25G with C9600-SUP-1

Power supply bays

4 bays taking C9600-PWR-3KWAC, C9600-PWR-2KWAC or C9600-PWR-2KWDC, minimum two supplies and three when fully loaded at 110V

Fan modules

One bay with the C9606-FAN tray of nine independently controlled fans

Rack units

8 RU

MTBF

4,113,900 hours

Product Performance

Wired Switching Capacity
Bandwidth Per Line-Card Slot
Rated Chassis MTBF

Key Features

Four Line Card Slots Beside Two Supervisor Slots

Slots 3 and 4 are dedicated to supervisor engines, which leaves four slots for line cards and allows a redundant supervisor pair inside 8 RU.

Per-Slot Bandwidth Set By The Supervisor

Each line card slot gets up to 2.4 Tbps with C9600-SUP-1 or up to 6.4 Tbps with C9600X-SUP-2. The 25.6 Tbps chassis figure is reached only with the second engine.

Port Density By Engine

With C9600X-SUP-2 the chassis holds up to 8 ports of 400G and 128 of 100G. With C9600-SUP-1 the limits are 48 ports of 100G and 192 of 25G, but 192 ports each of 5G, 2.5G and 1G become available.

Power Bays And The 110V Rule

Four bays take 3000W AC, 2000W AC or 2000W DC modules in Combined or Redundant N+1 mode. Two supplies are the minimum, and a fully loaded chassis on a 110V input needs three of equal wattage.

Nine-Fan Tray, Side-To-Side Airflow

The single C9606-FAN tray runs nine independently controlled fans, so one fan failure does not significantly reduce cooling. The chassis tolerates up to 90 seconds without fans during service.

Supervisor Failover Without Dropping Traffic

Stateful Switchover, Non-Stop Forwarding and full-image In-Service Software Upgrades keep traffic moving while forwarding passes from one engine to the other.

Application Scenarios

Large Campus Core

A campus backbone uses the chassis as its routed core, with a redundant supervisor pair in slots 3 and 4 and line cards terminating building distribution links at 100G.

Multi-Building Distribution

At the distribution layer of a multi-building site, the four line card slots aggregate access-switch uplinks on 25G and 50G SFP ports while 100G or 400G ports connect upstream to a data center or provider edge.

Dense Access Aggregation Room

A central equipment room can terminate up to 192 multigigabit RJ45 ports on four C9600-LC-48TX line cards when C9600-SUP-1 or C9600X-SUP-2 sits in the supervisor slots.

Product Comparison

Parameter

C9606R

C9407R

C9404R

Line card slots

4

5

2

Maximum bandwidth scalability per line-card slot

6.4 Tbps (3.2 Tbps full-duplex) with C9600X-SUP-2; 2.4 Tbps (1.2 Tbps full-duplex) with C9600-SUP-1

Up to 480 Gbps with C9400X-SUP-2XL

Up to 480 Gbps with C9400X-SUP-2XL

Supervisor engines supported

2 (C9600-SUP-1, C9600X-SUP-2)

5

5

Maximum 100G ports

128 with C9600X-SUP-2; 48 with C9600-SUP-1

20

8

Number of power-supply bays

4

8

4

Rack units

8

10

6

MTBF

4,113,900 hours

1,571,010 hours

2,077,070 hours

C9606R and C9407R differ first in how the bandwidth is spread: C9606R has 4 line card slots at up to 6.4 Tbps each, while C9407R has 5 at up to 480 Gbps and C9404R has 2 at the same 480 Gbps, both only with C9400X-SUP-2XL. A design that needs more than 480 Gbps into one slot, or up to 128 ports of 100G against 20 on C9407R and 8 on C9404R, has no Catalyst 9400 option. Many moderate-speed links fit C9407R better, and C9404R fits where 6 RU is the limit against 8 RU for C9606R. Inside C9606R the engine sets the ceiling: C9600-SUP-1 holds each slot to 2.4 Tbps, and C9600X-SUP-2 gives the full 6.4 Tbps.

Ordering Checklist

  • Supervisor engines: Install C9600-SUP-1 or C9600X-SUP-2 in slots 3 and 4; a redundant second engine is ordered as C9600-SUP-1/2 or C9600X-SUP-2/2. The chassis accepts only these two engines, and the redundant engine has its own PID.
  • Line card pairing: Seven line cards fit the 4 line card slots; C9600X-LC-56YL4C and C9600X-LC-32CD need C9600X-SUP-2, and C9600-LC-48S needs C9600-SUP-1. The engine ordered decides which line cards can be added.
  • Power supplies: Order at least 2 of C9600-PWR-3KWAC, C9600-PWR-2KWAC or C9600-PWR-2KWDC, 3 for a fully loaded chassis on 110V input, all of equal wattage. The chassis has 4 power supply bays, and the minimum count and equal wattage apply in both power modes.
  • 1G optics: C9600X-SUP-2 supports only SFP-1G-SX and SFP-1G-LH optics for 1 Gbps operation on compatible line cards.
  • Power supply mixing: AC and DC supplies can be mixed only at 220V AC input, in both combined and N+1 mode.

Optional Add-ons

Model

Description

C9600-SUP-1

Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor 1 module, 2.4 Tbps per line card slot

C9600X-SUP-2

Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor 2 module, 6.4 Tbps per line card slot

C9600-SUP-1/2

Catalyst 9600 Series redundant Supervisor 1 module for the second supervisor slot

C9600X-SUP-2/2

Catalyst 9600 Series redundant Supervisor 2 module for the second supervisor slot

C9600X-LC-56YL4C=

Catalyst 9600 Series combo line card, 56 ports 50/25/10GE SFP56 and 4 ports 100/40GE QSFP28, on C9600X-SUP-2 only

C9600X-LC-32CD=

Catalyst 9600 Series combo line card, 30 ports 100/40G QSFP28 and 2 ports 400/200/100G QSFP-DD, on C9600X-SUP-2 only

C9600-LC-40YL4CD=

Catalyst 9600 Series combo line card, 40 ports 50/25/10GE SFP56 with 200G and 400G QSFP uplinks

C9600-LC-24C=

Catalyst 9600 Series 24-Port 40GE / 12-Port 100GE line card

C9600-LC-48YL=

Catalyst 9600 Series 48-Port 50/25/10/1GE line card

C9600-LC-48TX=

Catalyst 9600 Series 48-port RJ45 copper line card, 10GE to 10Mbps

C9600-LC-48S=

Catalyst 9600 Series 48-Port 1GE line card, on C9600-SUP-1 only

C9600-PWR-3KWAC

Catalyst 9600 Series 3000W AC power supply, 94 percent typical efficiency

C9600-PWR-2KWAC

Catalyst 9600 Series 2000W AC power supply, 94 percent typical efficiency

C9600-PWR-2KWDC

Catalyst 9600 Series 2000W DC power supply, 92 percent typical efficiency

C9606-FAN=

Catalyst 9600 Series C9606 chassis fan tray with nine independently controlled fans

C9K-F2-SSD-240GB=

Catalyst 9600 Series 240GB SSD storage

C9K-F2-SSD-480GB=

Catalyst 9600 Series 480GB SSD storage

C9K-F2-SSD-960GB=

Catalyst 9600 Series 960GB SSD storage

Cisco Catalyst 9600R Switch Panel Components

1

Chassis handholds

5

Power switches

2

Chassis Radio Frequency ID (RFID)

6

System ground with ground lug screw holes on each side

3

Line card slots

7

Power Supply modules

4

Supervisor Module slots

8

Fan tray assembly

1

Captive installation screws to remove the fan tray assembly.

3

Fan tray assembly handle

2

Blue beacon LED on the rear panel of the fan tray (always matches the blue beacon on the front panel of the fan tray)

4

Rear exhaust for the power supply modules

Specifications

Parameter Specification Parameter Specification
Product ID C9606R Cisco ordering description Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series 6 Slot Chassis
Maximum port density 8 x 400G, 8 x 200G, 128 x 100G, 224 x 50G, 128 x 40G and 256 x 25G/10G with C9600X-SUP-2; 48 x 100G, 96 x 40G and 192 x 25G/10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M/10M with C9600-SUP-1 Chassis slots 6
Supervisor slots 2, at dedicated slot positions 3 and 4 Line-card slots 4
Supported supervisors C9600-SUP-1 and C9600X-SUP-2, with supervisor engine redundancy Supported line cards C9600X-LC-56YL4C and C9600X-LC-32CD on C9600X-SUP-2 only; C9600-LC-48S on C9600-SUP-1 only; C9600-LC-40YL4CD, C9600-LC-24C, C9600-LC-48YL and C9600-LC-48TX on both engines
Switching capacity Up to 25.6 Tbps (12.8 Tbps full duplex) Bandwidth per slot Up to 6.4 Tbps (3.2 Tbps full duplex) with C9600X-SUP-2; up to 2.4 Tbps (1.2 Tbps full duplex) with C9600-SUP-1
SSD storage Optional C9K-F2-SSD-240GB, C9K-F2-SSD-480GB or C9K-F2-SSD-960GB High availability Stateful Switchover, Non-Stop Forwarding and full-image ISSU for continuous forwarding during supervisor switchover
Power supply slots 4 Power supply options C9600-PWR-3KWAC 3000W AC, C9600-PWR-2KWAC 2000W AC, C9600-PWR-2KWDC 2000W DC
Power redundancy Combined (default) or N+1 redundant AC input voltage 90 to 264 VAC
AC input frequency 47 to 63 Hz DC input voltage -40 to -72 VDC
Heat dissipation 1,621 BTU maximum with fan tray installed Fan modules One bay with the field-replaceable C9606-FAN tray of nine independently controlled fans, optionally serviceable from the rear
Airflow Side-to-side airflow Acoustic noise 77.7 LwAd dB (NEBS test environment)
Dimensions (H x W x D) 13.95 x 17.4 x 16.1 in. (35.43 x 44.2 x 40.9 cm) Rack units 8 RU
Operating temperature -5°C to 45°C (23°F to 113°F) up to 6,000 ft; -5°C to 40°C (23°F to 104°F) up to 10,000 ft Storage temperature -40°C to 75°C (-40°F to 167°F)
Operating humidity 10% to 95% noncondensing, operating and non-operating Operating altitude -60 to 3,000 m (-197 to 9,843 ft)
MTBF 4,113,900 hours

Quality Certifications

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    Nicole Morales
    Posted on 08/04/2026
    Verified Buyer
    4.0

    The build quality, finish, and labeling all match what we get directly from authorized channels. Invoice formatting was a bit different from what our AP system expects, but workable.

    Diana Johnson
    Posted on 24/03/2026
    Verified Buyer
    5.0

    Fast shipping and proper documentation. Everything our purchasing department requires.

    Daniel Ward
    Posted on 18/12/2025
    Verified Buyer
    5.0

    Long-standing relationship at this point. Always positive experiences.

    Operations
    Posted on 05/09/2025
    Verified Buyer
    5.0

    Huge chassis arrived on a dedicated pallet. Very safe.

    Erik Lehnsherr
    Posted on 12/07/2025
    Verified Buyer
    5.0

    The package arrived intact. The metal box is secure.

Questions & Answers

  • Which supervisor engines can C9606R use, and does it support two?

    C9606R accepts only C9600-SUP-1 and C9600X-SUP-2, in dedicated slots 3 and 4, and it supports a redundant pair. The redundant engine has its own PID, C9600-SUP-1/2 or C9600X-SUP-2/2. Stateful Switchover and Non-Stop Forwarding keep traffic moving during a supervisor switchover.
  • How many power supplies does C9606R need, and which redundancy modes apply?

    C9606R needs at least 2 power supplies, and 3 when fully loaded on a 110V input, all of equal wattage. Its 4 bays run in Combined mode or Redundant N+1 mode with C9600-PWR-3KWAC, C9600-PWR-2KWAC or C9600-PWR-2KWDC supplies. The minimum count and equal wattage apply in both modes.
  • Which power redundancy mode is C9606R set to by default?

    The default power mode is Combined, not N+1. N+1 is an optional mode set with the power redundancy-mode command. In Combined mode all supplies share the load and count in the budget, so losing one supply can shut down line cards. N+1 budgets only N supplies and keeps the system up after one supply fails, per the datasheet and hardware installation guide.
  • What output does C9600-PWR-3KWAC provide in C9606R at 115 V input?

    C9600-PWR-3KWAC outputs 3000 W at 230 V but only 1500 W at 115 V. All supplies must have equal wattage in both power modes, and AC and DC supplies can be mixed only on high-line AC input, so plan the supply count against the lower 115 V output.
  • What operating temperature range applies to C9606R at altitude?

    C9606R operates from -5° to 45° C up to 6000 feet (about 1.83 km). Between that altitude and 10,000 feet (about 3.05 km) the range is -5° to 40° C. Plan cooling for the lower limit in high-altitude wiring rooms, per the Catalyst 9600 data sheet.
  • Which line cards support MACsec in C9606R with C9600X-SUP-2?

    C9600-LC-40YL4CD, C9600X-LC-32CD and C9600X-LC-56YL4C support MACsec and WAN-MACsec with C9600X-SUP-2. Their minimum chassis releases are 17.7.1, 17.9.1 and 17.13.1 respectively. C9600-LC-24C, C9600-LC-48YL and C9600-LC-48TX have no MACsec on C9600X-SUP-2, so link encryption on those cards needs another method, such as an external device or a different line card from this list.
  • Which line cards work with both supervisors in C9606R?

    C9600-LC-24C, C9600-LC-48YL, C9600-LC-48TX and C9600-LC-40YL4CD work with both C9600-SUP-1 and C9600X-SUP-2, with reduced capability on some. C9600-LC-48S works only with C9600-SUP-1, and C9600X-LC-32CD and C9600X-LC-56YL4C only with C9600X-SUP-2. On C9600-LC-48TX, 5G and 2.5G apply with C9600-SUP-1 only. The passive backplane supports up to 6.4 Tbps per slot.
  • How is the C9606-FAN tray serviced and how is it redundant in C9606R?

    The C9606-FAN tray has N+1 (8+1) fan redundancy with side-to-side chassis airflow. It can be serviced from the front or optionally from the back. Fan speed varies dynamically, and a barometric pressure sensor allows slower fan curves at low altitude. The chassis tolerates up to 90 seconds without the tray.
  • How much DRAM does C9600X-SUP-2 have in C9606R?

    C9600X-SUP-2 has 32 GB of DRAM. Flash is 16 GB on both Catalyst 9600 supervisors, and SSD capacity goes up to 960 GB over SATA. NetFlow on C9600X-SUP-2 scales to 2,000,000 sampled entries, and C9600-SUP-1 has 16 GB of DRAM. These figures come from the Catalyst 9600 data sheet and apply to the supervisor installed in either of the two supervisor slots.

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DataSheet Downloads

  • C9606R Datasheet