SAN JOSE, Calif., September 17, 2002 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today introduced the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series delivering redundancy, enhanced network control, integrated inline power, and investment protection to customers through a new family of modular mid-range intelligent switches. The Catalyst 4500 Series enables enterprise and metro Ethernet customers to deploy converged networks with higher levels of performance, resilience, security and management. Customers can then more easily converge and control Internet Protocol (IP) data, streaming video, telephony, and Internet-based business applications for enhanced workforce productivity and profitability.

For Trimble, a world leading provider of Global Positioning System, laser and optical positioning technologies based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the network is a key resource to drive productivity and profitability initiatives. The company wanted to reduce operation and management costs while also augmenting the network to handle new capabilities like Voice over IP. "We are always pursuing opportunities to be more aggressive in controlling costs and introducing new technologies that allow us to increase productivity," explained Bob Denis, chief information officer at Trimble. "Our decision to deploy the new Catalyst 4500 within our campus buildings allows us to support integrated inline power for our Voice over IP roll-out. The Catalyst 4500 also gives us a single, redundant platform to introduce multiple services for better performance over a converged voice and data network."

Catalyst 4500 Features and Benefits

Building upon the proven, scalable architecture of the Catalyst 4000 Series, the Catalyst 4500 Series is optimal in the enterprise wiring closet where intelligent services are required and added levels of resiliency provide incremental benefits. The Catalyst 4500 Series can also be deployed as an integrated branch-office solution supporting data, voice and video along with integrated WAN access. The Catalyst 4500 Series comprises three chassis': the Cisco Catalyst 4507R with seven modular slots and integrated supervisor redundancy, the Cisco Catalyst 4506 with six modular slots and the Cisco Catalyst 4503 with three modular slots. All three share a common architecture that scales up to 240 ports of 10/100, 100BASE-FX Fast Ethernet, 1000BASE-LX, or 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet.

The Catalyst 4500 Series includes a new Catalyst 4000 Series Supervisor Engine IV, the control module that defines and delivers all operational capabilities of the Catalyst 4000 platforms, offering greater scalability and performance. The Catalyst 4000 Supervisor Engine IV, when paired with the Catalyst 4507R chassis, gives customers redundant configurations for resilient network operation. All chassis support 1+1 redundant power supplies and can deliver integrated inline Power-for-Power over Ethernet applications such as IP communications and wireless access point deployments.

The Catalyst 4500 Series enables customers to extend network control from the backbone to the edge through intelligent network services that deliver:

• Predictable, sustainable performance and network services: Wire-speed Layer 2/3/4 switching at 48 Million packets per second (Mpps). Sustained wire-speed routing performance regardless of the number of intelligent services that are turned on. Policy-based Layer 2/3/4, Quality of Service (QoS) and traffic management capabilities provide the ability to classify and prioritize mission-critical and time-sensitive traffic.
• Integrated resilience: A combination of integrated supervisor redundancy, power redundancy and integral fault tolerance. All modules are hot swappable. Integrated resilience across hardware and software minimizes network downtime, increasing workforce productivity, enhancing profitability, and improving customer success.
• Advanced security: Uses IEEE 802.1x for user-level authentication, Access Control Lists for access control, DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Interface Tracker (option 82) to locate a user on a network and protect against spoofing, and MAC (Media Access Control) Address Notification to inform administrators of new users.
• Comprehensive management: Through CiscoWorks, customers have secure, Web-based access to control and manage all ports, users and services including QoS deployments.

Investment Protection

The Catalyst 4500 Series utilizes the same line cards and supervisor engines as the current Catalyst 4000 Series providing investment protection as customers integrate the new switches into their existing networks. While the new redundant Catalyst 4507R can only be deployed with Supervisor Engine IV, all existing Catalyst 4000 family line cards can be used in this chassis.The new Catalyst 4000 Supervisor Engine IV is backward compatible with the widely deployed Catalyst 4006, and existing Catalyst 4000 Series switching line cards. The module also provides support for the optional NetFlow Services Module, with flow-based VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) statistics to track and evaluate network performance.

Pricing and Availability

The Catalyst 4500 Series is a key component of Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data). The Catalyst 4000 Supervisor Engine IV is available now at a starting price of $13,495. The Catalyst 4503, 4506 and 4507R are also available now and have starting prices of $995, $4,995 and $9,995 respectively. For more information, please visit http://newsroom.cisco.com