Supervisor Engine (Cisco) Explained
The Cisco Supervisor Engine serves as the management card for modular Cisco switches that can also, in some cases, act as forwarding/routing element.[1]
Over time, the Supervisor Engine has undergone multiple iterations and was different for different modular switches in Cisco Portfolio (Catalyst 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6500, 9400, 9600 and Nexus switches).
Supervisor Engine typically offers management of entire chassis in modular system, control over its power (PSU, Power Supply Units), cooling (fans) and physical management interfaces, as well as Line Cards (LCs) that host its own physical interfaces to serve user traffic.
Some models of Supervisor Engines can also process traffic, albeit at reduced scale and speed. Typically, traffic processing is distributed to line cards (LCs), which host their own NPUs (Network Processing Units) or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) that are programmed by Supervisor to properly forward, filter and otherwise process user traffic. Supervisor Engines can also host switching matrix, that connects line cards together and allows for faster traffic transport between ports on different line cards, as well as can support traffic replication for multicast.
Cisco uses CEF (Cisco Express Forwarding) to create forwarding and routing tables, that in modular switches and routers is distributed using dCEF (distributed CEF). Line Cards that offer distributed forwarding & routing run their own copy of CEF tables thanks to dCEF.
Abridged list of features:
Specifications
| Supervisor Engine | Mpps[2] | Switching Layer | Bandwidth[3] | CPU Frequency | Max Ram | Max Flash | OS | Minimum IOS |
|---|
| 1 | 15 | 2 | 1.232 | 25 MHz Motorola 68k | 128MB | 16MB | CatOS | N/A |
| 2 | 30 | 2 | 18 | 150 MHz Mips R4700 | 128MB | 16MB | CatOS | N/A |
| 2+ | 48 | 4 | 64 | 266 MHz R4700 | 256MB | 32MB | CatOS/IOS | |
| 3 | 15 | 4 | ? | 150300 MHz | 256MB | ? | IOS | 12.1(8a) |
| 4 | 48 | 4 | 64 | 333 MHz | 512MB | 128MB | IOS | 12.1(12c) |
| 5 | 136 | 4 | 102 | 400800 MHz | 512MB | ? | IOS | 12.2(18) |
| 6 | 250 | 4 | 320 | 1.3 GHz | 1GB | ? | IOS | 12.2(40) |
| 720 | 400450 | 5 | 720 | 600 MHz | 2GB | 64MB | CatOS/IOS | |
| 32 | | 5 | 32 | 300 MHz | | | IOS | |
| 2T[4] | 720 | 5 | 2080 | | 4GB | 2GB | IOS | | |
Details
Supervisor Engine I
- 68EC040
- Chassis: 2900, 2948G, 2980G, 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6500, 7600
Supervisor Engine II
- MIPS R4700
- Chassis: 2926, 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6500, 7600
Supervisor Engine II+
- MIPS R4700
- Cisco Express Forwarding
- Chassis: 2926, 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6500, 7600
Supervisor Engine III
- Cisco Express Forwarding
- Max DRAM: 256MB SD
- Redundant Capable
- Netflow accelerator card
Supervisor Engine IV
- Cisco Express Forwarding
- Max Flash: 64MB (supplemental Compact Flash optional)
Supervisor Engine V
- Cisco Express Forwarding
- Chassis: 4500
Supervisor Engine 6
- Cisco Express Forwarding
- Chassis: 4500 "E" Series
Supervisor Engine 32
- Cisco Express Forwarding
- Chassis: 6000, 6500, 7600
- A low cost, reduced version of the 720
- Policy Feature Card 3b
- MSFC 2A?
Supervisor Engine 720
- Cisco Express Forwarding
- Policy Feature Card 3A, 3B, 3BXL
- Chassis: 6500, 7600
MSFC1-3
- Multi-Layer Switch Feature Card
See also
References
- http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps663/products_tech_note09186a00801a5d58.shtml
- http://www.ciscosystems.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps4324/product_data_sheet09186a00801fcaba.pdf
- http://www.cisco.ac/application/pdf/en/us/guest/products/ps4324/c1167/ccmigration_09186a008011b8da.pdf
- http://www.berkcom.com/resources/cisco/C6500_ccmigration_09186a00800887fd.pdf
- http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps663/products_tech_note09186a0080094645.shtml
- Book: CCNP: Cisco Lan Switch Configuration. Lammle . Todd . Todd Lammle . Spangenberg . Ward . Padjen . Robert . James . Compton . James Compton . Hardback . 1st . Cisco Certification Series . 1999 . SYBEX, Network Press. San Francisco . 0-7821-2571-9. 624. CCNP: Cisco Lan Switch Configuration .
- Book: Cisco Catalyst LAN Switching. Rossi . Louis . Louis Rossi . Rossi . Louis . Rossi . Thomas . Steven . Elliot . Softback . 1st . Cisco Technical Expert . 2000 . Mcgraw Hill. New York . 0-07-134982-0. 394. Cisco Catalyst LAN Switching .
- Book: Cisco catalyst switch troubleshooting handbook. Chan . Jason . Arteaga . Frank . 2004 . Cisco catalyst switch troubleshooting handbook .
- Book: Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks. Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks.
- Book: Cisco LAN Switch Configuration Handbook.
Notes and References
- Web site: Types of Cisco Switches > Implementing Cisco IP Switched Networks (SWITCH) Foundation Learning Guide: Network Design Fundamentals Cisco Press . 2023-06-13 . www.ciscopress.com.
- Millions of Packets switched Per Second
- in gigabits
- Web site: Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 2T Data Sheet.
