N5K-C5548P-FA with 32 fixed ports, Front to Back airflow

Cisco Nexus N5K-C5548P-FA - 48-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch (Front-to-Back Airflow)

The Cisco Nexus N5K-C5548P-FA is a 48-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch designed for high-performance data center environments. Part of the Nexus 5000 Series, it delivers low-latency, high-density server access and supports unified fabric for LAN and SAN convergence. The “FA” designation indicates front-to-back airflow, making it ideal for hot-aisle/cold-aisle deployments.

🔧 Key Specifications

• Model: N5K-C5548P-FA
• Ports:
  • 32x fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports
• Expansion: 1 module slots for additional 10 Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel uplinks
• Latency: Sub-microsecond forwarding latency
• Throughput: Up to 960 Gbps switching capacity
• Features:
  • Unified fabric supporting Ethernet and FCoE
  • IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
  • QoS and traffic shaping
  • Virtual PortChannel (vPC) for redundancy and load balancing
  • Consistent policy enforcement across all ports
• Form Factor: 1RU rack-mountable
• Cooling: Front-to-back airflow (FA)
• Dimensions: 1.72 x 17.3 x 29.5 in
• Weight: ~35 lbs
• Power Supply: Dual redundant, hot-swappable

🧩 Ideal Use Cases

• High-density 10 Gigabit server access in enterprise data centers
• Unified fabric deployments requiring Ethernet and FCoE convergence
• Scalable environments needing consistent policy enforcement across multiple racks
• Hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center designs requiring front-to-back airflow

⚙️ Licensing & Expansion
The N5K-C5548P-FA supports expansion modules for additional Ethernet or Fibre Channel connectivity. It integrates seamlessly with Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders (FEX) for scalable server access.