The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series has an 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module and a 4-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module. These modules support pluggable optics to support distances up to 80km over single-mode fiber, 300m over multimode fiber, and 15m over copper. The 8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module provides up to 64 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single Catalyst 6500 chassis, ideal for deployment in the aggregation layer of LAN campus and data centers. Both modules are interoperable with the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720 and provide 40 Gbps connection to the switch fabric. Building upon the award-winning Catalyst 6500 Series, these 10 Gigabit Ethernet modules are backward compatible with all existing Catalyst 6500 line cards and services modules, enabling service providers and enterprises to offer new Layer 2 through 7 services and network capabilities to increase revenue and user productivity without complete equipment upgrades.

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series 10 Gigabit Ethernet modules are designed for deployment in the distribution and core of campus and data center for traffic aggregation or for interbuilding, points of presence (POPs), WAN edge, and MAN connections. These modules support IEEE 802.3ad link aggregation and Cisco EtherChannel® technology for fault-tolerant connectivity and bandwidth scalability of up to 80 Gbps per EtherChannel connection. In addition, they support hardware based quality of service (QoS), access control lists (ACLs), and jumbo frames to enable secure and predictable performance for bandwidth-intensive applications.

8-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet module: server aggregation, LAN access uplinks aggregation, and links to and between core, where high-density 10 Gigabit Ethernet is required.