Dell PowerSwitch N3248X-ON Multigig Switch

The Dell PowerSwitch N3248X-ON is a 1RU multigigabit campus switch with 48 auto-sensing RJ45 ports that negotiate 10M, 100M, 1G, 2.5G, 5G and 10G over ordinary twisted-pair copper, four 25GbE SFP28 uplinks and two 100GbE QSFP28 rear stacking ports, on a 1560 Gbps fabric that forwards at 2167 Mpps.

It is the fastest non-PoE model in the N3200-ON family and the one to specify when the copper plant has to carry more than a gigabit but the endpoints supply their own power.

What 802.3bz multigigabit actually solves

Ten-gigabit copper has existed for a long time. The problem was never the switch - it was the cable. 10GBASE-T needs Cat6a to reach 100 metres, and the cable already in the ceiling of most buildings is Cat5e or Cat6. Rewiring a floor costs many times what the switch costs, and in a lot of buildings it is not physically practical at all.

802.3bz - the standard Dell implements here as 2.5G and 5G - was written to solve exactly that. It runs 2.5 Gbps over Cat5e and 5 Gbps over Cat6 at the full 100-metre distance, using the cable that is already installed. On this switch every one of the 48 access ports auto-negotiates the whole ladder: 10M, 100M, 1G, 2.5G, 5G and 10G. Plug in a gigabit printer and you get a gigabit. Plug in a Wi-Fi 7 access point over the existing Cat6 and you get 5 Gbps. Plug in a workstation over a short Cat6a run and you get 10.

The practical consequence is that a multigig refresh is a switch project rather than a cabling project. That is the entire economic argument for this category, and it is why multigig access switches command a premium over 1GbE ones.

Where the X model fits against the rest of the family

The N3200-ON family splits cleanly into three groups, and the differences are worth being precise about because two of the models are easily confused.

• 1GbE, no PoE - the N3224T-ON and N3248TE-ON. Ordinary gigabit copper, 10GbE SFP+ uplinks. Right for the majority of endpoints.
• Multigig, no PoE - this switch. Full 1/2.5/5/10G copper, 25GbE uplinks, and no PoE at all.
• Multigig with 90W PoE - the N3248PXE-ON. Identical fabric to this model, identical uplinks, plus 802.3bt power up to 90W per port.

The N3248X-ON and the N3248PXE-ON are the same switch electrically. Both quote 1560 Gbps of fabric, both forward at 2167 Mpps, both carry a 32 MB packet buffer - twice the 8 MB the rest of the family gets - and both take 25GbE SFP28 uplinks. The difference is power: the X has none and draws 480W maximum from a 550W supply; the PXE delivers 802.3bt PoE and needs a 1600W supply to do it.

So the choice is not about performance. If your endpoints are self-powered - workstations, docking stations, cameras on their own supplies, uplinks to other switches, small servers - the X gives you the same switching for a fraction of the power and heat. If you are feeding access points, buy the PXE.

25GbE uplinks, and why they matter on an access switch

Forty-eight multigig ports can genuinely produce more than 48 Gbps of traffic - that is the point of multigig - so 10GbE uplinks would start to pinch. Dell moves the uplinks on this model to four 25GbE SFP28 ports, which is 100 Gbps of front-panel uplink, plus the two rear 100GbE QSFP28 stacking ports.

25GbE SFP28 is also the same physical cage and the same single electrical lane as 10GbE SFP+, so the optics, the DACs and the structured cabling are all mainstream parts rather than an orphaned speed. If your distribution layer already runs 25G - and if you have any S5200-series switches, it does - the access layer now attaches at the same lane rate as the fabric.

The stacking side is unchanged from the rest of the family: 400 Gbps of stacking bandwidth over the two rear 100GbE QSFP28 ports, up to twelve switches under a single IP address, and Dell quotes stack densities up to 624 ports mixing 1/2.5/5/10GbE and 25GbE.

The buffer is the underrated spec

The N3248X-ON carries a 32 MB packet buffer where most of the family has 8 MB. On an access switch that number matters more than it looks, because multigig access creates speed mismatches everywhere: a 10G workstation talking to a 1G server, forty-eight 2.5G access points bursting into four 25G uplinks, backup traffic arriving faster than it can leave. Every one of those is a moment where packets have to be held rather than dropped, and buffer is what holds them.

Four times the buffer for the same rack unit is the quiet reason the X and PXE models behave better under bursty campus load than the 1GbE models do, independent of raw port speed.

Layer 3, VRF-lite and OS6

Advanced Layer 3 is standard rather than licence-gated: BGP, VRF-lite, BFD, PIM-SM/DM/SSM, IGMP/MLD, RIPv1/v2 and OSPFv2/v3, all non-blocking on all ports. VRF-lite partitions the switch into multiple virtual routers with isolated control and data planes, which is the clean way to keep guest Wi-Fi, building systems and corporate traffic separate on one box.

The switch runs Dell EMC Networking OS6, the campus operating system shared across the whole N-series, and it is an ONIE platform - the Open Network Install Environment will install an alternative network operating system if that is your standard.

A Dell software entitlement is bound to the unit's service tag and to a Dell account and does not automatically transfer on the secondary market. A refurbished unit may arrive with a working image and no active entitlement or support contract. We do not promise a transferred Dell licence, a software subscription or a support contract with a refurbished switch. Tell us what you intend to run and we will confirm the state of a specific unit before it ships.

Airflow

Dell builds the N3248X-ON in both directions - I/O Panel to PSU (standard) and PSU to I/O Panel (reverse) - and this is one of only three models in the family, with the N3224T-ON and N3248TE-ON, for which Dell offers the PSU-to-I/O fan module. Power supplies and fan modules are direction-specific parts, so the direction is fixed at build time. Tell us which way your row faces when you request a quote and we will confirm the build.

Common questions

Do I need Cat6a to use this switch?

Only for full 10 Gbps at distance. The whole point of 802.3bz is that 2.5 Gbps runs over Cat5e and 5 Gbps over Cat6 at the standard 100 metres. Every port auto-negotiates, so a mixed cable plant simply produces mixed speeds rather than failures.

Does the N3248X-ON do PoE?

No, none at all. The multigig model with PoE is the N3248PXE-ON, which delivers 802.3bt up to 90W per port and needs a 1600W power supply to do it.

Can I stack it with the 1GbE models?

The family is designed to stack over the rear 100GbE ports, and Dell quotes mixed stack densities spanning 1/2.5/5/10GbE and 25GbE port types. Mixed-model stacking depends on the OS version and the features you need - confirm the exact combination with us before ordering.

What is the difference between 2.5G, 5G and 10G on the same port?

Only the negotiated rate and the cable it needs. All three run on the same RJ45 port with the same auto-negotiation; 2.5G reaches 100 m on Cat5e, 5G on Cat6, and 10G wants Cat6a for the full distance.

Choosing within the N3200-ON and N2200-ON campus families

Availability, condition and how to buy

This model is supplied to order. Availability, airflow direction, power-supply count and optics loadout are confirmed at quotation, so use the quote request on this page and tell us the configuration you need.

Every unit is refurbished, professionally reconditioned, powered up, inspected and functionally tested before it ships, and it ships with warranty coverage. If you need a specific firmware state, a particular 25GbE optics loadout, or matched units for a stack, say so with your request.

Specifications