The Cisco Catalyst 2960XR-48TS-I is a 48-port Gigabit data switch with 4 SFP uplink slots at 1 Gbps, the IP Lite image and two internal field-replaceable power supply bays. No port on it sources Power over Ethernet, so the second supply buys resilience rather than any extra headroom, consistently rated at 250 W because the chassis carries no powered endpoints at all.
The most conservative configuration in the family
Of every model across the Catalyst 2960 range, this is the one built with the fewest single points of failure. Four uplink slots allow two diverse paths to each of two distribution switches. Two supply bays allow the chassis to keep running through the loss of a module. No power stage means no PoE controller to fail and no shared budget to exhaust. Everything that commonly takes a wiring closet offline has either been duplicated or removed.
That is a specification for rooms where interruption is expensive rather than merely inconvenient: clinical networks, control systems, broadcast and production spaces, trading floors, and any aggregation point that other switches depend on. It is deliberately not the cheapest way to provide 48 Gigabit ports, and the pages for the LAN Lite and LAN Base data switches in the 2960-X sub-series cover that requirement instead.
| Specification | Catalyst 2960XR-48TS-I |
|---|---|
| Access ports | 48 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet |
| Power over Ethernet | None |
| Uplinks | 4 x SFP, 1 Gbps |
| Aggregate uplink capacity | 4 Gbps |
| Software image | IP Lite |
| Second-supply rating | 250 W |
| Power supply bays | 2, field-replaceable, one populated by default |
| Stacking | FlexStack-Plus, 80 Gbps, 8 members |
The 250 W in that table is the figure Cisco's specification carries in the second-supply column for the data-only XR models. It reflects the chassis supplying itself, its optics and its cooling rather than any attached endpoint, and it is not a Power over Ethernet budget, because this model does not have one at all.
Four Gigabit uplinks rather than two faster ones
Four SFP slots at 1 Gbps deliver 4 Gbps of aggregate uplink, against up to 20 Gbps from the two SFP+ slots on the D variant of this switch. On a resilience-first specification the four slots are usually the right answer, because they permit a genuinely diverse topology rather than a faster but narrower one. Two links to each of two upstream devices means no single fibre, transceiver, line card or chassis failure isolates the room.
The exception is the aggregation case, where this switch concentrates traffic from other switches and the uplink is carrying real volume. There the SFP+ variant is the correct model and the resilience argument has to be made through stacking instead.
IP Lite, stacking and the XR boundary
The trailing I marks the IP Lite image, which every Catalyst 2960-XR carries and which sits above the LAN Base image used across the 2960-X family. FlexStack-Plus runs at 80 Gbps across up to eight members and presents the stack as one logical switch with a single configuration. A 2960-XR stacks only with other 2960-XR switches and will not join a 2960-X, 2960-S or 2960-SF stack in either direction.
Where the 48TS-I sits in the 2960-XR range
The three data-only XR models differ in uplink media and port count, and nothing else of consequence.
| Model | Access ports | Uplinks | Second-supply column |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2960XR-48TS-I | 48 Gigabit | 4 x SFP, 1 Gbps | 250 W |
| 2960XR-48TD-I | 48 Gigabit | 2 x SFP+, 10 Gbps | 250 W |
| 2960XR-24TS-I | 24 Gigabit | 4 x SFP, 1 Gbps | 250 W |
Where the same closet has to power endpoints as well, the Catalyst 2960X-48FPS-L is the powered LAN Base equivalent with an identical uplink layout. The current-generation counterpart is a Catalyst 9300 48-port model, and the routing tier for a site with this class of availability requirement is normally drawn from the Cisco ISR 4000 family.
Lifecycle and support horizon
Cisco named this model in end-of-life notice EOL13602 covering the Catalyst 2960-XR product family. End-of-Sale for the hardware was 31 October 2022, the Last Ship Date was 30 January 2023 and End of Software Maintenance was 31 October 2023. The Last Date of Support and End of Vulnerability and Security Support both fall on 31 October 2027, with End of Service Contract Renewal on 29 January 2027.
Those dates are shared with the Catalyst 2960-X family notice, so an XR is not the longer-lived sub-series and should not be specified as though it were. On a switch chosen for availability that is worth confronting directly, because a resilient chassis on a closing support window still needs a spares plan for the years beyond it.
Condition, testing and what ships
Units are refurbished enterprise hardware carrying the original Cisco part number. Each is bench tested on receipt, then disassembled, cleaned, inventoried and returned to stock; at order time it is rebuilt to the requested configuration, configured and tested again immediately before packing, with each fitted supply exercised individually. Whole systems including this switch carry the 2-year Enterasource warranty and ship free by FedEx Ground to the lower 48 states.
Supply count is stated at order rather than assumed, since the chassis has two bays and ships with one filled. SFP transceivers, stacking modules and cables are separate line items. Cisco software entitlement does not transfer with used hardware.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a 2960XR-48TS-I more resilient than other Catalyst 2960 models?
Three things at once. It has two internal power supply bays instead of one, so a failed module does not stop the switch. It has four uplink slots, allowing two diverse paths to each of two upstream devices. And it has no power stage at all, which removes the PoE controller and the shared budget as failure modes. No other configuration in the family removes as many.
Is the second supply worth fitting on a switch with no PoE?
That depends entirely on what an outage costs in that room. There is no additional power budget to gain, so the module buys availability and nothing else. In a room carrying clinical, industrial or aggregation traffic it is usually justified on its own; in an ordinary office closet it often is not, and the bay can be left empty and filled later if the role changes.
How much uplink bandwidth does a 2960XR-48TS-I have?
Four gigabits in aggregate, across four SFP slots each running at 1 Gbps. The SFP+ variant of the same switch offers up to 20 Gbps across two slots instead. The four-slot arrangement is chosen where diverse paths matter more than capacity, which is the usual case for an access closet but not for an aggregation position.
Which Catalyst 2960 switches will a 2960XR-48TS-I stack with?
Only other Catalyst 2960-XR switches, using FlexStack-Plus at 80 Gbps across up to eight members. It will not stack with a 2960-X, a 2960-S or a 2960-SF in either direction. The backward compatibility that connects the 2960-X to the older FlexStack fabric does not extend to the XR, so mixed orders produce separate stacks.
What does Enterasource verify on a used 2960XR-48TS-I?
Each fitted power supply is exercised on its own during both bench passes, and all forty-eight access ports plus all four SFP slots are checked during the outbound pass immediately before packing. The number of supplies present is recorded against that chassis and stated on its listing, because a used XR may carry either one or two. The catalogue is on the Cisco networking hardware page.
