Cisco Catalyst C9400 12-Port 40G/100G Line Card
Cisco Catalyst 9400 C9400-LC-12QC
12-Port 40G/100G Line Card
A flexible fiber aggregation card for the Catalyst 9400 chassis — 12 QSFP+/QSFP28 slots that run as pure 40 Gigabit Ethernet, or mix in 100 Gigabit uplinks where the core needs it.
Built for the fiber-heavy core
Most Catalyst 9400 line cards are about access-layer density — copper ports, PoE budgets, closets full of endpoints. The C9400-LC-12QC is the opposite problem: it’s the card you slot in when the network needs to move a lot of traffic between switches, buildings, or data center rows, not out to desktops. Twelve QSFP+/QSFP28 cages give you the flexibility to run the card as a straight 12-port 40 Gigabit Ethernet aggregation card, or reconfigure a subset of ports for 100 Gigabit Ethernet when a core uplink needs more headroom.
That’s a genuinely useful migration path. Campus networks rarely jump straight from 10G to 100G — the more common pattern is 40G first, then select 100G uplinks as core-to-core or core-to-data-center links get busier. This card lets that happen without swapping hardware: reconfigure ports 6/7 or 10/11 for 100G as needed, and the rest of the card keeps running 40G.
What makes it worth the slot
Mixed 40G/100G ports
Run all 12 ports at 40G, or free up 4x100G by disabling their paired neighbor ports — a one-card way to phase in 100G uplinks as the core grows into them.
Up to 480 Gbps per slot
With a C9400X-SUP-2 or SUP-2XL supervisor, this card gets up to 480 Gbps of slot bandwidth — enough to run all 12 ports at meaningful line rate without starving the fabric.
Hardware MACsec-256
Line-rate AES-256 MACsec encryption runs in hardware across the fiber links, so encrypting core-to-core or building-to-building traffic doesn’t cost you throughput.
Hot-swap, zero-downtime
Install, remove, or replace the card without powering down the chassis. Paired with redundant supervisors, it supports SSO, NSF, and ISSU for maintenance without an outage window.
Full spec sheet
Key technical specifications for the Cisco Catalyst 9400 Series 12-port line card, part number C9400-LC-12QC.
| Port Density | 12 x QSFP+/QSFP28 cages |
| Supported Modes | 12 x 40GE (QSFP+), or 4 x 100GE (QSFP28) + 4 x 40GE (QSFP+) mixed mode |
| 100G Port Behavior | Ports 6/7 or 10/11 can run at 100G; enabling one pair disables its paired neighbor ports |
| 100G Breakout | Supports breakout of a 100G port into 4 x 25G sub-interfaces via CLI |
| Slot Bandwidth | Up to 480 Gbps per slot with C9400X-SUP-2 / SUP-2XL supervisor |
| Optics Supported | QSFP+ (40G); QSFP28 SR4, LR4, ER4 (100G) |
| Security | Hardware-based MACsec-256 encryption on supported ports |
| High Availability | Hot-swappable (OIR); SSO, NSF, and ISSU with redundant supervisors |
| Automation | NETCONF/YANG, RESTCONF, streaming telemetry |
| Management | Cisco IOS XE; CLI, SNMP, web UI; Cisco DNA Center integration |
| Frame Support | Jumbo frame transport |
| Chassis Compatibility | Catalyst 9400 Series modular chassis (9403, 9404, 9407, 9410) — confirm supervisor/chassis pairing for full 480 Gbps |
| Deployment Role | Campus core, aggregation layer, high-density fiber uplinks |
| Manufacturer Part # | C9400-LC-12QC |
Get pricing on C9400-LC-12QC
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