HPE Aruba Networking CX 6000 48G 4 SFP Managed Layer 2 Switch Non-PoE R8N86A#ABA

Key Features

• 48 ports of 10/100/1000BASE-T with no PoE. This is the non-PoE model and power cannot be enabled on it.
• The four uplinks are 1G SFP, not SFP+. There is no 10G port on this switch and none can be added.
• 104 Gbps switching capacity and 77.3 Mpps forwarding, the same silicon figures as the PoE model.
• Draws 44.2 W maximum, roughly a tenth of what the PoE sibling pulls with a loaded budget.
• Fully-managed Layer 2 switching with static routing. No dynamic routing protocol is supported.
• 3.42 kg and 24.7 cm deep, which is as light and shallow as anything in this range.
• Quiet at 3.6 Bel sound power, which suits an office cupboard rather than a plant room.
• Internal fixed power supply, non-pluggable, with no redundant supply option.
• Carries HPE's Limited Lifetime Warranty with software embedded and no subscription required.
• #ABA is an HPE localisation code for US English, not a different switch from R8N86A.

Key Specifications

• Access ports: 48 x 10/100/1000BASE-T, no PoE
• Uplink ports: 4 x 1G SFP (1G only, NOT SFP+)
• PoE: None. HPE records this part as a non-PoE model
• Switching capacity: 104 Gbps
• Forwarding rate: 77.3 Mpps
• MAC table: 8,192 entries
• Management: Fully managed, Layer 2 feature set with static routing only
• Power supply: Fixed internal non-pluggable supply, non-redundant. HPE publishes no PSU wattage
• Maximum power draw: 44.2 W
• Dimensions and weight: 4.4 x 44.2 x 24.7 cm (1.73 x 17.4 x 9.74 in), 1U, 3.42 kg (7.54 lb)
• Acoustics: Sound power LWAd 3.6 Bel; bystander sound pressure LpAm 24.6 dB
• Warranty: Limited Lifetime Warranty, coverage LLTW EOS plus five years

No PoE at all

This is the non-PoE member of the CX 6000 family and that is the first thing to settle before ordering. HPE's own record for this part number states PoE capability non-PoE model. No port on it delivers power, there is no budget to configure, and nothing in software turns it on - the power stage simply is not fitted. A phone, camera or access point plugged into it will need an injector or a midspan. The PoE members of the same family are R8N85A at 48 ports and R8N87A at 24, both with a 370 W budget, and they are the parts to order where the endpoints take their power from the switch. Everything else about this switch matches its PoE sibling.

Ports and uplinks

Forty-eight access ports of 10/100/1000BASE-T and four uplinks that are 1G SFP rather than SFP+. Those uplinks run at one gigabit and a 10G SFP+ optic is not supported in them. HPE's product name says 4SFP rather than 4SFP+, the current QuickSpecs print 4p SFP 1G, and the capacity arithmetic is decisive: 104 Gbps is 48 gigabit ports plus four gigabit uplinks counted in both directions. Our own live title for this part number gets that right and it should not be corrected to SFP+ by anyone tidying the catalogue. A CX 6000 listing quoting 176 Gbps has borrowed the figure from the CX 6100, where it is genuine.

Capacity and draw

104 Gbps of switching capacity and 77.3 Mpps of forwarding is line rate for every port on the box, so the switch itself will not be the bottleneck on any access-layer workload. The number that separates this part from its PoE siblings is consumption: 44.2 W maximum, against the 480 W a fully loaded 48-port PoE model pulls. That changes what a rack needs behind it. A closet of non-PoE switches sizes its UPS and its cooling around a tenth of the load, and on a site with many small comms rooms that difference is worth more than the price gap between the two part numbers.

Layer 2 only

HPE describes the CX 6000 as fully-managed enterprise class switching with a Layer 2 feature set, and lists its routing capability as static. That is the honest description of what this switch does: VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, access control and static routes between them. What it does not do is run a dynamic routing protocol, so it cannot take an OSPF or BGP adjacency from a core switch and it is not a candidate for a routed access design. HPE's own web store files the CX 6000 under a category named Fixed-Port L3 Managed Ethernet Switches, which is a store taxonomy artefact rather than a product claim, and it should not be read as an L3 capability the datasheet does not grant.

The part number

Two things about this stock code matter before it goes on an order. The #ABA segment is an HPE localisation code for US English, not a hardware variant: every specification on this page is published by HPE against the base part number R8N86A, and no QuickSpecs, datasheet or hardware guide prints #ABA anywhere at all. Searching either form finds the same switch. The second is that R8N86A is now a legacy code. HPE's current CX 6000 QuickSpecs no longer list it and carry R8N86B instead, restyled in the newer naming but rated identically, and buy.hpe.com serves the R8N86B page. HPE has published no end-of-sale notice for R8N86A, so this is a supersession signal rather than an end of life, but anyone standardising a site on this code should know the newer one exists.

Warranty

This switch carries HPE's Limited Lifetime Warranty, and the coverage term HPE publishes for it is LLTW EOS plus five years: cover runs for the working life of the product and for a further five years after HPE stops selling it. No version number goes with that name. HPE prints Limited Lifetime Warranty and nothing more across the CX 6000, 6100, 6200 and 6300 documents, so a 2.0 on a competing listing did not come from HPE. Switch software is embedded and needs no subscription for the switch to run. Worth contrasting with the other switch in this catalogue that is not a CX part, the 5710 sold as JL585A, which carries a one-year warranty rather than a lifetime one.

Where it fits

The right place for this switch is a floor or closet where the endpoints power themselves: desktops, printers, tills, self-powered access points and anything already on an injector. It is as light and shallow as anything in this range at 3.42 kg and 24.7 cm, so it fits a shallow wall cabinet, and at 3.6 Bel it is quiet enough to live in an office cupboard. The reasons not to buy it are both structural rather than fixable: there is no PoE, and the four uplinks are gigabit. A site that will add powered devices later should buy the PoE model now rather than plan on an upgrade that does not exist.

Barcode Printer Shop supplies HPE Aruba Networking switches to US businesses by exact part number, with the uplink type, the PoE budget and what is missing from the carton stated on the page rather than left to the datasheet. Contact us to learn more or secure this solution for your business today.