The Catalyst 2948G-L3 switch is a fixed-configuration Layer 3 (L3) Ethernet switch featuring wire-speed switching for Internet Protocol (IP), Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), and IP multicast. These new Catalyst switches provide the high-performance that is required for mid-size campus backbones with just the right port density. They are ideal for aggregating multiprotocol traffic from multiple wiring closets or workgroup switches such as the Catalyst 2900, Catalyst 3500, Catalyst 4000, or Catalyst 5000 switches.The Catalyst 2948G-L3 switch provides non-blocking routing and switching for IP, IPX, and IP multicast while also offering wire-speed Layer 2 switching for non-routable protocols such as NetBIOS and DECnet local-area transport (LAT). This capability allows network managers to augment their multi- protocol backbones with the Catalyst 2948G-L3 without having to build parallel networks, as is often required with IP-only switches.