The 3850 Series of switches is an industry-leading, enterprise-class series of access switches that offers superior performance, scalability, and reliability. The Catalyst 3850 Series is the first to feature a built-in wireless controller with up to 40 Gbps of capacity on 48-port models. Further, it supports up to 100 access points and 2, 000 wireless clients per switching entity (or stack). These switches are stackable up to 9 members and come equipped with popular StackPower technology. StackPower is an innovative power sharing and redundancy technology that allows members of the stack to share in one of two power pooling topologies.
The first, power sharing mode, aggregates then distributes the power among the stack. Power is dynamically allocated where its needed. The second, redundant mode, polls the stack, identifies the supply with the greatest wattage then reserves its use for failure. Power is then allocated to the stack from the remainder of the supplies. Once the reserved power supply is activated, the stack migrates to power sharing mode automatically. This technology eliminates the need for an external RPS unit and allows users to simply add another power supply for either redundancy or additional power to the pool.