The Catalyst 4224 was introduced to enable deployment of IP telephony in small branch offices. As IP Telephony technology has matured, several newer platforms ­ including the Cisco 2600XM and Cisco 3700 series platforms ­ are now capable of performing similar functions as the Catalyst 4224. As a result, the Catalyst 4224 series is being discontinued. The suggested alternative products are detailed in Table 1.

For systems already deployed in the field, the standard Cisco support programs, as described in the following section, remain in effect. The next software release for this platform will be 12.2(13)T, but new features will not be offered on this product.

The following section describes the Catalyst 4224 applications and the substitution options. The primary substitutes are:

• Cisco 2650XM/2651XM + Catalyst 3524-PWR switch for similar performance and scale
• Cisco 3700 series for higher performance and scale