Cisco Switch not receiving serial communication from Arduino
Assuming this is a flow control problem:


  Is there such a thing as inb vs oob for a serial console connection?
  This isn't on the internal network of the switch in any way but the
  console port


It assumed this is a managed switch and the traffic on the console port has nothing to do with the traffic going through the switch. Rather this is likely a port to the computer inside the switch.  Such a port might be able to use RTS/CTS/DSR or X-on / and X-off. 

If this is a flow control problem, consider first looking for thumb switches on the back of the switch to see if the method used for flow control over the console port can be selected. If that is not possible, consider simply hardwiring the out of band flow control pins to always allow for data to flow.  At 9600 baud, a dedicated Aruidno should be able to keep up.

Refer to the 9 pin connector in this chart to find the out of band flow control pins.