Aviz Networks outlines open packet broker built on SONiC

A vendor blog describes using SONiC and commodity switching hardware to replace proprietary network packet broker appliances, highlighting a software-defined approach for packet filtering and distribution that may reduce cost and increase hardware choice.

Research Overview

Network packet brokers collect traffic from multiple links, apply filtering and replication, and deliver subsets to performance and security tools. The post states that traditional NPBs are appliance-based and proprietary, often resulting in high capital and operating costs for large data centers and edge deployments.

Technical Breakdown

The article links recent Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) enhancements, such as greater programmability and larger TCAM, with the availability of SONiC as an open network Operating System (OS) to enable NPB functions on commodity switches. It explains that APIs and Software Defined Networking (SDN) principles can program ASICs to perform filtering, forwarding, and load balancing for monitoring and security use cases.

Operational Impact

The post says a SONiC-based packet broker can run on hardware at speeds from 10GbE to 400GbE, support integration with commercial analyzers, and allow reuse of equipment retired during refresh cycles. It also notes that moving to software-defined packet brokering can lower capital and operational expenditures in the context of semiconductor supply constraints.

Product Update

Aviz Networks describes its Open Packet Broker as a containerized application that runs on SONiC and can be installed on switches that support the Network Optimization Suite (NOS). The vendor states OPB forwards traffic to monitoring and security tools and can scale to meet changing observability demand.

Leadership Perspective

The post references a statement from NVIDIA's chief executive projecting widespread deployment of data processing units and the isolation of application and control planes across data centers within five years.

The overall takeaway is that the vendor presents a SONiC-based, software-defined packet broker as an alternative to proprietary appliances with potential cost and hardware-choice implications for enterprise observability and security. This “Blog Signals brief” is a fact-based summary of the vendor blog.