Aviz Packet Broker details SONiC-based white box traffic visibility

Aviz’s Packet Broker (APB) is positioned as a software-defined alternative to appliance-based packet brokers, running on SONiC-capable white box switches to aggregate, filter, optimize, and distribute network traffic for monitoring and security.

Research Overview

The vendor describes network packet brokers as a long-standing building block for enterprise and service provider network infrastructures, but says traditional deployments are constrained by proprietary appliances and limited ability to address current overlay traffic patterns.

APB is presented as a software-first packet broker that runs on SONiC-based white box switches, intended for visibility across data center, cloud, edge, and OT environments.

Key Findings

According to the blog, legacy packet brokers rely on rigid, vendor-specific hardware that contributes to high CapEx and OpEx, limits flexibility, and creates vendor lock-in.

The post also links appliance-based designs to challenges handling modern traffic patterns such as VXLAN and GRE, along with inefficient distribution that can overload or underutilize downstream monitoring tools.

Technical Breakdown

APB is described as operating as a software layer on white box switching platforms to support a traffic processing pipeline that includes aggregation, filtering, optimization, and distribution.

The blog says APB collects traffic from TAPs, SPAN ports, and virtual sources, applies filtering across Layer 2 to Layer 4, removes redundant data through optimization techniques such as deduplication and slicing, and distributes optimized traffic using flow-aware load balancing.

Overlay visibility and security controls

The post states that APB provides overlay visibility including VXLAN and GRE decapsulation to support inspection of overlay traffic.

For security and compliance, it describes “FIPS-aligned cryptographic enforcement” as part of the platform’s capabilities.

Operational Impact

The vendor frames deployment benefits around cost efficiency, flexibility, and scalability, including the use of standard switching hardware to reduce dependency on a single vendor.

The blog further claims infrastructure cost reduction “by up to 50%+” and states APB supports networks from 10GbE up to 400GbE+ while serving use cases spanning monitoring, security tool integration, observability, telecom, and deep packet inspection enablement.

Platform Support and Use Cases

The blog says APB runs on SONiC-compatible platforms, naming Celestica, Edgecore, Dell, and NVIDIA as supported hardware sources.

It lists use cases such as network traffic monitoring and analysis, security tool integration and traffic distribution, data center and cloud observability, 5G and telecom traffic visibility, and deep packet inspection enablement.

Across the post, APB is presented as a software-defined packet broker that leverages SONiC-based white box switches to enable overlay-aware traffic processing, intelligent distribution, and security controls intended for monitoring and security workflows. Blog Signals brief: This is a fact-based summary of the vendor blog.