Aviz Packet Broker details VXLAN encapsulation, decapsulation, and stripping

Aviz Packet Broker adds support for VXLAN encapsulation and decapsulation, plus VXLAN header stripping, to aggregate and forward VXLAN traffic for monitoring and security tools in virtualized data center environments.

Research Overview

The article explains how VXLAN extends Layer 2 networks over Layer 3 IP infrastructure by encapsulating Ethernet frames inside UDP packets. It also describes how a packet broker can process VXLAN-encapsulated traffic to maintain visibility across distributed virtual networks.

It frames the use case as centralized traffic handling for monitoring, security, and operations, based on VXLAN tunnel processing and packet forwarding.

Key Findings

Aviz Packet Broker is described as handling VXLAN encapsulated traffic directly, including encapsulation and decapsulation workflows. The article states that it supports advanced VXLAN stripping intended to preserve visibility when traffic is tapped.

The piece links these functions to centralized traffic collection, filtering, and delivery to monitoring or security tools across multiple network segments.

Technical Breakdown

The article defines VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN) as a network virtualization technology that uses a 24-bit VXLAN Network Identifier, or VNI. It states that the VNI enables multiple logical networks to coexist over shared physical infrastructure.

For VXLAN encapsulation, the article describes receiving tapped Ethernet frames, applying monitoring rules to select packets for encapsulation, adding a VXLAN header with the VNI, and then adding IP and UDP headers for transport over Layer 3. It further describes delivering encapsulated traffic to a destination Virtual Tunnel Endpoint managed by OPB.

Operational Impact

For decapsulation, the article describes receiving VXLAN packets at the Virtual Tunnel Endpoint, stripping IP, UDP, and VXLAN headers when the VNI and MAC address match, and processing the inner Ethernet frame based on configured policies. It states that the resulting traffic can be forwarded to monitoring tools, security appliances, or network segments.

The article also describes “VXLAN header stripping” as removing VXLAN headers from tapped VXLAN traffic without requiring VXLAN tunnels in the monitoring fabric, using traffic intelligence rules to identify VXLAN packets and map rules to forward inner payloads. It adds that OPB supports simultaneous IPv4 and IPv6 VXLAN packet stripping and that line-rate VXLAN stripping is enabled via custom ASIC parsing logic built into Aviz Packet Broker NOS.

The article concludes that VXLAN supports scalable, segmented data center networks while visibility into VXLAN traffic remains important for control and performance. It describes Aviz Packet Broker as aggregating, filtering, and distributing VXLAN encapsulated traffic to monitoring tools to provide visibility across modern virtualized environments, and this “Blog Signals brief” is a fact-based summary of the vendor blog.