Aviz Packet Broker outlines SONiC-based software visibility pipeline

Aviz Packet Broker (APB) reframes packet brokering as a software-defined function on SONiC-based white box switches, aiming to provide unified network visibility and optimized delivery of traffic to monitoring and security tools across hybrid environments.

Research Overview

The blog positions traditional packet brokers as appliance-based systems that are proprietary and costly, limiting operational flexibility for modern traffic patterns.

It links the need for change to increasing use of overlays such as VXLAN and GRE and to higher-speed traffic spanning data center, cloud, and edge environments.

Key Findings

APB is described as a software-first packet broker built on SONiC and designed to aggregate traffic from multiple sources and environments.

The blog states that APB filters and optimizes traffic before distributing it to tools, with overlay visibility and security and compliance capabilities included in the overall approach.

Technical Breakdown

According to the blog, APB runs as a software layer on white box switches and supports a processing pipeline that covers aggregation, filtering, optimization, and distribution.

It collects traffic from TAPs, SPAN ports, and virtual sources, applies Layer 2 to Layer 4 filtering, removes redundant data through optimization techniques, and distributes traffic using flow-aware load balancing.

Operational Impact

The blog describes APB as replacing proprietary packet broker appliances with a disaggregated design intended to reduce vendor dependency and simplify operations for visibility workloads.

It also lists deployment and scaling claims, including support for 10GbE to 400GbE+ and cost reduction “up to 50%+,” along with support for cloud, AI/ML, and telecom-related visibility use cases.

Blog Signals brief: Aviz Packet Broker presents a SONiC-based, software-defined packet brokering model that aggregates, filters, optimizes, and distributes network traffic for unified overlay-aware visibility, with deployment described across multiple vendor switch platforms for enterprise and security operations.