Can Aviz Packet Broker Replace Traditional Hardware-Locked Packet Brokers?
June 18, 2026
Deep Network Observability
TL;DR
Aviz Packet Broker provides a software-defined, cost-efficient alternative to proprietary packet brokers. It delivers advanced traffic filtering, aggregation, load balancing, tunneling, and security capabilities while helping teams reduce cost, avoid vendor lock-in, and scale network visibility across modern infrastructure.
Introduction
Contemporary data center facilities and service provider networks need increased visibility capabilities but do not involve any added proprietary equipment to achieve that goal. Packet brokers have been found to create issues such as scalability problems and vendor lock-in issues as more traffic is generated in traditional environments. However, this problem can be solved by utilizing the Aviz Packet Broker v2.12, which provides packet broker functionality to ONIE-ready switches using a software-based approach. The following blog post elaborates on how APB helps organizations improve visibility.
Why Are Traditional Packet Brokers Becoming a Challenge?
Typical packet brokers could prove to be expensive, tied to hardware, and difficult to scale as the amount of network traffic grows. Most companies have to rely on specialized packet brokers to direct traffic to various monitoring and security systems. Even though such systems work great, they usually require frequent hardware upgrades, vendor-locking, and additional expenses for capital and maintenance purposes. It is getting more challenging by the day to justify the need for such approaches, especially since networks are evolving into 100G, 400G, and even further in the future. Aviz Packet Broker offers a solution that doesn’t require any specific hardware and runs on SONiC/ONIE-compatible switches.
How Does Aviz Packet Broker Improve Network Visibility?
Aviz Packet Broker helps teams intelligently control the allocation of traffic to certain applications. The key capabilities of Aviz Packet Broker include traffic aggregation, replication, traffic filtering, traffic steering, packet slicing, timestamping, and decapsulation. Thus, monitoring and security tools will get just the right amount of traffic, rather than too many unwanted packets. By adding VXLAN, GRE, ERSPAN, and GTPU extension header filters, APB boosts visibility in overlay networks, telecommunication systems, and modern data center architectures.
What Makes APB v2.12 More Flexible and Cost-Effective?
APB v2.12 combines the use of open hardware choice, load balancing, and secure operations into one software-defined architecture. APB can run on any supported switch offered by companies such as Celestica, Dell, Edgecore, and NVIDIA, unlike traditional proprietary appliances. The supported speeds start at 10 GbE and go up to 400 GbE with 800G+ still being qualified. Advanced flow-aware load balancing is also available in APB 2.12, enabling users to effectively distribute their traffic among the monitoring appliances and LAG links via inner/outer headers or both.
Conclusion
Aviz Packet Broker 2.12 offers network and security professionals an approach to upgrade their packet visibility capabilities without being dependent on any vendor-specific hardware. Using features such as the ability to work on open hardware, smart processing of traffic, decapsulation of tunnels, load balancing, and tool optimization, APB helps in saving money and improving visibility.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are traditional hardware packet brokers becoming harder to justify as networks scale?
Traditional packet brokers require frequent hardware upgrades, lock teams into one vendor, and carry high capital and maintenance costs. As networks push into 100G, 400G, and beyond, those costs grow faster than the visibility value they provide. Aviz Packet Broker runs as software on SONiC and ONIE-compatible switches so teams are not buying dedicated proprietary appliances every time the network grows.
What hardware can Aviz Packet Broker run on and what speeds does it support?
APB runs on supported switches from Celestica, Dell, Edgecore, and NVIDIA rather than proprietary appliances. Supported speeds start at 10 GbE and go up to 400 GbE with 800G still being qualified. Teams pick the hardware that fits their environment and budget rather than buying whatever one vendor sells.
What traffic management capabilities does Aviz Packet Broker provide for monitoring and security tools?
APB covers traffic aggregation, replication, filtering, steering, packet slicing, timestamping, and decapsulation. Monitoring and security tools receive exactly the traffic they need rather than being flooded with unwanted packets. VXLAN, GRE, ERSPAN, and GTPU extension header filters add visibility across overlay networks, telecom systems, and modern data center architectures.
How does flow-aware load balancing in APB v2.12 work across monitoring tools and LAG links?
APB v2.12 distributes traffic across monitoring appliances and LAG links using inner headers, outer headers, or both depending on what the environment requires. Flow-aware load balancing keeps related traffic together so monitoring tools see complete sessions rather than fragments. Teams can spread load intelligently rather than sending all traffic to one tool and overloading it.
How does Aviz Packet Broker help teams avoid vendor lock-in while improving network visibility?
Because APB runs as software on open ONIE-ready switches from multiple vendors, teams are not tied to one supplier's hardware roadmap or pricing. Switch hardware can be upgraded independently of the software. If a better or cheaper platform comes along, teams can move without rebuilding the visibility architecture around it.
Why does sending too much unfiltered traffic to monitoring tools create operational problems?
Monitoring and security tools have finite processing capacity. When they receive all traffic without filtering, they spend resources on packets that are irrelevant to what they are actually looking for. Performance degrades, storage costs climb, and the useful signals get buried in noise. APB filters and steers only the right traffic to each tool so those tools work at full effectiveness rather than being overwhelmed.
How does software-defined packet brokering change the economics of network visibility compared to proprietary appliances?
Proprietary appliances bundle hardware and software together so every upgrade means buying new gear. Software-defined packet brokering on open switches separates those two things. Teams upgrade the software independently and swap hardware when performance requirements change. Capital costs come down and the maintenance burden that comes with managing a fleet of proprietary appliances goes away.
What makes VXLAN, GRE, ERSPAN, and GTPU filter support specifically valuable in modern data center and telecom environments?
Modern networks wrap traffic inside overlay tunnels and most traditional packet brokers cannot look inside those tunnels to filter based on inner headers. Without that capability, monitoring tools either see encapsulated packets they cannot interpret or miss traffic entirely. VXLAN, GRE, ERSPAN, and GTPU support lets APB filter on what is inside the tunnel rather than just the outer headers, which is what actually matters for visibility in overlay and telecom environments.
Explore the Aviz Packet Broker data sheet to see how software-defined packet brokering can help your team reduce cost, improve visibility, and scale traffic intelligence across your network.
