Much like the switches and routers from which they collect traffic, network packet brokers have traditionally been vertically integrated systems. However, the networking industry is evolving, and the network packet broker industry is, too. Most vendors introduced disaggregated network packet broker software that can run on off-the-shelf, open network hardware, which offers you flexibility and affordability.
- Hardware and software flexibility can play out in several ways. In some circumstances, enterprises can switch network packet brokers’ software vendors without changing hardware. They can simply install a new software package on existing installed hardware.
- On the other hand, when expanding the visibility fabric, an enterprise can choose from multiple hardware providers, but continue using their existing software vendor across the fabric.
To Disaggregate your visibility layer, Here is the list of Bill of materials to get started and build your own Packet Broker:
24x 1G/10G ports Network Packet Broker
- EdgeCore AS5812-54X (QTY 1)
- Network Optics: 1G/10G SFP+ Multimode optical transceiver EN-SFP10G-SR (QTY 24)
- One of the Following Packet Broker OS (QTY depends on the NOS pricing structure; EdgeOS is priced per port (min of 24 ports license, Netscout prices the PFOS per Switch)
- Ixia Vision Edge OS™ 4.7.5 and later version
- Big Monitoring Fabric™
- Netscout PFOS