Latency & Failure Points
Accessing traffic without introducing latency or creating new failure points in the production network path.
SOLUTION
Complete
Network
Visibility &
Monitoring
Line-Rate, Lossless Traffic Visibility Using Disaggregated Packet Broker Architecture
PalC Networks delivers a high-performance network observability solution built on SONiC-based open networking and disaggregated packet broker architecture. The solution enables deterministic, line-rate traffic acquisition, processing, and distribution across monitoring and security tools without impacting production network performance.
CUSTOMER CHALLENGES
Technical Challenges in Network Monitoring
Multi-Speed Visibility
Achieving 100% packet visibility at 1G / 10G / 25G / 40G / 100G speeds without degradation or packet drops.
Tool Oversubscription
Handling oversubscription of monitoring and security tools that cannot keep up with raw traffic volume.
Scaling Complexity
Scaling tool infrastructure without redesigning the network topology or introducing cascading dependencies.
Multi-Tool Distribution
Supporting multi-tool environments with efficient, filtered traffic distribution to each downstream platform.
Vendor Lock-in
Avoiding vendor lock-in from proprietary packet broker solutions that dictate hardware and software lifecycle.
WHAT SOLUTION WE PROVIDE
High-Performance Network Visibility for Modern Infrastructure
PalC delivers an open, scalable network observability stack that gives operations and security teams deterministic visibility without adding complexity to the production network.
Full-Fidelity Visibility
Packet access across physical, virtual, and cloud environments with deterministic delivery to monitoring and security tools.
Production-Scale Performance
Line-rate ingestion, burst protection, and tool-aware distribution designed for 1G to 100G+ traffic environments.
Open, Vendor-Neutral Model
SONiC-based disaggregated architecture removes proprietary lock-in and enables flexible, cost-efficient lifecycle management.
REAL NETWORK MONITORING SOLUTION
Total Network Visibility: Packet Broker and TAPs
What this architecture gives your team
- Captures traffic from TAPs and SPAN sources without impacting the production path
- Aggregates, filters, slices, and distributes packets intelligently to the right downstream tools
- Prevents tool overload with load balancing, burst protection, and selective replication
- Supports monitoring, security, and analytics platforms from a single visibility fabric
- Provides an open, scalable alternative to proprietary packet broker architectures
Disaggregated Network Visibility Fabric
PalC implements a disaggregated packet broker architecture combining TAPs, SPAN aggregation, and intelligent traffic processing to deliver full-fidelity network visibility at scale.
Click a component in the diagram or panel to explore details.
Network Taps & SPANTraffic acquisition sources
Disaggregated Packet BrokerSONiC-based packet broker software
OCP-Compliant PlatformHardware-agnostic deployment
Traffic ProcessingDe-duplication, slicing, filtering, replication
Monitoring ToolsNetwork performance monitoring
Security ToolsThreat detection and analysis
Analytics ToolsTraffic analysis and insights
Components
Network TAPs
Passive, fail-safe traffic acquisition from production links.
- Full-fidelity traffic capture at line rate
- Fail-safe design with zero network impact
- Support for 1G / 10G / 25G / 40G / 100G links
Traffic acquisition layer.
Packet Brokers (NPB)
Traffic aggregation, filtering, and distribution engine.
- Line-rate packet ingestion and forwarding
- Multi-speed aggregation (1G to 100G+)
- Tool-aware traffic distribution
Core brokering layer.
Monitoring Tools
APM, NPM, IDS/IPS, DPI, and NetFlow collectors.
- Application performance monitoring
- Network performance monitoring
- Deep packet inspection integration
Tool delivery tier.
Traffic Processing
Deduplication, slicing, filtering, and selective replication.
- Packet deduplication and slicing
- L2-L7 flow-aware filtering
- Burst protection and buffering
Traffic optimization layer.
Security Tools
Threat detection, IDS/IPS, DPI, and SIEM platforms.
- IDS/IPS traffic delivery
- DPI and security analytics
- SIEM and SOC integration
Security tool tier.
Telemetry & Analytics
NetFlow/sFlow export, DPI integration, and metadata tagging.
- NetFlow / sFlow export
- LTE / 5G signaling correlation
- Metadata tagging for advanced analytics
Analytics layer.
DPB Fabric Capabilities
- IngestionLine-rate at 1G - 100G+
- AggregationMulti-speed, multi-source
- DistributionTool-aware load balancing
- ProtectionBurst buffering, zero drop
Packet Processing
- DeduplicationRemove duplicate packets
- SlicingL2-L7 payload trimming
- MaskingPayload stripping / PII
- Filtering5-tuple / custom rules
Security & Analytics Delivery
- SecurityIDS / IPS / DPI / SIEM
- PerformanceNPM / APM tools
- TelemetryNetFlow / sFlow export
- OutcomeZero-drop visibility
CORE CAPABILITIES
Disaggregated Packet Broker + Flexible Deployment
One architecture that supports centralized, distributed, and hybrid visibility fabrics while delivering advanced packet processing and tool integration.
DPB STACK -- DISAGGREGATED MODEL
APPLICATION LAYER
Containerized Packet Broker (NPB) Software
NETWORK OS
SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud)
BOOT LAYER
ONIE (Open Network Install Environment)
HARDWARE LAYER
Bare-Metal Open Networking Switches
DEPLOYMENT
OOB Monitoring
DEPLOYMENT
Inline Visibility
- 1Advanced Packet Processing
Deduplication, slicing, masking, and 5-tuple/custom filtering to send each tool only the traffic it needs.
- 2Traffic Engineering at Scale
Load balancing across tool farms, multi-ingress aggregation, intelligent replication, and burst buffering.
- 3Protocol & Tunnel Handling
GTP, GRE termination, VXLAN decapsulation, and ERSPAN processing for modern telecom and cloud traffic.
- 4Flexible Deployment Models
Centralized packet broker, distributed visibility fabric, or hybrid cloud integration based on your operations model.
- 5Open Architecture Economics
Vendor independence, hardware reusability, and incremental scaling to reduce long-term TCO.
USE CASES
Multi-Environment Monitoring
Data Centers
Spine-leaf visibility and east-west traffic monitoring across modern data center fabrics -- full packet capture without disrupting production workloads.
ISPs / Telecom
High-speed backbone traffic analysis at 40G / 100G rates with GTP visibility for mobile core, subscriber analytics, and regulatory compliance monitoring.
AI/ML Networks
GPU cluster traffic inspection and optimization -- monitoring RDMA, RoCE, and InfiniBand-over-Ethernet flows for AI training and inference workloads.
Enterprise Networks
Application and security monitoring with efficient traffic distribution to IDS/IPS, DPI, SIEM, and compliance tools across campus and WAN infrastructure.
High-Speed Deployment Scenarios
Full Packet Visibility
Physical, virtual, and cloud traffic coverage
Line-Rate Performance
1G to 100G+ deterministic processing
Open DPB Model
SONiC + ONIE + open hardware
Security Tool Delivery
IDS/IPS, DPI, SIEM, and analytics integration
Reduced TCO
No proprietary lock-in, elastic scaling
Proven outcomes from the field
Deployments across AI fabrics, multi-cloud, automation, and security.
ODM PARTNERS
TRUSTED BY LEADING TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS
Next steps
Build a Scalable, Open Visibility Architecture
PalC Networks enables organizations to implement high-performance, scalable, and vendor-neutral network observability using disaggregated packet broker architecture and SONiC-based open networking.
