Enterprise SONiC Distribution for
Packet Broker

Name: Enterprise SONiC Distribution for Packet Broker
SKU: AsterNOS-Packet Broker

Asterfusion PB-APP – Open, Scalable, Intelligent SONiC Packet Broker

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Supported Hardware

Documentation

Asterfusion PB-APP is a next-generation Network Packet Broker application built on SONiC and Asterfusion 1G- 800G white-box switching hardware.

Named PB-APP to reflect its software-defined, application-based architecture, it decouples packet broker capabilities from fixed-function appliances and runs as a containerized service on open platforms.

SONiC
-Based

Containerized Service

Open Hardware

PB-APP delivers scalable traffic aggregation, intelligent load balancing, and advanced visibility from 1G to 800G with lower cost and an open architecture, enabling automation, high-speed monitoring, and secure traffic processing at line rate for modern data centers, DCI, and SMB networks.

Scalable Performance

Open & Cost-Effective

Line-rate Processing

Micro-Burst Mitigation with Flowlet

Eliminate elephant-flow-induced congestion through flowlet-based load balancing.

Unified Packet Broker Platform

All-in-one design (ASIC + optional DPU) integrating advanced features.

Comprehensive Product Portfolio

Ranging from 1G to 800G, meeting requirements from campus to hyperscale data centers.

Operational Simplicity

Automated configuration via Ansible and real-time observability with Prometheus Exporter.

Secure at Line Rate

MACsec encryption protects sensitive traffic at line rate.

Active Inline Mode Deployment

Move beyond passive monitoring to enable inline traffic orchestration.

Tunnel-Aware Traffic Distribution

Hashing on inner headers for efficient processing of encapsulated traffic.

High-Speed Optical Connectivity

Supports 400G/800G ZR/ZR+ for long-haul interconnect and data center extension.

ASIC based Standard NPB Features

Feature	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Inteface	Ethernet Port	1G/10G
Inteface	Ethernet Port	25G
Inteface	Ethernet Port	40G
Inteface	Ethernet Port	100G
Inteface	Ethernet Port	400G
Inteface	Ethernet Port	Breakout Mode	4*10G/1G
Inteface	Ethernet Port	Breakout Mode	4*100G
Inteface	Ethernet Port	Breakout Mode	4*25G
Inteface	Management	Startup & Shutdown
Inteface	Management	Startup delay
Inteface	Management	FEC
Inteface	Management	Loopback
Inteface	Management	Port Static	Packets & Bytes
Inteface	Management	Port Static	Multicasts packets
Inteface	Management	Port Static	Error & Drop & Over packets
Inteface	Management	Port Static	Speed & Utilization ratio
Inteface	Management	Port Static	V4/V6 Packets
Inteface	Management	Port threshold alarm
Inteface	Management	Module Information Acquisition	In-position information
Inteface	Management	Module Information Acquisition	Manufacturer information
Inteface	Management	Module Information Acquisition	Optical power information
Inteface	Management	Module Information Acquisition	Relevant threshold information
Inteface	Management	Port type	Service
Inteface	Management	Port type	Network
Inteface	Management	Port type	Tool
Inteface	Management	Port type	Hybrid
Inteface	Management	Input/Output multiplexing
Inteface	Management	Traffic statistics export
Inteface	Management	Network config	MAC
Inteface	Management	Network config	IP
Inteface	Management	Batch port configuration
Inteface	Management	Show/Hide Columns
Inteface	Hash Mode	Global hash	Src-dst-ip
Inteface	Hash Mode	Global hash	Src-dst-ip-port
Inteface	Hash Mode	Global hash	Src-dst-mac
Inteface	Hash Mode	Global hash	Src-dst-mac-ip
Inteface	Hash Mode	Global hash	Src-dst-mac-ip-port
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Src-ip
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Dst-ip
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Src-port
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Dst-port
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Src-mac
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Dst-mac
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Symmetry MAC
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Symmetry IPv4
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Symmetry IPv6
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Symmetry L4
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Custom Symmetry Src IPv4
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Custom Symmetry Dst IPv4
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Custom Symmetry Src IPv6
Inteface	Hash Mode	Custom hash	Custom Symmetry Dst IPv6
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	CFP
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	ERSPAN
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	GRE
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	GTP
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	IPinIP
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	PPPoe
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	MPLS
Inteface	Tunnel Stripping	VXLAN
Inteface	Rule Type	L2 rule filtering	Adjust priority based on a specific policy
Inteface	Rule Type	L3 rule filtering	Source MAC
Inteface	Rule Type	L4 rule filtering	Outer VLAN
Inteface	Rule Type	L5 rule filtering	EtherType
Inteface	Rule Type	L6 rule filtering	Any combination of the above fields
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V6 rule filtering	IP Version
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V7 rule filtering	Outer VLAN
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V8 rule filtering	Source IP Support Mask
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V9 rule filtering	Destination IPv6Support Mask
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V10 rule filtering	Destination IPv4 Support Mask
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V11 rule filtering	Source Port
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V12 rule filtering	Destination Port
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V13 rule filtering	IP Protocol
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V14 rule filtering	IPv4 Frag
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V15 rule filtering	DSCP
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V16 rule filtering	ICMP-Type
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V17 rule filtering	VLAN Priority
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V18 rule filtering	Source MAC
Inteface	Rule Type	L3/L3V19 rule filtering	Any combination of the above fields
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	Destination MAC
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	Source MAC
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	Source IPV4
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	Outer VLAN
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	EtherType
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	VNI
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	TCP Flag
Inteface	Rule Type	EX rule filtering	Any combination of the above fields
Inteface	Port Range Matching	EX rule filtering
Inteface	Match Mode	Inner layer matching after tunnel stripping
Inteface	Match Mode	Inner Layer Matching in MPLS Tunnels
Inteface	Match Mode	Filtering in the TX direction at the port
Inteface	Action	Add/Modify/Delete outer vlan in forward mode
Inteface	Action	Add timestamping
Inteface	Action	Dst MAC modification
Inteface	Rule Management	Rule search
Inteface	Rule Management	Rule hit num reflush/clean
Inteface	Rule Management	Rule hit bytes reflush/clean
Inteface	Rule Management	Show/Hide Columns
Inteface	Rule Management	Select all rules
Inteface	Rule Management	Deselect all rules
Inteface	Rule Management	Select range rules
Inteface	Rule Management	Adjust priorities	Highest Priority
Inteface	Rule Management	Adjust priorities	Lowest Priority
Inteface	Rule Management	Adjust priorities	Adjust priority based on a specific policy
Forward policy	Mirror	Ports SPAN to ports
Forward policy	Mirror	Ports RSPAN to port
Forward policy	Mirror	Ports ERSPAN to L3 port
Forward policy	Mirror	Ports/LAG SPAN to ports with ACL
Forward policy	Mirror	Ports/LAG RSPAN to port with ACL
Forward policy	Mirror	Truncation of 128 bytes
Forward policy	Replication	Ports/LAG Copy to LAG with ACL
Forward policy	Replication	Ports/LAG Copy to ports witch ACL
Forward policy	Replication	Ports/LAG Copy to ports +LAG with ACL
Forward policy	Forward	Ports/LAG forward to LAG with ACL
Forward policy	Forward	Ports/LAG forward to port with ACL
Forward policy	Forward	Ports/LAG forward to drop with ACL
Forward policy	Management	Enable/Disable policy
Forward policy	Management	Set color for policy
Forward policy	Management	Copy a set of forwarding policies for re-editing
Forward policy	Management	Policy hit num reflush/clean
Forward policy	Management	Policy hit bytes reflush/clean
Load balancing	Mode	flex mode
Load balancing	Mode	static mode
Load balancing	Mode	weight mode
Load balancing	Mode	standby mode	Port priority
Load balancing	Mode	standby mode	LACP port preemption
Load balancing	Mode	standby mode	Rate-first
Load balancing	Mode	standby mode	priority-first
Load balancing	Mode	standby mode	Port preemption delay configuration
Load balancing	Management	Fixed load balancing members
Load balancing	Management	hash seed
Management & Monitoring	Device Management	User interface	Console
Management & Monitoring	Device Management	User interface	SSH
Management & Monitoring	Device Management	User interface	Telnet
Management & Monitoring	Device Management	User interface	CLI
Management & Monitoring	Device Management	User interface	RESTful API
Management & Monitoring	Device Management	User interface	WEB UI
Management & Monitoring	Online Pdate	User interface
Management & Monitoring	Time Synchronization	PTP
Management & Monitoring	Time Synchronization	NTP
Management & Monitoring	License	NTP
Management & Monitoring	Devops	Ansible
Management & Monitoring	LLDP	Ansible
Management & Monitoring	File Transfer	FTP
Management & Monitoring	File Transfer	TFTP
Management & Monitoring	Condition Monitoring	Temperature information
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Fan information
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Power supply information
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Version information
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	System time
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Displaying Management Port Information
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Display CPU/Memory usage status
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Temperature alarms
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Power out of position alarms
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Fan out of position alarms
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Traffic overflow alarms
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	SNMP
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Syslog
Management & Monitoring	Alarms	Exporter to Prometheus

DPU based Advanced NPB Features

FusionNOS Feature Specification List (Running on ET3212, ET2500, ET3600 series Marvell DPU CN9670, CN102, CN103 & DPU Platform.

Features	Level 1 Functions
Flow Filtration	Support for IPv4/IPv6 wildcard seven-tuple rules
Flow Filtration	Supports L2 source-destination mac, Ethernet protocol type rules
Flow Filtration	Supports IPv4/IPv6 exact quintuple rules
Flow Filtration	Support fixed window keyword rules/floating window keyword rules
Flow Filtration	Support vlan, mpls, gre, vxlan, ssl_tls, ipip, ip6, ip6ip, ip6ip6, teredo, ipsec_ah, ipsec_esp, ftp, pop3, smtp, dns, radius, coap, pptp, l2tp, https, icmp bgp, ospf, isis, gtp, sctp message type filtering
Flow Filtration	Support for URL rules
Flow Filtration	Support TCP Flag rules, including "fin", "syn", "rst", "psh", "ack", "urg", "ecn", "cwr", "nonce".
Flow Filtration	Support for combination rules
Traffic Forwarding	Supports forwarding to a specific port or group of ports
Traffic Replication	Supports replication to a port or ELAG group
Convergence	Supports multiple traffic aggregation
Load Balancing	Supports the creation of logical outgoing interfaces (ELAG)
Load Balancing	Supports load balancing policies based on source-destination IP, quintuple, and tunnel inner IP quintuple;
Load Balancing	Supports static, dynamic, and load balancing modes with weights
Load Balancing	Support capture message same source and same host output
VLAN Processing	Supports adding VLANs, removing outer VLANs, and modifying VLANs
Message Processing	Supports message de-duplication, optionally ignoring TTL, MAC, L2, DSCP, interface (cpu interface), TCP (including seq_num and ack_num for tcp, checksum for tcp), IPID, FCS, and optionally supporting (sport, dport, sip, dip, smac, dmac) fields.
Message Processing	Support for timestamping
Message Processing	Support for Message Specified Offset Stripping
Message Processing	Supports outer layer MAC address modification
Message Processing	TCP Reorganization
Message Processing	Supports message truncation
Message Processing	Supports message desensitization
Message Processing	Supports IP slice reorganization
Tunnelling	Supports GRE, VXLAN, ERSPAN tunnel encapsulation stripping
Tunnelling	Supports stripping one or more layers of VLAN encapsulation
Tunnelling	Supports stripping one or more layers of MPLS encapsulation
Message Encapsulation	Supports GRE, VXLAN, ERSPAN I, ERSPAN II, ERSPAN III
End of Tunnel	Supports GRE, VXLAN tunnel termination
Message Output	Supports message sampling output; supports NetFlow
Ports	Support port multiplexing; support automatic monitoring of port link status and security protection
Basic Management Features	Support serial port, SSH, RestAPI, CLI management methods
Basic Management Features	Supports online security upgrades
Basic Management Features	Support configuration file import and export
Basic Management Features	Supports NTP clock synchronization
Basic Management Features	Supports SYSLOG log management
Basic Management Features	Supports LLDP sending
Basic Management Features	SNMP support
Statistical Properties	Support device status statistics, including system memory and CPU usage
Statistical Properties	Supports interface information statistics, including interface configuration and status, interface packet type statistics, interface packet count and rate statistics.
Statistical Properties	Supports rule hit statistics, reorganization function statistics, de-duplication function statistics, NetFlow statistics

Supported Hardware Platforms

Lifetime license, quarterly releases, and expert assistance for hassle-free operations.

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Asterfusion CX-M Series

Based on Marvell Prestera and Falcon chips, it supports 1G-400G speeds, integrates standard switch features, and enables high-performance forwarding, traffic filtering, and service chaining.

Asterfusion CX-N Series

Featuring Marvell Falcon and Teralynx chips, it supports 25G-800G speeds, with leading 800G forwarding, 512 high-density ports, and provides a visual solution for AI and cloud traffic peaks.

Asterfusion ET Series

Based on Marvell Prestera and Falcon chips, it supports 1G-400G speeds, integrates standard switch features, and enables high-performance forwarding, traffic filtering, and service chaining.

Frequently Asked Questions

Your Guide to Software Versions, Deployment & Support

How does PB-APP differ from traditional hardware-based Network Packet Brokers?

PB-APP adopts a software-defined, application-based architecture built on SONiC, decoupling NPB capabilities from proprietary hardware and running as a containerized service on standard white-box switches. This significantly reduces total cost of ownership (TCO), increases flexibility, programmability, and scalability, and avoids vendor lock-in.

What typical use cases is PB-APP suitable for?

PB-APP is suitable for data centers, DCI, service provider networks, and SMB networks, covering performance monitoring, network visibility, security analysis, DPI, and traffic auditing. It supports both inline and passive deployment modes, enabling flexible adaptation for security device chaining, bypass monitoring, and hybrid deployments.

How does PB-APP achieve fine-grained traffic distribution in high-speed networks?

PB-APP supports ARS Flowlet scheduling, enabling fine-grained, dynamic, and adaptive load balancing in Spine-Leaf architectures. This ensures session consistency while improving link utilization and efficiency when multiple analytics tools process traffic in parallel.

What additional benefits does the optional DPU module provide?

With an optional DPU acceleration module, PB-APP can perform traffic deduplication, TCP out-of-order reassembly, and NetFlow export at the hardware level. This offloads processing from the main CPU, improves analytics accuracy, and reduces backend tool load—ideal for high-density, high-speed traffic environments.

How does PB-APP support automation and modern operations?

PB-APP natively supports Ansible Playbook, seamlessly integrating into DevOps workflows for one-click configuration, policy updates, and operational tasks. It is also fully compatible with Prometheus/Grafana, providing real-time, measurable data for network visibility and capacity planning.

What built-in security features does PB-APP offer?

PB-APP includes MACsec link-layer encryption, ensuring confidentiality and integrity of traffic even on high-speed links. This is particularly valuable for multi-datacenter, campus, or compliance-sensitive environments, keeping monitored and analyzed traffic secure.

How does PB-APP help customers future-proof their network?

PB-APP supports a complete portfolio from 1G to 800G, with 400G/800G ZR/ZR+ optical connectivity for long-haul interconnects and data center extension. Its open architecture and SONiC ecosystem allow customers to evolve capabilities without changing the platform, providing a sustainable, future-ready network visibility solution.

Which DPU models are supported for PB-APP?

PB-APP offers flexible DPU options, currently supporting Marvell OCTEON CN9670 or Marvell OCTEON CN10 103. These DPUs provide hardware acceleration for advanced functions like traffic deduplication, TCP out-of-order reassembly, and NetFlow export, ensuring line-rate performance and stability in high-throughput environments.

Low Latency Data Center Switch

Campus Access & Aggregation

Wireless Access Point

OpenWiFi Network Controller

Marvell OCTEON Platform

Optical Transceiver

Open Packet Broker

Network Packet Broker

P4-Programmable Switch

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