LAS VEGAS -- At Interop 2012, one interesting topic is getting buried under all the hype of software-defined networking and bring your own device (BYOD) solutions: application-aware networking is slowly becoming a reality in local area networks (LANs).

This week, merchant silicon vendor Broadcom Corp. is showcasing the new StrataXGS BCM56545 network chip, designed for installation in access layer, stackable switches. The chip features wire-speed application-inspection capabilities based on Broadcom's new AppIQ technology. With the technology, engineers can perform stateful packet inspection within a stackable switch and correlate that inspection to application signatures, in order to apply policies within the LAN.

"This chip allows for classification of static flows of [apps] such as Facebook chat and YouTube video. All of these are HTTP apps," said Sujal Das, senior director of product marketing for Broadcom. “With this new feature you can identify the application as an HTTP app, but you have additional intelligence. You can see that this is a Facebook chat application, or you can see that a video is coming from a domain name like CNN.com."