A newly released forecast report by networking and telecommunications industries analyst Dell’Oro Group projects enterprise-class wireless LAN (WLAN) market revenues to exceed $6.7 billion in 2018 -- over 70 percent greater than 2013 revenues.
Key trends for the market, according to the analyst, include the continued growth of both 802.11ac access points and faster-than-market growth of cloud-managed WLAN systems. The overall WLAN market is expected to reach $12.2 billion during the forecast time period.
“At this point, 802.11ac enterprise-class access points represent a greater portion of the overall market than 802.11n did in the previous cycle,” reveals Chris DePuy, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “The higher-speed 802.11ac devices are being priced at a lower premium to the slower 802.11n devices these intend to replace."
The report contains a forecast of cloud-managed equipment and services. Also included in the report are estimates on total Service Provider (SP) Wi-Fi units and revenue forecasts. "We expect next year, we will see new types of 802.11ac devices that support so-called ‘wave 2’ or ‘multi-user MIMO’ capabilities which will offer even faster throughput,” adds DePuy.
