Market research firm Dell’Oro Group predicts in a new report that sales of optical transport equipment will reach $15 billion by 2018, driven by demand for high-speed DWDM systems. DWDM equipment sales should grow at an average annual rate of 8% through the forecast period, with 100-Gbps accounting for 80% of the demand by 2018, according to the report.
“The most significant of a number of trends unfolding in the optical market is the rapid expansion of 100-Gbps DWDM wavelength shipments, as its use moves beyond the core network and into the metro network,” explained Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport market research at Dell’Oro. “This projected demand for 100 Gbps will subsequently be one of the key growth drivers for the optical market over the next five years.”
Optical Transport Network (OTN) and packet transport technology also should increase in popularity, which should benefit sales of packet-optical transport systems with OTN switching features. Dell’Oro expects optical packet platform revenue to grow at a 15% compounded annual growth rate during the forecast period. Meanwhile, metro applications will overtake core network deployments as a driver for spending over the next five years as well, Dell’Oro believes.
The new Dell’Oro Group Optical Transport 5-Year Forecast Report offers an overview of the optical transport industry with tables covering manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, unit shipments, and tributary/line or wavelength shipments by speed up to 100 Gbps. The report tracks DWDM long-haul terrestrial, WDM metro, multiservice multiplexers, and optical switch equipment.
See also: Looking from 100/400G toward Terabit networking line cards
