40/100 Gigabit Ethernet interest sparks healthy North American MPO connector growth says ElectroniCast Consultants

Use of "multi-fiber push on" (MPO) fiber-optic connectors in North America should grow 49.8% annually through 2018, according to a new report from ElectroniCast Consultants. The market research and consultant firm says that deployments of 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 100GbE technology will provide the catalyst for this expansion.

“Applications such as video, virtualization, cloud computing, switching/routing, and convergence are driving the need for bandwidth expansion in data centers, 4G/LTE (wireless) networks, and other deployments. We continue on the path of gradually migrating from 1G to 10G to 40G and 100G and eventually beyond, and the MPO connector is a key component in 40/100GbE network links,” said Stephen Montgomery, director of the fiber optics components group at ElectroniCast.

Sales of MPO fiber-optic connectors in North American 40GbE and 100GbE networks is expected to reach $28 million in 2014, an increase of 84% over last year (2013), ElectroniCast says. While this growth rate isn’t sustainable, the 49.8% annual growth rate over the 2013-20189 timeframe covered in the ElectroniCast market forecast should keep smiles on the faces of connector manufacturers.

ElectroniCast splits the MPO market among singlemode and multimode 12-fiber and 24-fiber MPO connectors, as well as by their use in 40GbE and 100GbE applications. The company expects 12-fiber multimode MPO connectors to dominate the market, increasing at an average annual growth rate of 48.5% percent during the forecast period.

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