According to the Dell'Oro Group, demand for next generation passive optical networking (PON) technologies will grow the PON market at 6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. Of the next generation PON technologies, XGS-PON is forecast to be the clear winner.
"As the two primary next generation PON technologies - XGS-PON and NG-PON2 - work their way into operator networks, we feel XGS-PON will be the obvious favorite," said Alam Tamboli, senior analyst at Dell'Oro. "We feel this will be true for a number of reasons, including: XGS-PON has high capacity for numerous applications, from backhauling G.fast technologies to business services; the technology can share optics with 10 Gbps EPON, cutting down prices and making it a viable alternative to GPON; and XGS-PON can co-exist with GPON and NG-PON2, which will allow operators with GPON networks to deploy XGS-PON relatively cheaply without significant interruption to their networks, and still have a set upgrade path to NG-PON2 - if and when they decide to go that route."