A recent survey market research firm Infonetics Research conducted among service providers worldwide indicate that 74% of respondents plan to deploy electrical Optical Transport Network (OTN) ODU switching in their networks. All of the respondents have deployed OTN interfaces in transport applications as well, Infonetics added in announcing the release of its OTN Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey.
Infonetics interviewed carriers in North America, Asia Pacific, EMEA, and CALA about their plans for optical transport networks. The service providers interviewed represent 23% of worldwide 2010 telecom capex, Infonetics asserts. The respondents represent a mix of incumbents (52%), competitive operators (32%), and mobile operators (16%).
"All of the carriers we interviewed for our OTN survey have deployed OTN interfaces in transport applications, and based on conversations aside from this survey, we know very few major carriers in general will 'skip' OTN,” says Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. “There is a huge shift between now and 2014 in the area of optical switching, with the number of carriers with plans to deploy OTN interfaces on electrical switching equipment rising from 37% to 84%."
Other highlights of the OTN survey include:
- 71% of the carriers interviewed have deployed or will deploy ODU-2/1/0 switching in the core and the metro by the end of 2011
- By 2014, 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps ODU switching will each be prevalent in over half of all metro networks
- The traditional service multiplexing features of OTN are by far the most important in the eyes of carriers
- 52% of metro optical ports support OTN, but “only a fraction” are enabled and transmitting using this protocol, Infonetics says.