Dell’Oro: Optical transport sales near $19 billion by 2016

Led by the DWDM transport niche, sales of optical transport equipment will approach $19 billion by 2016, according to the new Optical Transport 5-Year Forecast Report from Dell’Oro Group. DWDM sales will increase at a 10% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the forecast period to hit $12 billion, according to the market research firm.

“The demand for optical equipment and DWDM systems is due to what appears to be an endless need for more backhaul capacity in both fixed and mobile broadband networks,” said Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport market research at Dell’Oro Group.

“There are a number of trends we expect to occur in the optical market during the next five years, with the top three being: 1) the shift to packet-based equipment, where we expect optical packet equipment sales to grow three-fold in the next five years; 2) the growing use of OTN, MPLS, and MPLS-TP for both transport and switching, which is related to the rise in optical packet equipment; and 3) the increasing demand for 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps DWDM, which will steadily rise over the next few years to contribute about 60% of the DWDM sales by 2016,” Yu added.

The 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 SONET/SDH, and optical switch equipment.