Optical components market to net $6.6 billion by 2011

The market for optical components used in telecom and datacom networks is expected to grow from $1.5 billion this year to more than $6.6 billion in 2011, according to a new report from CIR.

With the continued build-out of more advanced and higher-capacity networks, the active components market will grow from just under $1 billion in 2006 to almost $4.8 billion by the end of the forecast period, say CIR analysts. This growth surge is due to the rapid penetration of fiber into enterprise and access networks needed to support PONs, Fibre Channel, CWDM, and 10-Gbit Ethernet and the larger-bandwidth applications riding over them.

The report also notes that tunable laser shipments now are being measured annually in the tens of thousands. Many vendor and service provider requests for proposals (RFPs) also require them. Though there are just a handful of tunable laser firms left in the business-including Intel, JDSU, Santur, and Syntune-these companies actually have a market to chase after, say analysts, who expect sales of tunable lasers and transmitters to exceed $460 million by 2011.

CIR also believes that ROADM component manufacturers such as JDSU, Metconnex, Optium, Optoplex, and Xtellus will finally see a payoff, as the ROADM market reaches almost $300 million by 2011.

The research also indicates that 40-Gbit/sec networks are becoming a reality and may well be necessary to support new video services. At the component level, 40 Gbits/sec increasingly will represent an opportunity for those firms that can provide innovative ways of meeting the chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion (PMD), and spectral efficiency challenges inherent in 40-Gbit/sec networking.