Last year was good for OTN, packet-optical transport gear, says Infonetics

While the overall optical transport hardware market floundered in 2012, sales of Optical Transport Network (OTN) and packet-optical transport systems flourished, says Infonetics Research. This year should see the momentum continue, according to the market research firm’s latest OTN and Packet Optical Hardware report.

The OTN transport and switching equipment market grew 8% in 2012, to $7.3 billion, Infonetics reports. The OTN switching segment led the way, rising 46% in 2012 from 2011. Meanwhile, packet-optical transport equipment sales rose 7% in 2012, to $1.2 billion.

"OTN spending, and particularly OTN switching, is benefiting from a rise in investment in coherent core networks," says Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. "Many service providers rolling out 100G are using the opportunity to upgrade their optical switching infrastructure. In the metro, investment is rapidly rotating away from legacy SONET/SDH to packet-optical transport systems that combine optical and Ethernet circuit switching in the same chassis."

North America represents the biggest market for OTN gear overall, while China leads in OTN switching deployments, Infonetics says. Infinera was enjoyed the most success last year in OTN switching in North America, despite only recognizing revenue in the last six months of the year.

On the packet-transport front, Tellabs and Fujitsu tied for the top market share position, thanks to their success with Verizon. Ciena, Cisco, and Alcatel-Lucent rounded out the rest of the Top 5.

Looking ahead, Infonetics expects the OTN equipment market to top $13 billion in 2017.

Infonetics' biannual OTN and packet optical report covers worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts through 2017, analysis, and trends for OTN transport and switching hardware, including metro edge and metro regional port revenue forecasts by type and speed.

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