The survey was designed to measure carriers' familiarity with optical equipment suppliers, the vendors installed and under evaluation, essential equipment features, vendor selection criteria, and the most highly regarded suppliers in optical networking. Infonetics says the survey respondents represented nearly a third of worldwide telecom capex. Vendors named in the study included ADVA Optical Networking, Alcatel-Lucent, BTI Systems, Ciena, Cisco, Coriant, Cyan, ECI, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Infinera, NEC, Tellabs, Transmode, and ZTE.
Ciena handily won the top overall spot in Infonetics’ survey, with first-place rankings in each of the optical categories of the survey: optical transmission and switching, metro edge packet-optical transport systems (P-OTS), metro regional P-OTS, and optical control plane. Meanwhile, reflecting its overall success this year (see “Infinera forecasts profit and a metro platform”), Infinera doubled its awareness scores from last year’s survey. Coriant – the former optical networking group of Nokia Siemens Networks that Marlin Equity Partners is attempting to shape into an optical communications powerhouse (through the acquisition of companies such as Tellabs) – also climbed the charts compared to last year, Infonetics says.
Interestingly, 100G dropped sharply in importance as an evaluation criterion among vendors surveyed, perhaps reflecting the maturity of the technology or the fact that carriers have already decided whose approach they like. "Multi-layer support and control plane technology are rising in importance with service providers when making vendor decisions," Schmitt notes.
Product reliability and total cost of ownership ranked as the most important criteria when selecting new vendors, the report states.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
