Led by the long-haul segment, sales of WDM gear set a revenue record of $2.6 billion, according to a new quarterly report from Dell'Oro Group. The market research firm says the figure represented a spike of 10% versus the year-ago quarter.

"The WDM market growth isn't slowing down," said Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport research at Dell'Oro. "The recent second quarter growth of 10% marked the 18th consecutive quarter that the WDM market has increased. Furthermore, as an indication of the market's strength, 12 of those 18 quarters grew at double-digit percentage rates."

DWDM long-haul equipment revenue jumped 18% versus 2Q13, while WDM metro equipment sales grew 4% year-over-year, according to the report.

"A number of factors are driving the strong growth of WDM, the most significant of which is the global adoption and penetration of 100-Gbps wavelengths in long haul applications," explained Yu. "It's also one of the reasons why DWDM long haul equipment revenue growth rates have been outpacing that of WDM metro equipment for the past two years."

The Dell’Oro Group’s "Optical Transport Quarterly Report" covers DWDM long-haul terrestrial, WDM metro, multiservice multiplexers (SONET/SDH), optical switch, and optical packet platforms. It provides manufacturers' revenue, average selling prices, and unit shipments (by speed including 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps, and greater than 100 Gbps).

For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.