Metro optical market worth $9 billion by 2018 says Dell'Oro

Metro optical transport equipment revenues are forecast to reach $9 billion by 2018, according to a newly released optical transport forecast report by market research firm Dell’Oro Group. WDM equipment sales are expected to drive the majority of the metro optical market’s growth for the next five years and comprise the vast majority of revenue by 2018.

“The metro market is in a state of transition as it moves away from SONET/SDH multiplexers and towards high capacity transport equipment,” said Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport market research at Dell’Oro Group. “We believe the result of the network transition will be the continuous decline of SONET/SDH equipment sales at an average annual rate of over 30 percent a year. In place of this equipment, service providers will shift their focus to higher-capacity packet-friendly systems such as optical packet-switches and WDM metro.”

Dell’Oro predicts the market demand for optical packet-switch to grow at a 3% compounded annual growth rate until 2018 and for WDM metro to grow at an average annual rate of 9%.

The Dell’Oro Group's "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 multiplexers, and optical switch equipment.

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