In the report "Optical Networking: SONET/SDH/Next-Generation Equipment" KMI Research expects sales to grow from USD1bn in 2001 to USD18bn in 2006, as sales of traditional SONET/SDH fall from USD17.4bn in 2000 to USD4.6bn.

Trends increasing adoption over the past three years include the need for better aggregation equipment at the network edge, the migration of optical solutions to access networks, cost-competitiveness of next-generation equipment, the move to adopt more efficient technologies, and usage of existing deployments.

The digital cross-connect (DXC) market will fall from USD4.0bn in 2000 to USD2.6bn in 2006, as next-generation equipment enables more flexible platforms and switching capabilities and emerging technologies such as optical cross-connects and super-band switches to make in-roads.

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