Disaggregated WDM moving into cable

According to the Dell'Oro Group, disaggregated WDM systems revenue grew 142% year-over-year in 1Q18. This high growth was driven by the adoption of disaggregated WDM systems expanding beyond web-scale companies and data center interconnect (DCI).

"Small form factor, disaggregated WDM systems were developed for the hyperscalers," said Jimmy Yu, vice president at Dell'Oro. "And for a long period of time, they were the only large purchasers. However, now we see a growing number of buyers that include cable operators and wholesale carriers. We think this is just the start of a good thing and expect demand for these disaggregated systems will continue to grow at a hyper-scale rate."

Other findings indicate:

• Disaggregated WDM Systems revenue reached an annualized revenue run-rate of $800 million in 1Q18 and is projected to surpass $925 million for full-year 2018.
• Ciena and Infinera are the top two vendors in this category of products with a combined market share of approximately 60% for the trailing four-quarter period ending 1Q18.