The worldwide market for electronic- and optical-switch-fabric products will grow from $951 million this year to $1.5 billion in 2008, reveals a new report from CIR (Charlottesville, VA). With enterprise spending driving the market forward, manufacturers of devices used within Ethernet and multiservice boxes should see good growth opportunities over the forecast period, say analysts.
According to the report, the most important sector of the switch-device/fabric business now lies in the electronics segment. While the installed base of standard SONET/SDH add/drop multiplexers and crossconnects is in no danger of decline, CIR does not see new business revenues coming from this sector. Instead, system manufacturers should stake their future on a transition to next-generation system deployment by the carriers and a resurgence in IT infrastructure deployments that will entail both cell- and packet-switching capability.
CIR believes that 2005 may be the year that service providers and corporate networking managers will begin to buy next-generation gear with high-data-rate ports and multiservice capabilities-exactly the kind of environment for which the latest switch fabrics are intended. Because the switch fabric is a major factor in determining product life, OEMs will be looking for switching technology platforms that are scalable and easily adaptable as protocol requirements change.
The report, "Electronic and Optical Switching Fabric Forecasts and Market Share Analysis," examines switch fabrics by type, networking element, data rate, capacity, and network segment. For more information, visit the company's Website at www.cir-inc.com.