400G optical transport market worth $528 million by 2019 says CIR

Communications Industry Researchers (CIR) has issued a new report that predicts the market for 400-Gbps optical transport systems will hit $528 million by 2019. The market research firm says this level of consumption will drive demand for the supporting optical components and silicon devices to nearly $195 million by the same year. The report, “400G, OTN and Next-Generation Transport: A Market and Technology Forecast,” covers OTN/WDM systems, packet optical transport platforms, and core routers in metro/regional and long-haul/submarine networks. Coverage of the supporting components describes the growing roles of DSPs, proprietary network processors, optical integration, and WDM superchannels. CIR sees the growing demands of mobile backhaul networks and changing traffic patterns overall as driving the need for 400G, particularly in metro/regional networks. The firm suggests that by 2019, carriers will spend $240 million on 400G metro/regional transport network equipment, only slightly less than the total that will go to long-haul applications. CIR expects that requirements for flexible capacity and provisioning will mean many of these 400-Gbps optical infrastructures will leverage software-defined network (SDN) concepts. At the component and chip level, CIR expects spending on network processors and DSP devices for 400G will reach around $47 million by 2019, and hit $95 million two years later. Nevertheless, systems houses will continue to leverage in-house expertise for many of “the critical chips.” The strategy will begin to increasingly extend to the optical components necessary for 400G, CIR believes; therefore, optical integration will be an increasing part of the systems vendor’s product design strategy. For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.