The OTN transport and switching equipment market grew 8% in 2012 to $7.3 billion and is expected to reach $13 billion by 2017, according to a new report from Infonetics.
“OTN spending, and particularly OTN switching, is benefiting from a rise in investment in coherent core networks,” explains Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. “Many service providers rolling out 100G are using the opportunity to upgrade their optical switching infrastructure. In the metro, investment is rapidly rotating away from legacy SONET/SDH to packet-optical transport systems that combine optical and Ethernet circuit switching in the same chassis.”
Some highlights of the report:
- The bulk of the growth comes from the OTN switching segment, up 46% in 2012 from 2011
- Having embraced OTN technology early, North America leads the world in overall OTN deployments, while China is the frontrunner in OTN switching deployments
- Infinera was #1 in OTN switching in North America in 2012, despite only recognizing revenue in the 2nd half of the year
- Sales of P-OTS gear climbed 7% in 2012, to $1.2 billion
- Tellabs and Fujitsu together hold the lion’s share of the P-OTS market as a result of their aggressive deployments at Verizon, while Ciena, Cisco, and Alcatel-Lucent remain in a tight 3-way horse race.
