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.
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.
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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.
The report, entitled 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.
Source:Lightwave
See also: 400G: Why now?