Infonetics has also increased its long-term forecast for the market from $37.5 billion to $40.2 billion by 2015.
Service provider investment in carrier Ethernet equipment continues to outpace overall telecoms capex, which is expected to be up 6% in 2011. The market is driven primarily by the move to packet-based IP next-generation networks and growing consumer, business and mobile backhaul traffic. The carrier move to packet depends heavily on IP, MPLS and Ethernet, as operators gradually employ the use of Ethernet transport instead of SONET/SDH.
Some markets segments are growing faster while others are slowing faster than anticipated. The largest downward changes are in the Ethernet microwave and VDSL equipment segments, and the largest upward change is in the hot Carrier Ethernet switch segment.
Infonetics also notes vendor Cisco is leading the carrier Ethernet switch market with 45% of global revenue with no close competitors. Two thirds of all investment made in the total carrier Ethernet market is made in routers, carrier Ethernet switches and optical gear.
Infonetic’s Carrier Ethernet report is mainly focussed on the use and penetration of, and investment in Carrier Ethernet products deployed across service provider networks.
