Revenue from 10, 40 and 100 Gigabit optical transceivers sold into the enterprise and data-center markets grew 21% to $1.4bn in 2014, almost entirely due to increased 40G QSFP (quad small-form-factor pluggable) spending, according to the biannual report '10G/40G/100G Data Center Optics' from market research firm IHS Infonetics.
Data-center transceivers account for 65% of the overall (telecom and datacom) 10G/40G/100G optical transceiver market. But specifically, total 40G transceiver revenue grew 81% in second-half 2014 over second-half 2013.
"40G transceivers are ramping up hard as data centers deploy 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE), particularly as a high-density 10G interface via breakout cables," says Andrew Schmitt, research director for carrier transport networking at IHS Infonetics. "40G QSFP demand growth over single-mode fiber is primarily a result of large shipments to internet content providers Microsoft and Google," he adds.
Although 10G shipments in the data center continue to grow at healthy rates, they are being impacted by the growth of 40G interfaces used as high-density 10G interfaces. Meanwhile, worldwide revenue for client 10G modules was flat on year-over-year in 2014.
"The market for 100G data-center optics is accelerating, but it has yet to be turbocharged by widespread data-center deployment in the way 40G QSFP optics have," notes Schmitt. "This will change dramatically in 2016 as cheap 100G silicon reaches production and QSFP28 shipments surge as a result," he adds. "Next year is going to be huge for 100GbE."
IHS Infonetics expects that the datacom optical transceiver market will grow to over $2.1bn by 2019.
