Shipments of coherent 100G ports for metro regional optical networks grew 145% year-on-year in 2014 and will grow another 118% in 2015, forecasts market research firm IHS.
Led by massive purchases in China from China Mobile, 2014 was a banner year for 100G port shipments. "Adoption of 100G coherent technology has surged, first in long-haul networks and now becoming a material part of metro networks," says Andrew Schmitt, research director for carrier transport networking. "The expansion of 100G into new markets was the catalyst for our '100G+ Coherent Optical Equipment Ports' report," he adds.
Most 100G coherent technology deployed in 2014 was for long-haul applications, but metro regional (<600km) and metro access (<80km) applications will start ramping in 2016. "100G is poised to explode in 2016 as new equipment built specifically for the metro reaches the market, allowing 100G technology to economically reach new portions of the network such as metro edge and metro regional," Schmitt says.
IHS notes that 100G market share is concentrated in a small group of players: Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Huawei, Infinera and ZTE. The only potential catalyst for shifts will come from deployment in shorter-reach metro and data-center applications - the next growth vector for 100G, the market reseach firm believes.
In addition, sometime in 2017-2018, 100G coherent will make another quantum jump, displacing 10G in the 80km or less metro-access market, IHS concludes.
