Compact modular optical hardware is being used in more network applications than ever before, according to the latest Optical Applications Report from market research firm Cignal AI. The report finds that almost 30% of North American optical hardware shipments are mow in compact modular format, which was first used by cloud operators for data center interconnect applications but now includes many other operators and applications.
Market share leaders include the Ciena Waveserver, Infinera CX and Groove, and Cisco 1000 series.
“Network applications for the compact modular form factor have expanded well beyond the original data center interconnect deployments,” said Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst for Optical Hardware at Cignal AI. “Applications now include traditional telco networks, metro and long haul deployments, and even some early trials for subsea deployment. We expect this spending trend to increase in 2019 as new compact modular products come to market from a variety of vendors.”
Some highlights from Cignal AI:
- Compact modular hardware sales exceeded $275 million in Q1 and are tracking to exceed $1 billion in revenue this year.
- Growth was most pronounced in North America this quarter, where it accounted for almost 30% of the entire optical market and is expected to continue advancing through 2023.
- Ciena expanded its dominance in compact modular with over 50% market share in Q1. The combined Infinera/Coriant held on to second place despite declining sales.
- Acacia AC1200-based platforms are expected to have an impact starting next quarter. Cisco compact modular sales paused in Q1 in anticipation of the NCS1004 platform.
- Almost 500k physical coherent ports have shipped in the last 12 months. Currently, over 70% of coherent ports are shipped by the top five vendors in the market.
- After a 2018 recovery year, long haul port shipments are starting to pick up. Metro growth is advancing at a similar pace, as next-generation coherent enables an upgrade from 100Gbps.
- Packet OTN growth is slowing. New deployments are limited to China and parts of APAC as networks in other regions evolve away from the packet OTN architecture.