The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) recorded $6.7 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16), an increase of 3.5% year over year, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker.
Some highlights from IDC:
- For the full year 2016, the market recorded $24.4 billion in revenue, for a full year growth rate of 2.4%.
- The worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market recorded $3.87 billion in revenue in 4Q16, increasing 1.5% on a year-over-year basis.
- For the full year 2016, this market finished at $14.58 billion, an increase of 1.3% over 2015. These growth rates are according to results published in
- 10Gb Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) revenue increased 3.4% year over year in 4Q16, coming in at $2.42 billion, while 10Gb Ethernet switch port shipments grew 18.9% year over year with over 11.7 million ports shipped in 4Q16. For the full year 2016, 10Gb Ethernet revenues increased 1.5% over 2015, with port shipments increasing 19.4%. ‘
- 40Gb Ethernet revenue came in at $696.6 million in 4Q16, the same as in 4Q15, while port shipments fell just below 1.4 million, representing a decrease of 1.0% year over year. For the full year 2016, 40Gb Ethernet revenues grew 19.6% over 2015, with shipments increasing by 59.0%.
- The worldwide enterprise and service provider router market grew 1.5% on a year-over-year basis in 4Q16 based on a 2.0% increase in the larger service provider segment and a 0.3% decrease in enterprise routing. For the full year, the combined market increased 1.3%, upon a 0.9% increase in the SP segment and 2.4% growth in the enterprise segment.
“As the Ethernet switching market reaches a greater level of maturity from 1GbE to 10GbE, it is increasingly characterized by customers moving more quickly to higher speeds at lower port costs, especially in the datacenter,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure at IDC. “While overall port shipments continue to grow, it is the revenues from the fastest speeds that continue to buoy the market.”