100 Gbps, metro WDM will drive market to $63B by 2020, says research firm

Service providers' ongoing moves to replace legacy SONET gear to accommodate the growth of higher speed fixed broadband and data center interconnection will drive up WDM equipment shipments to $63 billion between 2016 and 2020. Dell'Oro Group notes that this revenue amount will be more than 40 percent greater than the WDM market revenues obtained across the past five year period, 2011 through 2015.

Within the broader WDM growth trend, providers are migrating from 100 Gbps to 200 and 400 Gbps. The research firm said shipments of the higher Gbps wavelength speeds will grow at a five-year compounded annual growth rate surpassing 100 percent.

Another key segment will be the metro, where applications are expected to drive most of the WDM market's growth through 2020. Some of the drivers of WDM metro deployment include upgrading to higher wavelength speeds such as 200 Gbps, replacing legacy systems to accommodate higher speed fixed broadband, and interconnecting enterprise data centers. Release