According to Infonetics Research, the carrier ethernet equipment market garnered revenues of $34 billion in 2012 registering a decline of three per cent over the previous year.
The spending on IP edge routers reached $9.4 billion in 2012. Asia Pacific currently accounts for the majority of the carrier ethernet equipment revenue, followed by Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The research firm estimates the carrier ethernet market to reach $39 billion in 2017. By 2017, North America will be ahead of EMEA to become the second largest carrier ethernet market. The carrier ethernet equipment ports will reach 95 million units worldwide by 2017, with 10 gigabit ethernet outpacing the growth of 1 gigabit ethernet.
Infonetics Research expects spending on legacy technologies like synchronous optical networking/synchronous digital hierarchy and wavelength-division multiplexing to decline. Going forward, investment in IP routers, carrier ethernet switches, and ethernet access devices will continue to increase. The investment will be driven by organisations moving towards IP-based next generation networks and growth in video traffic.
