WDM ROADM optical network equipment market reached $4 billion in 2012, up 10%

Date: 17/06/2013
Market research firm Infonetics Research has reported The global WDM reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) optical network equipment market (not components) reached $4 billion in 2012, up 10% year-over-year

“It’s been a tough road for WSS components these past couple of years, with quarterly revenue down nearly 50% from the highs two years ago,” notes Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. “But we believe there’s some modest growth ahead tied to the deployment of new 100G coherent systems and the rollout of colorless, directionless and contentionless (CDC) ROADMs.”

Schmitt adds: “While the level of interest in CDC ROADMs is very high from vendors, the current pricing premium given to this architecture by equipment vendors will slow adoption.”

Other highlights:
ROADM WSS component revenue declined more than a quarter in 2012
In the 2nd half of 2012, sales of ROADM WSS components stabilized while recording healthy unit growth
The leading vendors in the WDM ROADM optical hardware market in 2012 include Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Ciena, and Fujitsu