100G ports a $6 billion market by 2017 says Infonetics

Yes, 100G really is taking off. The market for such ports will be worth more than $6 billion by 2017, according to a new report from market research firm Infonetics Research. Service providers will do most of the spending Infonetics says in its latest 1G/10G/40G/100G Networking Ports report.

The growth in demand for 100-Gbps ports mirrors a aggregate upward trend for optical port demand, say Infonetics analysts. "Overall network port shipments and revenue are on a steady upward path as buyers shift to higher bandwidth, but the real action is in high-speed (10G+) port shipments, which we expect to increase almost ten-fold by 2017," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.

"For optical ports, 10G will remain the highest-volume speed, but 100G represents the area of the most dramatic growth,” adds Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics and co-author of the report. “Service providers have indicated to us that by 2016, the majority of spending in long-haul networks will be on 100G."

Overall service providers and enterprises spent $37 billion on 1G, 10G, 40G, and 100G network ports in 2012, an increase of 4% from 2011. Infonetics believes this figure will increase to $52 billion in 2017, driven by growing network traffic and the need to constantly upgrade networks. The total number of 1G, 10G, 40G, and 100G network ports shipped this year is expected to top 430 million, a significant increase over the 146 million shipped 5 years ago.

The 1G/10G/40G/100G Networking Ports report explores the demand for 1-, 10-, 40-, and 100-Gbps optical and Ethernet ports, the size of the market and how fast each segment is growing, and which technologies and speeds are being adopted on various types of enterprise and service provider equipment. The biannual networking ports report tracks port revenue, port shipments, and port pricing for enterprise routers, Ethernet switches, and other enterprise communications equipment, as well as service provider IP edge routers, IP core routers, Carrier Ethernet switches, CPE, broadband access, WDM and SONET/SDH optical, and other service provider communications equipment.