Many companies now ship 100G ports, and about half of all vendors expect to ship 400G ports by mid-2017, says Heavy Reading Components Insider.

May 22, 2015

2 Min Read

NEW YORK -- Most telecom and network equipment manufacturers are now shipping products with 100G ports, and about half of all vendors expect to offer 400G ports by the middle of 2017, according to a new survey of suppliers by Heavy Reading Components Insider (www.heavyreading.com/commchip), a paid research service of Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

100G Components User Survey: Market Outlook analyzes the current and projected use of 100G optical modules and PHY semiconductor components by equipment vendors, based on the results of an exclusive worldwide survey of engineers, designers, product managers and sales/marketing personnel that work for telecom and networking system equipment manufacturers and suppliers. The responses to our survey make it clear that these devices are critical components in many types of networking equipment, from long-haul to the access edge, data center and core of the network.

For a complete list of suppliers profiled in this report, click here.

"The rapidly growing data bandwidth from consumer broadband, mobile data and highly connected businesses is driving demand for 100G network connections," says Simon Stanley, research analyst for Heavy Reading and author of the report. "Service providers are installing 100G connections in data center, enterprise, metro and long-haul networks, and many systems have four or more 100G interfaces per line card and use switch chipsets that support up to 32 100G interfaces per device."

Demand for 100G networking is driven by user demand, Stanley says. "Until now, 40G interfaces and multiple 10G interfaces have provided an alternative to 100 G that has been more cost effective and readily available," he adds. "The next steps are the development of lower cost implementations as 100G volumes grow through 2016/17 and the development of 400G solutions."

Key findings of 100G Components User Survey: Market Outlook include the following:

  • More than 60 percent of companies are shipping systems with 100G ports

    • 400G is growing, with 50 percent expecting to ship 400G ports by mid-2017

    • FPGAs are catching up to merchant silicon and ASICs for 100G PHY devices

    • 100GBase-LR4 is the leading 100GE port type, followed by 100GBase-SR10

    • CFP and CFP2 are the most important optical module form factors today

    • CFP4 and QSFP28 will replace CFP and CFP2 for data center and enterprise over the next two years

    • CFP and CFP2 ACO are replacing 168-pin for metro

    • Finisar is still the leading optical module vendor in terms of usage and quality

    • Performance is the dominant factor in selecting 100G optical modules

      100G Components User Survey: Market Outlook is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (6 issues per year) to Heavy Reading Components Insider, priced at $1,499. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

      Heavy Reading

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