The global optical components (OC) market is expected to grow 8 percent in 2014 from $6.8 billion in 2013, said Ovum.
In 2013, the OC market increased 3 percent from 2012. Ovum said main growth drivers in 2013 were data communication sales driven by large data centers, 100G coherent demand, and unexpected growth in sales of transceivers for fiber-to-the-antenna applications for 4G build-outs.
“Demand for 100G metro–optimized transmission gear will begin shipments and ramp in 2015. Multiple component vendors introduced components and pluggable optics for 100G DWDM in anticipation. Opportunities are also emerging in the data center for high-speed interconnects,” said Daryl Inniss, practice leader for Telecoms Components at Ovum.
In the first quarter of 2014, the optical components market declined 1 percent sequentially and grew 7 percent compared to the year-ago period. New lower telecom prices were one of the main reasons for the marginal growth in OC on quarter-on-quarter basis.
Ovum said demand for 100G components for coherent transmission in WAN, datacom transceivers at 10 and 40G, and fiber-to-the-antenna transceivers is expected to continue. Traffic continues to increase, and high-speed optics being used in new applications are helping to drive the market forward.
The WAN OC segment, which includes components in telecom carriers’ core and metro networks, the largest segment, will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 percent to $7 billion in 2019. Demand for 100G components and modules is a big driver for growth in WAN. Ovum expects strong demand for pluggable coherent transceivers in 2015.
Datacom will be expanding at a 16 percent CAGR to reach $4.2 billion in 2019 — led by demand for 10 and 40G components in the early years and then 100G in the later years driven by the availability of server ports supporting data rates greater than 10G.
Access — including CATV, FTTx and transceivers for the fiber-to-the-antenna application — will decline at 2 percent CAGR to $1.1 billion in 2019. The decline will be driven by the FTTx application, where volumes are nearly constant through the forecast period but price declines are projected to pull down revenues.
