* Dell'Oro Group on routers and optical gear
Last time, we looked at the Dell’Oro Group’s newly released figures on the markets for LAN switches, carrier Ethernet and wireless networks. This time – in keeping with the new newsletter name of LANs & Routers and our somewhat expanded focus – let’s look at the research firm’s figures on routers and optical transport.
These figures are interesting this time around because sales of service-provider routers jumped in the third quarter of this year – up 30% over the same period the year before, to $1.5 billion.
Most of the strength of this market is in edge routers, which grew twice as fast as core routers and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the market. Dell’Oro says service providers are investing in edge equipment to prepare for VoIP and IPTV.
Cisco still dominates edge routers, with 55% of the market and year-over-year growth at 33%. Juniper, the No. 2 vendor, dipped slightly, but Alcatel surged 169% and Redback Networks rose 105%, according to Dell’Oro.
Meanwhile, the market for wavelength division multiplexing equipment grew to almost $900 million in the third quarter, partly because European sales of the equipment were up 40% year-over-year. Dell’Oro noted increasing interest in WDM systems that have reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers, or ROADMs. These help service providers deliver broadband and video to homes and Ethernet to businesses.
Dell’Oro also reported that sales of carrier-grade media gateways, led by Nortel and Cisco, grew 12% in the third quarter, driving IP telephony carrier market growth. The firm says Nortel recaptured the top position in this market after relinquishing it to Cisco briefly in the second quarter.
