Optical components business set to explode

The market for optical networking components is expected to grow from approximately US $2.8 billion in 2007 to $7.9 billion in 2012.

The market for optical networking components will grow from approximately US $2.8 billion in 2007 to $7.9 billion in 2012, according to newly released forecasts from CIR.

The forecasts will be available as part of CIR's new report on optical components that will be released after OFC 2007.

According to CIR, the optical components business will experience a significant ramp up in revenues over the next few years.

Bringing optics closer to the customer is enabling volume opportunities for components manufacturers that simply have not existed in the past.

Optical solutions are in some cases, the only means available to building cost effective, high bandwidth access and enterprise networks.

The report notes that 10 Gigabit Ethernet deployments will be largely optical, whereas previous Ethernet versions have been dominated by copper media.

CIR projects the value of lasers used in Ethernet networks to grow to $1.2 billion by 2012 from just over $300 million this year.

PONs are becoming the technology of choice for residential access networks.

CIR expects more large carriers to adopt ambitious PON deployment strategies in the next few years.

As a result, the firm believes that the market for PON lasers and detectors will exceed $800 million by 2012 and the value of PON splitters will almost double to around $450 million in that same time period.

Carriers are increasingly adopting agile WDM technology in their core transport networks.

CIR expects that this will cause a rapid expansion of demand for ROADMs, WDM filters and tunable lasers.

According to CIR's estimates, tunable lasers will be the fastest growing major segment of the components market, reaching almost $1 billion by 2012.

CIR believes that these factors will create a min-boom in the optical components market over the next three years, but the market will then settle down to a very healthy 15 % annual growth.

CIR's new optical components report analyses and quantifies all of the key market opportunities in the optical components business over the next five years.

It also addresses issues that will impact 40 and 100Gbit/s networking and the renaissance of optical integration.

Detailed volume and value forecasts are provided of fixed and tunable lasers and transmitters, detectors and receivers, modulators, amplifiers, filters and waveguides, splitters, optical switches, ROADMs and dispersion compensation products.

For each of these areas the report provides granular market projections, by network and product type.

The report also provides an analysis of current strategies being adopted by key players in the optical components space.

The report will be essential reading for anyone assessing the opportunities in this re-emerging market.

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