Dec 31 2013
Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its 2013 Routing, IP Edge, and Packet-Optical Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, which focuses on 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GE) adoption and pricing expectations, usage of packet-optical transport systems (P-OTS), and the architectural changes occurring to metro networks in next-generation central offices (NG-COs).
"Our latest routing strategies study confirms that major changes are underway in carrier networks, with 75% of the operators we talked to using P-OTS (packet-optical transport systems) now or planning to by 2016." - Michael Howard, Co-founder and Principal Analyst, Infonetics Research (Graphic: Infonetics Research)
ANALYST NOTE
“Service providers and vendors have been talking about how to use more optical transport with essential packet functionality to serve as the transport vehicle for packet traffic as an alternative to routers,” explains Michael Howard, Infonetics Research’s co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks. “Our latest routing strategies study confirms that major changes are underway in carrier networks, with 75% of the operators we talked to using P-OTS (packet-optical transport systems) now or planning to by 2016.”
Howard adds: “Carriers are very interested in 100GE as well. We asked at what price they would buy 100GE for different applications — data center connections, aggregation, core, etc. — and by when. Some operators are already paying 15 times the price of 10GE for 100GE because they need it now, and we found that some operators are willing to pay more for 100GE for specific parts of their networks; for example, over a third are willing to pay a premium for routes with low fiber availability. Still, most carriers will wait until 100GE pricing comes down to 10 times 10GE or lower, so it behooves manufacturers to continue developments that lower the price of 100GE.”
ROUTING STRATEGIES SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Operators expect 100GE ports to grow from 5% of all their 10/40/100GE router port purchases in 2013 to 30% in 2015
- Due to the pressures of video, mobility, and cloud services, providers are re-architecting their metro networks by distributing a number of functions from a single central “super POP” to a number of large next-generation central offices (NG-COs) made up of 5 to 10 super COs in a metro area
- These distributed functions include broadband remote access servers (BRAS), content delivery networks (CDNs) and caching, deploying servers and storage in “mini data centers” for colocation and cloud services, and the ability to offer services (such as security) to residential and business customers using network functions virtualization (NFV) with software-defined network (SDN) service chaining