ROADM WSS market to top 20pc growth through 2015

BOSTON, USA: NEW YORK, USA: Sales of (wavelength selective switch) WSS components used for Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) optical network hardware and ROADM subsystems more than doubled in 2010 over 2009.

Infonetics Research forecasts strong revenue growth through at least 2015, with the market growing at a 20 per cent CAGR.

Also Read: Huge shift in carrier plans for optical switching: Survey

The WDM ROADM optical equipment market is the fastest growing segment of the optical transport equipment business, outstripping the growth of the overall WDM optical market and taking share from the declining Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET/SDH) Synchronous Digital Hierarchy market

"WSS unit growth will actually outstrip revenue growth due to price reductions and an eventual shift to smaller degree counts as ROADMs are deployed further toward the edges of networks. Carriers large and small continue to embrace ROADMs as a way to lower lifetime capex," explains Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst, optical, Infonetics Research.

Within the Search Results Wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) ROADM space, the key component is the wavelength selective switch (WSS), which allows wavelength route provisioning to become dynamic and protection switching to take place at the optical layer rather than the electrical layer.

Moreover, in 2010, WSS component revenue as a share of overall WDM ROADM equipment revenue grew to 13 per cent from seven per cent in 2009 and is expected to climb to 15 per cent by 2015.

The huge increase in ROADM WSS sales in 2010 was due to a massive shift towards higher degree counts, as well as unit volume growth that outstripped the growth of the end equipment market. With demand outstripping supply, the average selling price (ASP) of WSS components actually increased in 2010

Finisar and JDSU are neck-and-neck in the ROADM WSS component revenue market share race, with Finisar edging past JDSU for the first time in 2010.