Reordering and Rethinking the Ethernet Roadmap

EUGENE, OR--(Marketwired - February 05, 2015) - LightCounting, a leading optical communications market research company, today released a research note and a semi-annual market forecast database preview. Never before has there been so much happening on the Ethernet standards roadmap and the research note details some of these recent changes. It provides commentary on the progress of Ethernet standards roadmap and includes guidance for manufacturers of optical modules. The market forecast preview details the latest shipment data and revised projections for 2015 and beyond, based on data collected from more than twenty leading optical component and module vendors.

"Within a data center, there are two very important drivers: first, the speed at the access or server layer, and secondly, the need for conservation of pins on switching ASICs. Until early 2014, it was assumed that data center builders needing more server bandwidth than 10G allowed would jump to 40G," stated Dale Murray, Principal Analyst, LightCounting Market Research. "This is not necessarily the case and much has changed at the server-level and across the data center. This change can be largely attributed to the major cloud and Web 2.0 data center architects."

Despite initial confusion and the uncertainly created by 25G Ethernet proposals, it is becoming clear that the availability of 25G Ethernet on servers will accelerate deployments of 100G Ethernet optical connectivity in data centers. The changes are explained in the preview of the market forecast database. The market forecast database and report will be released at the end of February.

RESEARCH NOTE HIGHLIGHTS

• The Ethernet Roadmap projected through 2020
• The reasoning behind the "fast-track" of the IEEE 25GbE standard
• Where do we go from here once 25G servers are shipping? What happens to 40G?
• What faster servers mean to switching fabrics?
• Will enterprise have a need for new optical data rates?
• An explanation of the types of optical modules expected with these changes

RECENT RESEARCH

• The Active Optical Cable Market Analysis & Forecast Report (December 2014)
• Mobile Fronthaul Optics - $1 Billion Opportunity or Flash in the Pan (November 2014)

COMING SOON: SEMI-ANNUAL MARKET FORECAST (February 2015)
This report analyses the industry supply chain from optical component vendor service provider to develop a four-year forecast for sales of optical components and modules.

The report includes:

• Analysis of trends in capital expenditures of major global carriers and their implications for network infrastructure expansion worldwide.
• Review of annual sales of optical components and modules based on confidential sales information provided by at least twenty leading. manufacturers and interviews with their customers and suppliers.
• Detailed forecast for annual shipments and sales for more than 100 product categories of optoelectronic modules including transceivers, transponders, line cards and WSS, employed in WDM, SONET/SDH, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, FTTx, wireless backhaul and optical interconnect applications.
• The forecast database includes annual sales data for the last three years and forecast for the next four years.

This report will provide an update to the July 2014 Market Forecast Report and Database.

ABOUT LIGHTCOUNTING MARKET RESEARCH
LightCounting is a leading optical communications market research company, offering semiannual market updates, forecasts, and state-of-the-industry reports based on its analysis of primary research with dozens of leading module, component, and system vendors as well as service providers and other users. LightCounting is the optical communications market's first choice source for the accurate, detailed, and relevant information necessary for doing business in today's highly competitive environment. For more information, visit: www.LightCounting.com or follow us on Twitter at @LightCounting.