“Bandwidth growth is expected to be driven by the increasing use of bandwidth for mobile and internet, including traffic generated by video, gaming, and peer-to-peer applications, triple-play applications, traffic between data centers, and traffic between data centers and enterprises,” notes industry analyst Prathima Bommakanti of Frost & Sullivan. “The evolution of Gigabit Ethernet network access is expected to drive the growth of 10Gb Ethernet in metropolitan networks.”
The market is being driven by converged data and applications such as data, voice, audio, gaming, and social networking websites. According to the IEEE P802.3ba specification, 100G and 40G are well-aligned with the anticipated need for increased bandwidth due to multiplay deployments
“A positive trend for the market will be the growing need for surveillance and security, which will drive the demand for network analytics and, therefore, Gigabit Ethernet test equipment,” Bommakanti adds.
Despite being far from a mature market, the commoditization of 1 GbE pricing continues to erode total revenue per port. This will pose a significant challenge to the market outlook.
“Time to market will emerge as a critical aspect of product differentiation,” Bommakanti adds. “As products become standardized, they enable interoperability and, at the same time, create a competitive environment.”
This is driving the need for significant R&D investments. Vendors continue to invest in R&D to stay ahead of their competitors, even while keeping abreast of service providers' infrastructure upgrades and the launch of new services.
Factors such as price, geographic coverage, customer service, and multi-functional product capabilities also play an important role in ensuring competitive success.
The “European Gigabit Ethernet Test Equipment Market” report is part of the “Test & Measurement Growth Partnership Service” program, which also includes research on the following markets: global Gigabit Ethernet test equipment markets, global xDSL test equipment markets, global wireless test equipment markets, and global fiber optic test equipment markets. All research included in each subscription provides details on market opportunities and industry trends based on extensive interviews with market participants.
