Network service providers aren’t deploying packet-based optical transport systems (P-OTS) as fast as they anticipated a year ago, according to new market research from IHS Infonetics Research. Seventy-eight percent of network service providers worldwide surveyed by IHS Infonetics said they have or plan to install P-OTS by year-end 2016, down eight percentage points as compared to a year ago.
Greater focus on data center interconnections and the incorporation of virtualized functions that can help providers with their efforts to converge multiple networks may underlie reduction in demand for P-OTS, the market research provider posits.
Packet Optical Transport Adoption
According to the IHS Infonetics Packet-Optical Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey:
- Respondents’ percentage of installed P-OTS equipment is about the same as it was in 2014, indicating that little incremental expansion took place in the past 12 months, and deployment is taking place slower than last year’s survey participants anticipated;
- Carriers participating in the survey still feel strongly that P-OTS equipment reduces the complexity of the network, and more feel the right equipment is now available;
- Almost all respondents have plans to deploy transport software-defined networking (SDN), but more than half don’t see this taking place until 2017 or later.
