Explosive demand for 100G WDM wavelengths will help drive strong growth in the overall WDM market in the coming years, according to new research from the Dell’Oro Group. The firm’s latest optical transport market forecast suggests WDM market revenue will grow at a 10 per cent CAGR over the next five years to $13bn in 2017.

While demand for both 40G and 100G wavelengths is strong, Dell’Oro predicted 100G wavelength shipments will experience 75 per cent CAGR over the next five years. By 2017, about 60 per cent of the WDM capacity shipments will be with 100Gbit/s wavelengths, the firm said. It added that the WDM market remains essentially strong despite other industry softness because of carriers’ ongoing appetite for more network capacity.

FierceTelecom: Dell'Oro sees WDM market hitting $13 billion by 2017; TelecomTV content partner.