Frost & Sullivan Adds Report: Trend toward High-Speed Bandwidth Spurs Growth of the SONET/SDH Test Equipment Market

With the growing use of IP television (IPTV) and VoIP, there is an urgent need for greater, 40-gigabit bandwidth and higher speeds and this, in turn, expects to boost the market for scalable, enhanced synchronous optical networking/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) test equipment, Frost & Sullivan said in its latest report, "World SONET/SDH, Next-generation SONET, OTN, and Jitter/Wander Test Equipment Markets."

Frost & Sullivan also said in its report that it finds that market earned revenues of over $156.4 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach $199.8 million in 2014.

The new 40-gigabit Ethernet, jitter testing, and integrated testing solutions all offer great opportunities to vendors within this market. However, at present, only SDH and optical transport network (OTN) can offer 40-gigabit bandwidth, which is in demand for router-to-router connections.

The growth in Ethernet remains another factor that drives bandwidth expansion in SONET/SDH, whether it is traditional, next generation, or OTN, the Ethernet will likely be delivered over SONET. SONET is also retained because of its quality, reliability, and performance, which has yet to be replicated even with the advances in Ethernet technology. Telecom operators have invested substantially in SONET infrastructure and are unlikely to shift to Ethernet in the near future.

The greater bandwidth also poses a technological challenge to the industry, as the industry has to develop scalable equipment to meet the new needs. The adoption of SONET/SDH expects to generate considerable demand for scalable test equipment.

"One of the most difficult challenges for test and measurement vendors in the SONET/SDH test equipment market is to provide an integrated solution to conduct the various tests required during the installation and maintenance of a network," says Frost & Sullivan Program Leader Olga Yashkova. "This integrated test solution needs to offer a high price-to-performance ratio to end users."

Despite the challenges, potential exists for SONET/SDH test equipment. One growth area arises from the increased deployment of multi-service transport products in metro and core networks.

"Major service providers are continuing massive traditional SONET/SDH deployments due to the proven reliability of the technology and large network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) are in the process of establishing, or have established, their bases in the Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific regions," says Yashkova. "These regions are expected to present increasing demand for SONET/SDH test equipment."

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