Operators confirm transition to OTN switching is underway

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its new OTN Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, for which its analysts interviewed 21 service providers from around the world that together represent over a third of global telecom revenue and capex.

The survey set out to answer questions such as how much Optical Transport Network switching will be used in metro and core nodes, what size these switches need to be, how they will be managed, size requirements of OTN switch fabrics, whether ODU-flex is an important feature, and in general, the level of carrier interest in OTN and to what degree it is already deployed as a transport technology.

"The results of our OTN Deployment Strategies survey show that OTN switching will play a leading and significant role in the regional and long haul networks of most, but not all carriers," stated Andrew Schmitt, Principal Analyst (Optical), Infonetics Research. "There is no agreement (nor will there likely ever be) on whether layer 2 switching features should be combined into OTN hardware, but a few carriers we thought were in the 'strict OSI segregationist' camp now show interest in embracing unified L0+L1+L2 solutions-a bit of a shock!"

Schmitt added, "Most notable is the fact that about three-quarters of the service providers we interviewed plan to deploy OTN switching-this sample represents 90% of all respondent capex, which means most optical dollars will be spent by carriers with OTN switching."

According to the research firm current and projected use of metro OTN ports is increasing.
Wavelength efficiency remains the key application for OTN, but service providers are rolling out more sophisticated management control planes as part of OTN switching deployments.

Infonetics' recent OTN Hardware Market Outlook report shows that OTN switching and transport hardware together made up 45% of global optical equipment spending in the first half of 2011, and is expected to grow to 70% of the total by 2015, or $10.6 billion, with OTN switching growing much faster than OTN transport.