The global passive optical networking market is on track to grow to over $7 billion by 2022, driven by adoption of next-generation PON technologies such as 10Gbps EPON, Dell'Oro predicts.
The market is on track to grow at a five-year CAGR of nearly 40% from 2017 to 2022, the research firm said.
Other next-generation PON technologies set to drive the strong growth for the segment include XGS-PON and NG-PON2.
“Where PON technologies are used for residential broadband services, 2.5 Gbps GPON will remain as the dominant technology due to its lower price and sufficient speeds. However, for a number of growing use cases such as business services and mobile backhaul, next-generation PON technologies have capacities and capabilities that current generation technologies lack,” Dell'Oro senior analyst Alam Tamboli explained.
He said 10 Gbps EPON is already seeing strong traction across China, noting that current generation PON has previously been widely deployed across the market.
“Shipments of XGS-PON and NG-PON2 remain small for now, but we anticipate that XGS-PON will grow more rapidly. XGS-PON and its 10 Gbps symmetric bandwidth should meet operators’ needs for business services and mobile backhaul,” he added.