ElectroniCast - Fiber Optic Circulator Market Forecast

The deployment of optical fiber in the metro/access, the continuing demand for upgrading networks to accommodate rapidly increasing bandwidth requirements, plus the need for additional monitoring and testing of the optical fiber networks will drive the steady consumption of fiber optic circulators (component-level optical circulators).

As terrestrial national backbone and undersea systems approaching Tb/s capacities, advanced fiber-optic components, such as fiber optic circulators, are key in enabling DWDM systems with narrow channel spacing to achieve the large numbers of channels required. The main application dynamics (drivers) are optical circulators used with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA), fiber optic sensor applications, dense WDM (DWDM), optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM), optical time domain reflectometers (OTDR fiber optic test equipment), SANs (Storage Area Networks), bi-directional transmission systems and dispersion compensators. 

            A report by ElectroniCast  provides a 5-year fiber optic circulator market forecast, in terms of Quantity (number of units), Average Selling Prices (ASPs) per unit and Consumption Values. The forecast data for the following regions, plus a Global summary:

           

·        America (South, Central and North America)

·        EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)

·        APAC (Asia Pacific)

The forecasts are presented for use in:

·        Telecommunications

·        Private Data Networks

·        Cable TV

·        Military/ Aerospace

·        Specialty Applications

Additionally, the fiber optic circulator market is presented by the following port-count configurations:

·        3 - Ports

·        4 - Ports

·        More than 4 - Ports (> 4 - Ports)

            Fiber Optic Circulators are non-reciprocal devices, which means that changes in the properties of light passing through the device are not reversed when the light passes through in the opposite direction. The optical device is commonly used in a wide variety of systems, here are just a few examples: dispersion compensation, optical sensors, optical amplifiers, WDM systems, optical add/drops multiplexing (OADMs) and test/measurement instruments such as optical time-domain reflectometers (OTDRs), remote fiber (optic) test systems (RFTS) and other test equipment.  Fiber optic circulator functionality is an excellent candidate for integrating with a transmitter and receiver into a single package.  Circulators provide an ideal solution for coupling devices into a fiber optic network without the inherent 3dB loss of an optical coupler. Circulators directional functionality enable simultaneously adding and dropping signals from a fiber as well as coupling other optical signal processing devices.  

 

            Telecommunications Leads in Fiber Optic Circulator Consumption       The global consumption value of fiber optic circulators reached over $200 million last year (2011) and ElkectroniCast projects the consumption value to reach about $255 million in 2012.  The fastest annual growth of the worldwide consumption value of fiber optic circulators, over the next 5-years, will be in the Telecommunications application. Telecommunications is set to maintain its dominant market share lead throughout the forecast period, with the Specialty applications (R&D laboratory, sensors, test equipment, other) maintaining the position of second-place.  

For detailed information on this or other services provided by ElectroniCast, please contact me at:

stephen_montgomery@electronicastconsultants.com