Video to fuel router upgrade frenzy

By Robert Jaques on Feb 1, 2007 9:23 AM
Filed under Networking

Service provider router market to reach US$9bn by 2011.

Service providers will have to upgrade their infrastructures to cope with the fast growing demand for high bandwidth video content from sites such as YouTube, according to new research.

This demand will fuel a huge hike in spending on routers to US$9bn by 2011, the report published today by Dell'Oro Group has predicted.

Routers designed to support data transmission rates of 10Gbps, more than 6,000 times faster than a typical broadband network connection of 1.5Mbps, are expected to account for the bulk of the market growth.

"Rapid IP network traffic growth stemming from video content is pushing telecom service providers and cable operators to invest in the highest performance routers for their IP networks," said Shin Umeda, vice president of routers research at Dell'Oro Group.

"We expect phenomenal demand for 10Gbps ports installed in these routers over the next five years, representing growth of more than 300 percent."