Cignal AI has published its Optical Hardware Report for the first quarter of 2018. Key findings include a noted growth in optical hardware sales in the Asia Pacific region – fuelled by additional increases in spending outside of China – and sales growth in the EMEA region also year-on-year. The report did highlight a spend decline in the North American market, which it said proved weaker than expected.

Networking component and equipment market research company, Cignal AI has updated its growth forecast for the coherent 400G WDM market.

Issued quarterly, the recent Optical Hardware Applications report covers the first quarter of 2018 and includes market share and forecasts for revenue and port shipments for optical equipment designed to meet the needs of specific applications: 100G+ coherent, compact modular and advanced packet-OTN switching hardware.

Cignal AI has released its Optical Hardware Report for the last quarter of 2017. The report detailed, amongst its findings, a growth in spend in the Asia and the EMEA region as larger equipment vendors gained traction. North American optical capex, on the other hand was said to be much weaker than expected because of lower spending by incumbent operators.

Cloud and colocation providers are driving strong sales of optical modules, but vendors of optical transport equipment have not been so fortunate in the first half of the year. Amazon, Facebook, Google and others have significantly cut back spending on optical transport equipment, according to Cignal AI’s Optical Customer Markets Report.

Coherent 400G technology will start to ramp this year and account for almost one quarter of all deployed optical transport capacity in 2020. That’s the conclusion of a new report from networking component and equipment market research firm, Cignal AI.

The ‘Optical Applications Report’ report also represents the industry’s first comprehensive analysis measuring the anticipated growth of coherent 400G WDM, according to Andrew Schmitt, lead analyst for Cignal AI.

Despite concerns from component makers, China’s optical hardware market continues to grow, according to Cignal AI, a networking component and equipment market research firm. In fact, optical revenue in China is up 13 per cent for the first half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, the firm states in its second quarter Optical Hardware Report.