Edge/Core Router Market Sales To Double By 2009

Worldwide

In-Stat: Driven by demand for new business VPN services, upcoming consumer triple-play services, and evolution to converged networks, the combined edge and core router market’s sales are forecast to grow from $3.8 billion in 2004 to about $8.4 billion in 2009, according to . Core router sales will grow at a stronger rate than edge router sales over the next five years, the high-tech market research firm says. Most major carriers plan to migrate from their existing multiple networks for different services to a converged MPLS core network that carries multiple types of traffic such as Layer 2 (Frame Relay, ATM, Ethernet), IP, and voice traffic. This trend will spur sales of core routers. Multiservice edge routers will be in demand to support both business services and residential triple-play services, and to enable service providers to consolidate multiple edge functions on a single box. High-capacity core routers will carry multiple types of traffic in the backbones of service provider converged MPLS core networks.

• Worldwide edge router sales grew by 37% in 2004 from 2003 to $2.1 billion. Worldwide core router sales grew by 30% in 2004 to $1.7 billion.

• Cisco remained the dominant vendor in edge and core router sales in 2004, and Juniper was the second-leading vendor in both markets.

• The number of edge router vendors has increased substantially, and this is creating a much more competitive market.

Edge/Core Router Vendors Focus on Triple-Play, VPNs, and Convergence Publ 20050621