According to a report released by IHS recently, the global carrier Ethernet equipment market in 2014 fell 2% to $27 billion compared with 2013 due to the decline of the VDSL, EPON and SONET/SDH segments and the slowdown in the growth of the microwave segment.

　　“The carrier Ethernet market includes many segments that have their own ups and downs. Due to pricing and the shrinking of some segments as technology changes, Ethernet continues to replace PDH to support Ethernet services. and Ethernet transport, we don't expect the overall market to grow much over the next five years," said Michael Howard, senior research director at IHS.

　　Highlights of the report:

　　* IHS expects the global carrier Ethernet equipment market to grow from a CAGR of 1% between 2014-2019 to $29 billion by 2019;

　　* The mobile backhaul Ethernet equipment segment grew to $7.9 billion in 2014;

　　* The transfer of operators to grouping has been basically completed. At present, their expenditures are mainly concentrated on IP, MPLS and Ethernet transmission, rather than E1/T1 PDH and SONET/SDH equipment in the access network and aggregation network;

　　* Areas of greatest investment include routers, Carrier Ethernet Switches (CES), microwave and optical equipment.