6 I ICT TODAY
COVER ARTICLE By Mike Connaughton, RCDD, CDCD
Even in a year as tumultuous as 2020, the height of the pandemic, investment in higher-speed Ethernet
switches remained strong, largely driven by demand from hyperscale data centers and cloud providers.
According to the IDC Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker, Q3 2020 port shipments for 100 GbE switches
rose 35 percent year over year. The most popular 100 GbE transceiver options were 100G-CWDM4,
a singlemode two-fiber solution with a 2 kilometer (≈1.24 mi) reach, and 100GBASE-SR4, a 100 meter
(≈328 ft) multimode solution.
During the same timeframe, 100 Gb/s transceiver costs continued to decrease due to competition
among manufacturers, as reported by optical analysts at LightCounting. Its September 2020 High Speed
Ethernet Optics Report found that pricing of 100GBASE-SR4 transceivers dropped below $1.00 per Gb/s
in 2019, and 100 GbE PSM4 reached the same price milestone in 2020 with DR1, FR1, and CWDM4
not far behind (Figure 1). The $1.00 per Gb/s is now used as a benchmark for 400/800 GbE modules,
which will contribute the most to market growth in 2021-to-2025. These 100 Gb/s options will continue
to see strong adoption in the short term but are expected to peak in the next several years as they
make way for 400 Gb/s switches.
DATA CENTER
NETWORK
ADOPTION, TRENDS,
AND EMERGING
STANDARDS
