Study: Broadband, Ethernet and IPTV Driving IP Traffic Growth

Service providers continue making major investments to converge their data networks, according to a study by Infonetics Research.

Changing traffic patterns and applications are the main causes of the convergence charge, with broadband Internet, metro Ethernet and IPTV being the top three drivers causing IP traffic growth.

"Carriers are experiencing decreases in legacy service revenue (ATM, frame relay, leased lines) and know the downward trend will continue, but they expect big increases from IP VPN, VoIP, and metro Ethernet revenue, and providers planning broadband and IPTV expect sizeable revenue increases from those services as well," said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

Some of the study’s results include:

- Metro Ethernet is tied as the No. 2 investment driver, up from sixth in Infonetics' 2005 study on the same topic.

- 100 percent of European respondents will use Ethernet for broadband aggregation, while 67 percent of Asia Pacific and 60 percent of North American respondents will do so.

- 75 percent will participate in interprovider QoS in 2007.

- Integrating new technologies and equipment is challenging for more European respondents (57 percent) than Asia Pacific (33 percent) or North American (27 percent).

The study examined market and technology trends, drivers, barriers, implementation plans, expenditures and vendor and technology preferences of carriers buying IP routers and multiservice switches. Infonetics' analysts interviewed 28 carriers in the three regions.

Incumbents and competitive operators face significantly different challenges and opportunities as they converge their networks, as do carriers in different regions, according to the study.

Infonetics Research www.infonetics.com

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines