I N F O N E T I C S R E S E A R C H S U R V E Y E X C E R P T S

Optical Equipment Vendor

Leadership Survey Excerpts
Service Providers Name Top Optical Suppliers
Infonetics Research Survey Excerpts
Written by Andrew Schmitt
October 2013
i
Contents
Introduction 1
Top Takeaways 1
The 2013 Survey 2
Service Provider Familiarity With Suppliers 2
Exhibit 1: Operator Familiarity with Optical Transmission and Switching Suppliers 2
Respondents Name Top Optical Suppliers 3
Ciena, ALU, Huawei Identifed as Leaders in Overall Optical Equipment 3
Exhibit 2: Top Optical Transmission and Switching Suppliers 3
Infonetics Packet Optical Taxonomy: Defnitions, Vendors, and Products 4
Exhibit 3: METRO-EDGE P-OTS Defnition, Vendors, and Products 4
Exhibit 4: METRO-REGIONAL P-OTS Defnition, Vendors, and Products 4
Ciena Perceived as Leader in Metro-Edge Packet Optical 5
Exhibit 5: Top Metro Edge Packet Optical Transport Suppliers 5
Ciena and Alcatel-Lucent Leaders in Metro-Regional Packet Optical 6
Exhibit 6: Top Metro Regional Packet Optical Transport Suppliers 6
Ciena Perceived as Runaway Leader in Optical Control Plane Technology 7
Exhibit 7: Top Optical Control Plane Suppliers 7
Important Product Features That Set Vendors Apart 8
Exhibit 8: Evaluating New VendorsImportant Features (Raw Responses) 8
Exhibit 9: Equipment Features 9
Equipment Supplier Leadership by Purchase Criterion 10
Exhibit 10: Optical Transmission and Switching Equipment Supplier Leadership 10
Methodology And Demographics 11
Survey Author 12
About Infonetics Research 12
1
Note
Infonetics Researchs 2013 Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey was independently conducted
and written by Infonetics Research, and was not sponsored by any vendor.
Introduction
Opinions at industry conferences, magazines, panel discussions, websites, and message boards all add tremendous noise to
the critical issue: what does the customer think? Our annual optical leadership survey is an attempt to quantify the opinions
of customers in a departure from too much qualitative discussion.
This year we asked service providers to name whom they consider to be the overall leading optical supplier as well as the top
suppliers in packet optical transport systems (P-OTS) and optical control plane technology. We also asked respondents what
criteria they use when making purchasing decisions and how they rate vendors on these factors.
Top Takeaways
Ciena secured all the top leadership positions, distanced itself from perennial challenger Alcatel-Lucent in metro edge
packet optical, and is the runaway leader in optical control plane technology. Respondents also identified Ciena as the
leader in technology innovation.
Alcatel-Lucent is tied with Huawei for 2nd in overall optical supplier leadership and 2nd in packet optical leadership,
and is perceived as the leader in service and support.
Huawei is in 3rd and 4th place for leadership in metro regional and metro edge packet optical equipment, respectively.
Infinera is a consistent 4th in overall leadership categories and edged out Alcatel-Lucent for 3rd in optical control
plane technology. It is a close 2nd to Ciena in technology innovation.
Respondents consider reliability and total cost of ownership to be the most important criteria for selecting new vendors,
and rank solution breadth, R&D investment, and financial stability the lowest.
Mention of 100G as an important feature when evaluating suppliers dropped from 25% to 5%, indicating the battle for
100G, at least as a key decision criterion, is over.
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Opinions at industry conferences, magazines, panel discussions,
websites, and message boards all add tremendous noise to the
critical issue: what does the customer think?
2
The 2013 Survey
Each year Infonetics Research surveys service providers for their opinions on which optical vendors are seen as the leaders in
a number of categories. This is a summary of some of the results from our September 2013 Optical Equipment Features and
Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, in which we interviewed 20 service providers globally that represent 31%
of 2012 worldwide telecom capex and revenue.
Service Provider Familiarity With Suppliers
It is important to understand the level of familiarity a service provider has with various vendors, particularly in a fragmented
market such as optical equipment. This allows equipment vendors to see the relative awareness the market has of their
product versus other companies.
Though familiarity with a manufacturers offering does not necessarily translate into contract wins, vendors need buyer
awareness to be evaluated as potential suppliers. Without a degree of familiarity, suppliers dont even get invited to the table.
Respondents rated their familiarity with each of a list of optical transmission and switching equipment suppliers on a scale
of 1 to 7, where 1 is not familiar and 7 is definitely familiar, a measure called aided awareness.
Exhibit 1: Operator Familiarity with Optical Transmission and Switching Suppliers
Infonetics Research, Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, September 2013
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Percent of Respondents Rating 6 or 7
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
BTI
Transmode
ECI
NEC
ZTE
Cyan
Ericsson
Fujitsu
Coriant
ADVA
Cisco
Tellabs
Infinera
Huawei
Alcatel-Lucent
Ciena 75%
70%
70%
55%
45%
40%
35%
35%
25%
20%
15%
15%
10%
10%
10%
5%
3
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Respondents Name Top Optical Suppliers
In past years, we focused our optical vendor survey on OTN switching and 100G technologies. Ciena and Alcatel-Lucent
consistently dominated in the 100G category, and after several years of these surveys, it was time for a change. This year we
decided to take the discussion in a new direction and investigate leadership in packet optical transport and optical control
plane technology. This is particularly important for OTN switching vendor selection as previous surveys indicate that the future
inclusion of packet capabilities is needed, particularly at the edge of the network.
Ciena, ALU, Huawei Identifed as Leaders in Overall Optical Equipment
First, respondents named their top 3 overall optical transmission and switching vendors.
Ciena returned to #1 this year after Alcatel-Lucent broke several years of Cienas dominance in our 2012 survey. Huawei
remains in 3rd place with about the same percentage of respondents naming the company among the top 3 as last year.
Infinera vaulted forward, staying in 4th place but with 45% of respondents considering them a leader, up from 25% last year.
Exhibit 2: Top Optical Transmission and Switching Suppliers
Infonetics Research, Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, September 2013
Percent of Respondents
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Ciena
Alcatel-Lucent
Huawei
Infinera
Fujitsu
ZTE
NEC
Coriant
Tellabs
75%
60%
60%
45%
15%
10%
10%
10%
5%
5%
5% Cisco
Ericsson
4
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Infonetics Packet Optical Taxonomy: Defnitions, Vendors, and Products
To put into context the next set of service provider responses, Infonetics definitions of metro-edge and metro-regional packet
optical transport systems (P-OTS) follow, along with examples of vendors and products that fall into these categories of equipment.
Exhibit 3: METRO-EDGE P-OTS Defnition, Vendors, and Products
Definition Vendors and Products
Metro-edge packet optical transport systems are platforms
with an architecture that provides all of the following:
Optical networking features including OTN transport
(not switching) and WDM; no ROADM support required
Support for optical and layer 2 restoration
Ethernet switching, including support for connection
oriented Ethernet (COE) protocols (e.g., MPLS-TP,
PBB-TE, T-MPLS, switched VLANs) and carrier grade
per-flow traffic management
Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS
BTI Systems 700/7000 Series
Ciena 6500 w/L2 MOTR, eMOTR
Cisco CPT, 15300, 15454
Cyan Z-Series
ECI NPT
Ericsson SPO1410
Fujitsu 4100ES
Transmode TM-Series
Exhibit 4: METRO-REGIONAL P-OTS Defnition, Vendors, and Products
Definition Vendors and Products
Metro-regional packet optical transport systems are platforms
with an architecture that provides all of the following:
Optical transport features including WDM and ROADM
Optical circuit switching (SONET/SDH crossconnect
and/or OTN) across the chassis
Support for optical and layer 2 restoration
Ethernet switching, including support for connection
oriented Ethernet (COE) protocols (e.g., MPLS-TP,
PBB-TE, T-MPLS, switched VLANs) and carrier grade
per-flow traffic management
Alcatel-Lucent 1830 TTS w/MPLS-TP
Ciena 6500 w/L2 Fabric, 5430
Unannounced Cisco products
ECI OPT
Ericsson SPO1460
Fujitsu Flashwave 9500
Hitachi AMN 6400
Huawei OptiX 8800
Infinera DTN-X w/MPLS
Nokia Siemens Networks hiT 7100
Tellabs 7100 Nano, 7100 OTS
5
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Ciena Perceived as Leader in Metro-Edge Packet Optical
We asked respondents whom they consider to be the top 3 suppliers of edge packet optical transport systems (P-OTS).
60% of respondents identified Ciena as a top 3 leader, which is a rather high percentage considering their presence in this
category is new. The company is porting the technology from products acquired from World Wide Packets and deployed widely
into tier 1 networks into the 6500 product line.
Alcatel-Lucent has the successful 1850 TSS platform, which is used in wireless backhaul deployments around the world.
Not surprisingly, about a third of respondents named Cisco, but the company is not as high on this list as we expected given
the expertise and lengthy presence the company has had in this market.
Exhibit 5: Top Metro Edge Packet Optical Transport Suppliers
Infonetics Research, Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, September 2013
Percent of Respondents
0% 20% 40% 60%
Cyan
Ericsson
Hitachi
NEC
Tellabs
ADVA
BTI
Transmode
ZTE
Fujitsu
Huawei
Cisco
Alcatel-Lucent
Ciena 60%
40%
35%
25%
20%
10%
10%
10%
5%
10%
5%
5%
5%
5%
6
Ciena and Alcatel-Lucent Leaders in Metro-Regional Packet Optical
The results for metro-regional P-OTS closely mirror the overall optical leadership results. Ciena and Alcatel-Lucent are
considered leaders by the most respondents. Infinera is in 4th place, a curiosity given the company has yet to field a production
system capable of any packet intelligence or switchingthough it is widely speculated this is something it plans to do. Long-
time P-OTS suppliers Fujitsu and Tellabs follow.
Exhibit 6: Top Metro Regional Packet Optical Transport Suppliers
Infonetics Research, Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, September 2013
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Percent of Respondents
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Cisco
Coriant
Ericsson
NEC
Transmode
ZTE
ADVA
Tellabs
Fujitsu
Infinera
Huawei
Alcatel-Lucent
Ciena 65%
60%
40%
35%
20%
10%
10%
5%
5%
5%
5%
5%
5%
7
Ciena Perceived as Runaway Leader in Optical Control Plane Technology
Optical control plane technology (G-MPLS, ASON, SDN) is responsible for automating and controlling the configuration of
connections across an optical network, typically through a combination of optical (ROADM) or electrical (SDH and/or OTN)
switches. This includes provisioning of new services as well as failure recovery.
Ciena is the runaway leader here, with 85% of respondents naming them among the top 3. Huawei is 2nd, followed by
Infinera, which edged out Alcatel-Lucent for 3rd place. This result is notable, as Alcatel-Lucent scored well throughout the
survey except in this question.
Exhibit 7: Top Optical Control Plane Suppliers
Infonetics Research, Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, September 2013
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Percent of Respondents
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Ciena
Huawei
Infinera
Alcatel-Lucent
Tellabs
ADVA
Cyan
Coriant
Cisco
85%
45%
35%
30%
10%
10%
10%
10%
5%
5%
5%
ZTE
Fujitsu
8
Important Product Features That Set
Vendors Apart
After asking service providers to identify the leading vendors in several areas, we wanted to understand what features are
most important when they evaluate suppliersthe features that typically set them apart. We switched to an open-ended
response methodology several years ago that allowed respondents to freely name what they think is important, and we feel it
yields interesting and useful data. This is a word cloud of all the responses we received.
Exhibit 8: Evaluating New VendorsImportant Features (Raw Responses)
Infonetics Research, Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, September 2013
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
9
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
We then looked at the responses and made some logical groups to tally the responsesthe logical groups are listed in the next chart.
Price and TCO were cited in 45% of responses and many respondents cited reliability issues as well. Other areas that received
more attention this year are multi-layer support and control plane. Last year, responses were more focused on layer 2 switching
or MPLS, whereas this year, the word multi-layer appeared repeatedly.
100G features dropped from 25% last year to 10% this year, indicating the battle for 100G, at least as a key decision criterion,
is over. Were glad we dropped the top 100G vendor question this yearits clear 100G technology is now more evenly
distributed. Issues such as multi-layer support and control plane are rising in importance.
Exhibit 9: Equipment Features
Infonetics Research, Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, September 2013
Percent of Respondents
0%
10%
20% 30% 40% 50%
Price and TCO
Reliability
Control plane &
network management
Scalability & flexibility
Multi-layer support
ROADM features
Technology innovation
Service & support
Performance
45%
40%
30%
20%
10%
15%
10%
OTN/ODU switching
features
100G features
45%
20%
25%
40%
T
o
p

3

F
e
a
t
u
r
e
s
Issues such as multi-layer support and control plane
are rising in importance.
10
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Equipment Supplier Leadership by
Purchase Criterion
Each year we ask respondents to rank the relative importance of several criteria for selecting new vendors. We also ask them
to select the vendors they perceive to be the leaders for each criterion. This was a prompted questionrespondents could
choose up to 3 suppliers for each criterion from a provided list of 16 vendors.
The following table lists the top 3 vendors cited for each criterion. Note that the rows are ordered with the criteria ranked
as most important (product reliability) at the top and least important (R&D Investment) at the bottom based on the relative
importance service providers perceive each category.
Exhibit 10: Optical Transmission and Switching Equipment Supplier Leadership
Criteria Number 1 Number 2 Number 3
Product reliability Ciena Infinera
Alcatel-Lucent, Fujitsu,
Huawei (3-way tie)
Total cost of ownership Huawei ZTE ADVA
Service and support Alcatel-Lucent Huawei, Infinera (tie) Ciena
Pricing Huawei ZTE
ADVA, Alcatel-Lucent,
Infinera (3-way tie)
Technology innovation Ciena Infinera Alcatel-Lucent
Management tools Ciena Huawei Alcatel-Lucent
Financial stability Cisco Huawei Ciena
Solution breadth Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Huawei (3-way tie)
R&D Investment Huawei Ciena Cisco
11
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Bottom Line
This years survey results give us the first picture of which companies are leaders in packet optical equipment and highlight
the increasing importance of multi-layer features as a decision criterion. We believe 100G has waned as a key differentiator,
and this is supported in the decline of responses mentioning it as such.
Methodology And Demographics
In August and September of 2013, Infonetics surveyed 20 service providers from around the world who have an optical
transport network; they represent almost a third of worldwide telecom capex.
Respondents have detailed knowledge of their companies 10G/40G/100G optical transmission and switching equipment and
are influential in planning and making purchase decisions for this equipment.
Our sample includes a good mix of telcos, ranging from large incumbent service providers to smaller fiber-based competitive carriers:
Incumbent service providers: 75%
Competitive service providers: 20%
Wireless service providers: 5%
Service provider respondents for this survey are based in:
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA): 40%
Asia Pacific: 30%
North America: 25%
Central and Latin America (CALA): 5%
I N F O N E T I C S R E S E A R C H S U R V E Y E X C E R P T S
I NFONETI CS RESEARCH, I NC. OCTOBER 2013
Survey Author
Andrew Schmitt
Principal Analyst, Optical
andrew@infonetics.com
+1 408.583.3393
Infonetics Researchs 2013 Optical Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey was independently conducted
and written by Infonetics Research, and was not sponsored by any vendor. The excerpts herein are reprinted by Ciena with
permission from Infonetics.
About Infonetics Research
Infonetics Research is an international market research and consulting analyst firm serving the communications industry
since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps
clients plan, strategize, and compete more effectively.
Report Reprints and Custom Research
To learn about distributing excerpts from Infonetics reports or to learn about custom research opportunities, please contact:
North America (West), Asia Pacific
Larry Howard, Vice President, larry@infonetics.com, +1 408.583.3335
North America (East, Midwest, Texas), Latin America
Scott Coyne, Senior Account Director, scott@infonetics.com, +1 408.583.3395
Europe, Middle East, Africa, India, Singapore
George Stojsavljevic, Senior Account Director, george@infonetics.com, +44 755.488.1623
Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan
http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp
695 TECHNOLOGY PARKWAY SUITE 200 CAMPBELL, CALIFORNIA 95008 TEL 408.583.0011 FAX 408.583.0031 www.infonetics.com
S I L I C O N V A L L E Y B O S T O N M E T R O L O N D O N A M S T E R D A M S H A N G H A I T O K Y O