The active optical cable market has grown at a rapid pace than what it was in 2007. Cloud and internet data centres are responsible for fuelling the growth.

The active optical cable market caught several attentions when it originated in 2007. Application of these cables were then prominent in esoteric space of HPC data centres. But, times have changed and the sector is valued at $1 billion for the next 2 to 3 years. Although, this highly-entrenched technology entered the marketplace late, its adoption rate increased rapidly owing to its affordability and high installed base say research analysts at Allied Market Research. Industry experts eyeing the industry size, share, and opportunities in the active cable market explain that voracious appetite for internet and emergence of cloud data centres have been responsible for the surge in the active cable industry. Besides, expansion of entertainment industry and new homes are promising huge growth for the market if rates are not an obstacle to its entry into the consumer markets.

So What’s Driving Active Optical Cable Market in the Flatter Data Centres?

What really drives the adoption of the active optical cable market is the demand for much faster and low latency-resistant data centres. The need is growing rapidly not only within internet’s huge data centres but also cloud deployments. Moreover, the need to both reconfigure as well as provision the different network quickly with these data centres will influence the active optical cable uptake in a bigger way.

Likewise, the software-defined networking coupled with network function virtualization are the key trends expected to affect the adoption of these cables in cloud data centres. This adoption rate is in align with the recent transformation in the data-centre networks.

Active Optical Cable Market Revives the Home Entertainment Segment

In 2016, some of the markets that will continue to fuel the profits of the active optical cable market are digital signage, electronics, and personal computing. Entertainment plugs including USB 3, DVI, HDMI, and others observe an increased demand. Industry experts are confident that a greater proportion of the profit will come from the adoption of these cable technologies in personal computing space, spurred on by significant advancements in plugs such as USB 3 as well as Thunderbolt. The personal computing industry is anticipated to be over 43.5% of the total non-data-centre, active optical cable sales in the next 3 to 4 years, with a value of about $834.5 million. Vendors who will be actively driving the growth of the active optical cable market in 2016 are Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., IBM Corporation, Finisar Corporation, 3M, Amphenol Corporation, and others.

The Most Promising Technology for Active Optical Cables Market

Most active optical cables installed today are mainly based on the VCSEL technology. There are many who have been speculating about the rapid adoption of DFB lasers in the sector anytime soon. Business owners believe that DFB-based cables will soon find a prominent place in cloud deployments and HPC. VCSEL multimode, however, remains favourite for those considering complete solution consisting of passive interconnect, optoelectronics, etc. While the single-mode DFBs are fast winning the hearts of the large data centre owners, deployments in cloud as well as HPC open new avenues for DFBs. Companies such as Finisar made waves after it introduced a 40Gbps VCSEL at the much awaited OFC event. In applications, where high-speed VSCELs are preferred, active optical cables are expected to be limited to only short distance connection. Finisar has collaborated with IBM to develop a 56Gbps VCSEL. Such emphasis on rapidly growing VCSELs would result in CDFP cables running at Terabit speed of over 890Gbps.

The active optical cable market is projected to garner sales of over $39.5 million in the next eight to nine years. A lot is spoken about the speed as well as distance, which is no longer impossible with Terabit speeds creating new opportunities. Besides, the distance has become shorter in a matter of few years. But, with all these the challenge to explore the marketplace has also increased. The trend is under way in both commercial as well as residential space say research analysts at Allied Market Research.