The flexibility introduced by ROADMs has the potential to offer great operations cost savings as well as possibly capital cost savings and, ultimately, new revenue sources. Because of these potentials, this system development is of great interest to all major carriers. Even in this time of extremely tight capital budgets as we recover from the 2008-2009 Recession, everyone is interested in investments that offer substantial operational savings.

Previous reports on ROADMs have noted that there was little agreement as to what constituted a ROADM, what technology would be used, or even what architecture. While in some regards this state of confusion has been lifted, the result has not simplified the subject. It appears that the market for ROADMs is developing towards multiple product offerings rather than a one-size-fits-all situation, with the selection depending on the particular application needs.

There are currently four types of ROADMs, although only three (with some variations within the three) of these are actually viable options. The OXC type of ROADM, although offering great flexibility, is too expensive to be considered viable. The remaining three types — PLC-based, blocker-based, and WSS-based — are all in manufacture, and all are being, and likely will continue to be, used in the field.

The report shows how the market will change from PLC ROADMs to WSS ROADMs over time. As the reader will see, PLCs dominate in the very early years, and then the blockers, which are quickly surpassed by the WSS version. Please note that while we forecast that WSSs will dominate, the other two types reach relatively constant levels that are also higher than the early years.