The report tracks products used for both service provider and aggregation switch markets.

“The demand for routers in China declined in the second quarter as 5G transport buildouts slowed, but we think this was a temporary situation that a strong rebound is likely in the second half of the year,” predicts Dell’Oro Group vice president Shin Umeda.

Umeda however is quick to point that “revenue from all other regions increased in the second quarter and service provider router spending for the first half of 2021 have climbed above pre-pandemic levels.”

According to Umeda, the enterprise router market is being transformed by the changing wide area network (WAN) traffic patterns driven by the adoption of cloud services.

WAN architecture evolution, he says, requires new capabilities in the routers used as gateways from the branch office to data centres and the cloud.

“The functionality of the traditional branch office router is shifting from hardware to software-based technologies,” he claims.

The 2Q 2021 Service Provider Router and Switch report highlights include:
• Cisco remained the top-ranked vendor for market share, followed by Huawei, Nokia, and Juniper.
• The service provider core router market is on track to grow at a double-digit rate in 2021, led by the adoption of 400Gbps technologies.
• Supply constraints have not had a significant effect on the service provider router and Switch market in the first half of 2021.