Evolved Packet Core Sector Expected to See Significant Growth: ABI Research

There continues to be promising news about the projected growth of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) sector.

In its latest study, ABI Research (News - Alert) predicts virtualization of EPC will become a $400 million market by 2018. That means it will be about one-third of the overall EPC market with that amount.

The trends relate to software defined networking (SDN), the cloud and virtualization.

"Operators are of course looking to displace the expensive Big Iron from their supply chain,” Joe Hoffman, principal analyst for mobile networks at ABI, said in a statement. “When the time is right, and the technology proven as low risk, operators will capture additional benefits beyond the low-cost hardware, such as dynamic allocation and reuse of virtualized assets and streamlined service and feature development."

“In this brave new world of SDN [software defined networking] and virtualization, NSN has a slight lead with their Liquid Core virtualized network using COTS hardware,” Hoffman added. “While most other vendors use proprietary hardware, there is a genuine push towards SDN and separation of the control plane. In general 2013 should bring more clarity on how different vendors will approach virtualization and SDN."

These trends are found in ABI Research’s new report, "Centralized vs. Distributed EPC and the Role of SDN and Cloud."

The new study follows a previous projection that EPC will see some $3 billion in revenue in 2016, according to the Dell’ (News - Alert)Oro Group. Also, the overall wireless packet core equipment market is predicted to reach about $6 billion by 2016. Increases in the EPC market are led by capital spending on Long Term Evolution (LTE (News - Alert)) network, the second study added.

"Service provider mobile networks are undergoing a transformation towards Internet Protocol based architectures," Chris DePuy, an analyst at Dell'Oro Group, said in a recent statement carried by TMCnet. "Evolved Packet Core products are both the data throughput system enablers and the traffic charging systems that allow operators to manage interactions with customers."

In a third report, Exact Ventures said the overall wireless packet core market, including EPC, jumped 30 percent in Q3 of 2012 compared to the same period during 2011. “Despite the transition from 2G and 3G technologies to LTE being in its infancy, the EPC market continues to surge and now accounts for over one-third of the total wireless packet core market," Greg Collins, principal analyst at Exact Ventures, said in a statement carried by TMCnet. "Mirroring the introduction and uptake of LTE-based services, the EPC market continues to be dominated by North America and Asia Pacific, especially Japan and Korea, followed by EMEA and Latin America, where deployments are now beginning."

In addition, during Q3 of 2012 Ericsson was first in the EPC market based on revenues, followed by Nokia (News - Alert) Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Huawei, Exact Ventures reported.

To learn more about SDN, join Paula Bernier and Eve Griliches of ACG Research at the Software Defined Networking pre-conference workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 29. The SDN event will be part of TMC's (News - Alert) ITEXPO (News - Alert) Miami 2013 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.