Communications Clock Market Forecast

Communications infrastructure continues to be the most attractive segment in clocking. It has the highest margins, and the longest revenue lifetime. It has the associated challenges to meet spec that go along with high value added solutions.  According to a new market research report “Clock and Timing Opportunities in Communications Infrastructure“, the total available market (TAM) for timing products in communications infrastructure was $1.4B in 2010. The market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2% to reach $1.86B in 2014. While proliferation has slowed in 2012 and going into 2013, as of the time of this report (March 2013), the trend is moving forward in a positive manner with new base stations and infrastructure implementations picking up by about 2%. China is looking to see the highest level of proliferation, followed by South America, APAC, Eurmea¸ and NAM. 

Communications infrastructure is a completely different world than the rest of clock market. Compared to consumer and computer applications, communications infrastructure serves different customers in different markets and products must achieve a high technical bar to succeed in these applications. This is a key obstacle for entry, let alone consistency in delivery of precision and ultra-precision class timing solutions that truly add high value.

Communications end products are not as well known as consumer products and computers. You can’t go to BestBuy or Yodobashi Camera store to examine and/or purchase your customer’s end product. Block diagrams are also harder to come by. It takes deep applications knowledge to understand what timing products to make and extensive market experience to understand where to invest.

New trends in 2013 include more integration of timing functions BY the suppliers ­ this means integration of the fanout/distribution buffer and potentially the resonator, oscillator, frequency generator(s) and a mix of I/O types from a single packaged solution. An example is VoIP clock tree’s which are typically implemented with an oscillator or synthesizer (using and external xtal) at 125MHz with better than 100ppm, with low phase noise of <1ps RMS (integrated from 1.875MHz to 20 MHz), followed by a fanout/distribution buffer with anywhere from 4 to 22 outputs in LVCMOS… this can become a fully integrated solution IF the supplier uses the fanout buffer package thus enabling the customer without a change in the current pcb a very attractive proposition.

Selected List of Tables 

Table 1: Common Ethernet Clock Frequencies 33

Table 2: 2011-2014 Communications Clock Market Forecast ($M), by market 94

Table 3: 2011-2014 Communications Clock Market Forecast ($M), by market segment 95

Table 4: 2011-2014 Communications Clock Market Forecast ($M), by function 96

Table 5: 2011-2014 Communications Clock Forecast ($M), by product type 97

Table 6: 2011-2014 Communications Clock Crystal and Oscillator Forecast ($M) 98

Table 7: 2011-2014 Communications Clock IC Forecast ($M), by product type 99

Table 8: 2011-2014 Communications Clock PLL IC Forecast ($M), by type 100

Table 9: 2010 and 2009 System Vendor Revenues ($M) 104

Table 10: Financial Performance of Top 5 System Vendors 107

Table 11: Key Facts: Cisco Systems 110

Table 12: Key Facts: L M Ericsson 112

Table 13: Key Facts: Huawei 113

Table 14: Key Facts: Alcatel-Lucent 115

Table 15: Key Facts: Nokia-Siemens Networks 116

Table 16: Integrated Phase Jitter vs Integration Bandwidth 122

Table 17: Comparison of RiseTime Specifications 127

Table 18: Example Crystal Specifications for an Ethernet Clock Generator IC 137

Table 19: Example Crystal Specifications for a VCXO Jitter Cleaner IC 137

Table 20: OCXO and TCXO Specifications for SONET and Synchronous Ethernet 140

Table 21: Competitive Positioning between Crystal and Oscillator Module Companies 161

Table 22: Competitive Positioning between IC Clock and Timing Companies 162

Communications Clock Market Forecast