Active Optical Cable Market Research Report Information By Type (Infiniband, Ethernet, Serial-attached SCSI (SAS), Displayport, PCI Express, HDMI, Thunderbolt, USB, DP-ALT, MIPI, Others), By Form Factor (Typical Connector Types, USB Type C, Others), By Application (Data Center, High-Performance Computing, Consumer Electronics, Telecommunications, Digital Signage, Robotics, Fiber Sensor, Other), By End User (Energy & Power, Oil & Gas, Medical, Military/Aerospace, IT & Telecommunications, Consumer, Other) and Region- Industry Forecast 2030

Active Optical Cable Market Overview

The global active optical cable market is expected to witness substantial growth during the forecast period, primarily due to low power consumption, small bend radius for easy installment, and lightweight. As per MRFR, the global Active optical cable market has been growing at a significant rate from the past few years and is expected to reach USD 16,285.2 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 25.1% during the forecast period, 2022–2030.

The global active optical cable market has been segmented into type, form factor, application, end users, and region. Based on type, the global active optical cables is segmented into infiniband, ethernet, serial-attached SCSI (SAS), displayport, PCI express (PCIE), HDMI, thunderbolt, USB, display port alt mode (DP-ALT), MIPI, and others. Based on form factor the global active optical cables is segmented into Typical Connector Types, USB type C and others. 

Based on application, the global active optical cables is segmented into data center, high-performance computing (HPC), consumer electronics (CE), telecommunications, personal computing (PC), digital signage, machine vision, robotics, fiber sensors and others. Based on end users, the global active optical cables is segmented into energy & power, oil & gas, medical, robotics, energy & power, military / aerospace, IT & telecommunications, consumer, and others. Based on region, the global active optical cables is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America.

Covid-19 Analysis

The world was in the midst of an economic catastrophe brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic. The pandemic had slowed the growth pace of the semiconductor industry particularly in 2020 and 2021. Most of the major demand-generating sectors were non-operational in various countries which has hampered the growth of active optical cable market.

Due to major lockdowns imposed by the governing authorities, the supply chain for active optical cable was disrupted. The scarcity of raw materials to produce cables has impacted the pricing strategies adopted by the manufacturers. Additionally, in the absence of a large workforce, the production of active optical cable was largely hampered. The transportation of finished products is carried out at a slower pace causing major delays in the delivery.

Active Optical Cable Market Dynamics

The growth of the active optical cable market is driven by various factors, such as increasing demand from data center industry. However, the growth of the global market likely to be hindered due to high manufacturing and implementation costs.

Market Drivers

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  INCREASING DEMAND FROM DATA CENTER INDUSTRY

  
  

The rise in deployment of data centers across the globe is one of the factors drive the growth of the active optical cable market. Rising use of active optical cables in data centers, high performance computing, and others is driving the growth of the global market. The application of active optical cables in data center focus on high-speed transmission, such as 40Gbps, 100Gbps and InfiniBand. The data center needs a broad portfolio of fiber optic modules to connect switches, servers, and storage, which is accomplished by active optical cable. 

Thus, increase in the deployment of data center is a key driver of market. Active optical cables incorporate active electrical and optical components to boost and receive signal via optical fiber. They are becoming one of the most popular cabling solutions in the data center.  AOC cables are far superior in performance and their advantages are undeniable. AOCs provide a cost-effective to connect top-of-row (ToR) switches to end-of-row aggregation switches. In addition, AOCs are used to connect ToR switch with storage subsystems at reaches greater than DAC limits of 3-7 meters.

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  In June 2020, Black Box had launched a new family of networking active optical cables as a part of offering optimizing data center as well as edge network applications. These cables will help in addressing the rising demand for cloud services, big data storage as well as media streaming with offering support for SFP, SFP+, QSFP and QSFP+. Moreover, with integrated SFP/QFSP transceivers, these optical cables will help in significantly reducing the costs and complexities related to fiver installation along with overcoming the requirement of time consuming and costly testing using modular transceivers.

  
  

Market Restraints

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  HIGH MANUFACTURING AND IMPLEMENTATION COSTS

  
  

The major challenges faced by the industry include high manufacturing and high implementation cost of active optical cables. High cost related to manufacturing, maintenance and repair is acting as a major challenge towards hampering the market growth of active optical cables over the forecast period. In addition, manufacturing costs of these optical cables are comparatively higher due to usage of expensive active components, thus adversely impacting its market growth. 

High compatibility with various types of costly connectors, to offer optimum network connectivity across applications including high performance computing, consumer devices and others, has caused the manufacturers to increase the purchasing costs of these cables, which is ultimately slowing down the growth of active optical cable market.

Marker Opportunity

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  GROWING POPULARITY OF 40G QSFP+ AOC IN DATA CENTERS

  
  

Nowadays, QSFP+ replace QSFP and is widely used as it can provide higher bandwidth. 40G QSFP+ AOC is a type of active optical cable for 40GbE applications that is terminated with 40GBASE-QSFP. The 40G QSFP+ AOC is a parallel 40Gbps quad small form factor pluggable (QSFP+) active optical cable, which supplies higher port density and total system cost. The QSFP+ optical modules provide four full-duplex independent transmit and receive channels; each are able of 10Gbps operation 40Gbps aggregate bandwidth of at least 100m multimode fiber. 

AOC is used for short-range multi-lane data communication and interconnect applications. The 40G QSFP+ AOC is a high performance, low power consumption integrated cable for short-range multi-lane data communication and interconnect applications, supporting 40G Ethernet, fiber channel and PCIE. With its benefits, 40G QSFP+ AOC is widely used in many fields as well as promoting the traditional data center to step into optical interconnection.

Active Optical Cable Market Segmentation

The global active optical cable market has been segmented into type, form factor, application, and end users.

Based on type, the global active optical cables is segmented into infiniband, ethernet, serial-attached SCSI (SAS), displayport, PCI express (PCIE), HDMI, thunderbolt, USB, display port alt mode (DP-ALT), MIPI, and others. Based on thunderbolt, the market is further segmented into thunderbolt 3, thunderbolt 4 and others. Based on USB, the market is further segmented into USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1, USB 3.2, and USB 4.0.

Based on form factor the global active optical cables is segmented into typical connector types, USB type c, and others. Based on typical connector types, the market is further segmented in QSFP/QSFP+ (QUAD SMALL FORM-FACTOR PLUGGABLE), SFP (SMALL FORM FACTOR PLUGGABLE), SFP+, PCIE (PERIPHERAL COMPONENT INTERCONNECT EXPRESS), CXP, CX4, CFP/CFP2/CFP4 (C-FORM FACTOR PLUGGABLE), and CDFP.

Based on application, the global Active Optical Cable Market is segmented into data center, high-performance computing (HPC), consumer electronics (CE), telecommunications, personal computing (PC), digital signage, machine vision, robotics, fiber sensors and others. Additionally, based on machine vision, the market is further divided into factory automation, medical imaging, security systems, POS systems, automotive, autonomous vehicles and tethered drones air/land, edge computing and professional videography & photography.

Based on end users, the global active optical cables is segmented into energy & power, oil & gas, medical, robotics, energy & power, military / aerospace, IT & telecommunications, consumer, and others. Military/Aerospace is further divided into commercial aerospace and space flight.

Regional Analysis

Geographically, the global active optical cable market has been segmented into North America, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and South America.

North America is likely to lead the active optical cable market. The players present in North America are one of the top players in the world. North America accounted for the largest market share of XX% in 2021, with a market value of USD XX million; the market is expected to register a CAGR of 23.2% during the forecast period. Europe was the second-largest market in 2021, valued at USD XXX million; the market is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 25.5%. However, the market in Asia-Pacific is expected to register the highest CAGR of XX%.

Active Optical Cable Market Key Player & Competitive Landscape

The global active optical cable market is witnessed significant growth over the forecast period due to increasing demand from the data center industry, increasing adoption of active optical cables (AOC) by various end-users due to increasing features, and increasing demand for high bandwidth and stable network connections. There are several domestic, regional, and global players operating in the active optical cable market who continuously strive to gain a significant share of the overall market. 

During the study, MRFR has analyzed some of the major players in the global active optical cable market who have contributed to the market growth. These include Finisar Corporation (II-VI Incorporated), TE Connectivity, Avago Technologies Ltd (Broadcom Inc.), Molex Inc, Amphenol Corporation, Emcore Corporation, 3M Company, Siemon, Shenzhen Gigalight Technology Co., Ltd, Sumitomo Electric, T&C Communication Co, Ltd, Alysium Tech GmbH, Corning Incorporated, Mobix Labs Inc, Intel Corporation, Dell Inc., Chromis Technologies, Unixtar Technology Inc., and IOI Technology Corporation.

Among these, Finisar Corporation (II-VI Incorporated), Avago Technologies Ltd (Broadcom Inc.), Molex Corporation, Amphenol Communications Solutions, and Siemon are among the top 5 players in the global active optical cable market. These players focus on expanding and enhancing their product portfolio and services to remain competitive and increase their customer base. Additionally, these players are focusing on partnerships & collaborations to expand their business and customer base to enhance their market position.

Active Optical Cable Industry Developments

MaxLinear, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXL), a leading supplier of high-speed interconnect ICs for data center, metro, and wireless transport networks, today announced the availability of an extensive product design kit (PDK) to optimize performance and expedite time to market for high-speed Active Electrical Cables (AEC) utilizing MaxLinear’s 5nm PAM4 DSP, Keystone. The PDK is a cost-saving and time-efficient resource for cable manufacturers looking to rapidly integrate Keystone into their active electrical cables. 

In AEC applications, MaxLinear’s Keystone PAM4 DSP provides a significant power savings advantage, which is increasingly being seen as critical by hyperscale data centers. 5nm CMOS technology allows designers and manufacturers to create low-power, highly integrated; high-performance interconnect solutions required by next-generation hyperscale cloud networks demanding faster speeds at lower costs.

Semtech Corporation SMTC has announced today it will demonstrate live its newly launched 5G wireless portfolio, including the Tri-Edge GN2256 product line, at the Optical Fiber Communication 2024 exhibition in March. Tri-Edge GN2256 integrates Sumitomo Electric's 50Gbps EML into the SFP56 50Gbs Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) module for O-band, providing high-speed and cost-effective optical solutions. It also includes its FiberEdge TIA and ClearEdge CDR product lines within the 5G wireless portfolio, paving the way for 6G and transforming the telecommunications industry towards next-generation networks.

Prysmian Group, the world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, announces today the launch of first ever green certified optical cables with its own ECO CABLE label, which is also the first proprietary green product label in the cable industry sector; said company representatives during a press conference held on April 1st, 2023 at Prysmian Group headquarters located in Milan Italy. The company will showcase a range of products labeled as ECO CABLE at FTTH Conference 2023 starting tomorrow in Madrid. 

Fibre is intrinsically green as full-fiber networks consume significantly less electricity than copper-based broadband networks and enable energy savings, thus supporting the twin transitions of Digital Europe and the European Green Deal. For its telecom products, Prysmian has gone one step further by introducing the ECO CABLE label.

TE Connectivity:

• June 2023: TE Connectivity announces partnership with Amphenol on high-speed connector solutions, potentially impacting the AOC market .


• March 2023: TE Connectivity showcases various interconnect solutions at Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC 2023).

Avago Technologies Ltd. (now Broadcom Inc.):

• Broadcom is a major player in the optical component market, supplying components used in AOCs.


• January 2024: Broadcom announces new generation of PAM4 DSP chips for high-speed data transmission, potentially benefiting AOC applications. 


• November 2023: Broadcom reports strong financial results, driven by demand for high-speed networking solutions

Report Overview

This study estimates revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and offers an overview of the latest developments in each of the sub-sectors from 2018 to 2030. For this analysis, MRFR segmented the global active optical cable market has been segmented based on Type, Form factor, Application, and End Users.

Active Optical Cable Market Segmentation

Active Optical Cable Type Outlook

• Infiniband


• Ethernet


• Serial-attached SCSI (SAS)


• Displayport


• PCI Express (PCIE)


• HDMI


• Thunderbolt
  
  
  
  • Thunderbolt 3
  
  
  • Thunderbolt 4
  
  
  • Others
  
  
  
  


• USB
  
  
  
  • USB 2.0
  
  
  • USB 3.0
  
  
  • USB 3.1
  
  
  • USB 3.2
  
  
  • USB 4.0
  
  
  
  


• Display Port Alt Mode (DP-ALT)
  
  
  
  • MIPI
  
  
  • Others
  
  
  
  

Active Optical Cable Form factor Outlook

• Typical Connector Types
  
  
  
  • QSFP/QSFP+
  
  
  • SFP
  
  
  • SFP+
  
  
  • PCIe
  
  
  • CXP
  
  
  • Cx4
  
  
  • CFP/CFP2/CFP4
  
  
  • CDFP
  
  
  • Others
  
  
  
  


• USB type C


• Others

Active Optical Cable Application Outlook

• Data Center


• High-Performance Computing (HPC)


• Consumer electronics (CE)


• Telecommunications


• Personal Computing (PC)


• Digital Signage


• Machine Vision
  
  
  
  • Factory Automation
  
  
  • Medical Imaging
  
  
  • Security Systems
  
  
  • POS Systems
  
  
  • Automotive
  
  
  • Autonomous Vehicles and Tethered Drones Air/Land
  
  
  • Edge Computing
  
  
  • Professional Videography & Photography
  
  
  
  


• Robotics


• Fiber Sensors


• Others

Active Optical Cable End Users Outlook

• Energy & power


• Oil & Gas


• Medical


• Military / aerospace
  
  
  
  • Military
  
  
  • Commercial Aerospace
  
  
  • Space Flight
  
  
  
  


• IT & Telecommunications


• Consumer


• Others