
ElectroniCast Consultants, a leading 91Ƭ & technology forecast consultancy addressing the fiber optics communications industry, today announced the release of a new market forecast of the global consumption of fiber optic circulators in optical communications.
According to the study report, the worldwide use of fiber optic circulators is projected to reach $269.2 million this year (2018). The fiber optic circulator market is quantified by the following port-count configurations: 3-Ports, 4-Ports, and more than 4-Ports (> 4 - Ports). The 3-Port fiber optic circulator component category held over 80% share of the market in 2017.
The fastest annual growth of the worldwide consumption value of fiber optic circulators will be in the Private Network application with expanding Data Centers (increasing at a factor of 3x); however, the Telecommunications application is set to maintain its dominant market share lead throughout the forecast period, with the Cable TV optical fiber structure maintaining the position of second-place. Specialty applications (R&D laboratory, medical, sensors, test equipment, oil/gas, other) held have a 6% of the relative market share in 2017.
“The deployment of optical fiber in the metro/access, the continuing demand for upgrading networks to accommodate rapidly increasing bandwidth requirements, plus the need for additional monitoring and testing of the optical fiber networks will drive the steady consumption of fiber optic circulators,” said Stephen Montgomery, principal analyst of the fiber optic component group at ElectroniCast Consultants.
The Asia Pacific region (APAC) is the projected leader, in terms of relative market share, with the consumption value of fiber optic circulators in 2018; however, their share is decreasing versus 2017.

Fiber Optic Circulators are non-reciprocal devices, which means that changes in the properties of light passing through the device are not reversed when the light passes through in the opposite direction. The optical device is commonly used in a wide variety of systems, here are just a few examples: dispersion compensation, optical sensors, optical amplifiers, WDM systems, optical add/drops multiplexing (OADMs) and test/measurement instruments such as optical time-domain reflectometers (OTDRs), remote fiber (optic) test systems (RFTS) and other test equipment.
Fiber optic circulator functionality is an excellent candidate for integrating with a transmitter and receiver into a single package. Circulators provide an ideal solution for coupling devices into a fiber optic network without the inherent 3dB loss of an optical coupler. Circulators directional functionality enable simultaneously adding and dropping signals from a fiber as well as coupling other optical signal processing devices.
The deployment of optical fiber in the metro/access, the continuing demand for upgrading networks to accommodate rapidly increasing bandwidth requirements, plus the need for additional monitoring and testing of the optical fiber networks will drive the steady consumption of fiber optic circulators.
Fiber optic circulators are used with erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA), fiber optic sensor applications, dense WDM (DWDM), optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM), optical time domain reflectometers (OTDR fiber optic test equipment), SANs (Storage Area Networks), bi-directional transmission systems, dispersion compensators, and other devices.
Market Forecast (2017-2027)This report by ElectroniCast Consultants provides a detailed fiber optic circulator market analysis/review and forecast for each year, 2017-2027. The forecast is presented in terms of Quantity (number of units), Average Selling Prices (ASPs) per unit and Consumption Values. The forecast data for the following regions, plus a Global summary:
The forecasts are presented in the following application segments:
The fiber optic circulator market is presented by the following port-count configurations:
Market Research Methodology Information Base This study is based on analysis of information obtained continually over the past two decades, but updated through the beginning of June 2018. During this period, ElectroniCast analysts performed interviews with authoritative and representative individuals in the fiber optics, telecommunications, datacom, cable TV and other communication industries, from the standpoint of both suppliers and users of fiber optic transmission links. The interviews were conducted principally with:
*If Applicable.
