Huawei has surged ahead of Sandvine to take the lead in global service provider DPI revenue share in 2011, according to Infonetics Research.

"Though fixed-line operators continue to invest in deep packet inspection solutions for traffic management and to manage the impact of over-the-top (OTT) content on their networks, wireless operators are looking to DPI for more granular traffic management, including prioritization and strategic offload, and are starting to deploy DPI hand-in-hand with their LTE network upgrades," notes Shira Levine, directing analyst for next gen OSS and policy at Infonetics Research.

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its Service Provider Deep Packet Inspection Products report, which tracks standalone DPI vendors and solutions for wireless and fixed line networks.

DPI Market Highlights

Service provider deep packet inspection (DPI) product revenue grew 29% to over $470 million worldwide in 2011

Infonetics Research forecasts the service provider DPI market to grow to $2.0 billion in 2016, with the bulk of the growth coming from the mobile space

Huawei narrowly pulled ahead of Sandvine to take the lead in global service provider DPI revenue share in 2011

DPI is increasingly being incorporated into larger solutions, such as video optimization and mobile offload, creating opportunities for suppliers that offer DPI technology on an OEM basis

Operators are evaluating alternatives to throttling or blocking high-bandwidth video content, including using DPI for media caching, to prioritize select video content to support guaranteed QoS and as part of a content delivery network strategy

Infonetics expects strong growth for service provider DPI products in emerging markets in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa as operators look to address network congestion caused by rapid subscriber growth, comply with regulatory requirements, and support cyber security initiatives.

Infonetics'' biannual DPI report provides market size, vendor market share, forecasts, and in-depth analysis and trends for standalone deep packet inspection products used in wireless and fixed-line service provider networks. Vendors tracked: Allot, Arbor, Cisco, CloudShield, Huawei, ipoque, Procera, Qosmos, Sandvine, and others. Regions tracked: North America, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, Africa), Asia Pacific, and CALA (Caribbean and Latin America).

Infonetics Research is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete more effectively.