Ethernet Switch and Router Market Share & Trends [2033]

Ethernet Switch and Router Market Overview

The Ethernet Switch and Router Market size was valued at USD 73938.6 million in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 99028.94 million by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 3.3% from 2025 to 2033.

The global Ethernet switch and router market comprises two major segments: Ethernet switching ports and enterprise/service-provider routing units. In 2023, IDC reported combined sales of 200 GbE and 400 GbE switches increased by 126.3% year‑on‑year, with a sequential growth of 23.8% from Q2 2023 to Q2 2024, pointing to rapidly accelerating high-speed demand. During the full calendar year, Ethernet switch unit sales reached approximately 28.9 million ports across data centers alone—representing 13.4% of the total 214.7 million ports shipped globally.

Meanwhile, router hardware efforts saw declines, with Ethernet router sales dropping by 19.1% to US $13.32 billion in the same period. In North America in 4Q 2024, the data‑center Ethernet switch market posted a 41.3% year‑on‑year jump and 18.9% growth over the full year. Export data show China exporting 108,783 Ethernet switch units, followed by Germany at 19,772 and the U.S. at 14,049 in a recent annual tally. Port shipments for 100 GbE reached 3.6 million in Q1 2019, marking an 85.3% yearly increase. Together, switches and routers form a market in the tens of billions of dollars per year, with high-speed switching leading adoption.

Key Findings

Driver: Supply chain normalization unlocked 35.2% higher switch sales in H1 2023 compared to H1 2022.

Top Country/Region: North America led growth with a 28.8% increase in total switch sales during 2023.

Top Segment: 200 GbE/400 GbE switches saw the largest rise, with port shipments up 63.9% and sales increasing 126.3% year‑on‑year.

Ethernet Switch and Router Market Trends

The Ethernet switch landscape has shifted dramatically toward higher‑speed networking. IDC found that combined 200 GbE/400 GbE models grew 126.3% year‑on‑year in Q2 2024, with port shipments rising 63.9%. In Q1 2019, 100 GbE ports reached 3.6 million units shipped (an 85.3% increase), outpacing 10 GbE growth of 8.6% y/y. By 2023, AI-driven deployments lifted the total switch market to US $44.2 billion, with Ethernet sales rising 20.1% y/y. Lower‑speed tiers remain significant. As of 2023, 1 GbE units made up 56.5% of campus switch revenue and grew 24.2% y/y. Meanwhile, 10 GbE captured 20.4% share but grew only 5.3%. This reflects diverging demand: high‑speed ports for data‑center backbones, mid-range for campus and branch networks. In data centers, over 28.9 million ports shipped in Q1 2023 (19.7% growth versus prior year), yet represented 13.4% of total 214.7 million ports sold globally—highlighting concentration in high‑density environments. Meanwhile, U.S. data‑center switch volumes grew 41.3% in Q4 2024 and 18.9% over the full year.

Router segment trends show a contraction: Ethernet router unit sales fell 19.1% to a size of US $13.32 billion. This contrasts with switch demand, underlining a transition toward software‑defined WAN and disaggregated routing models. In global trade flows, China exported 108,783 switch units, dwarfing Germany’s 19,772 and U.S.’s 14,049. India led as a major import market, bringing in 150,172 units from China, Malaysia, and Germany. AI workloads are fueling switch demand—AI‑enabled data centers boosted Ethernet switch revenues by 13.6%, with 200/400 GbE share up 68.9% in 2023. Hyperscalers are shifting from InfiniBand to high‑speed Ethernet, and Arista is expected to earn over US $1 billion in AI‑driven switch sales in 2025. Meanwhile, Broadcom‑based chips are powering 80% of non‑Cisco Ethernet switch silicon, supporting 51 Tb/s data rates.

Ethernet Switch and Router Market Dynamics

DRIVER

Surge in AI/data-center deployments.

AI-centric infrastructure investments caused shipments of 200/400 GbE switches to soar, with a 126% y/y port increase in Q2 2024, reaching 3.6 million ports for 100 GbE in Q1 2019, an 85% rise y/y. Data-center switch port growth hit 19.7% in Q1 2023, totaling 28.9 million units. Hyperscalers shifting from InfiniBand to Ethernet for back-end networks are expected to support over US $15 billion in switch spending.

RESTRAINT

High complexity and deployment costs.

Advanced switch systems like 800 GbE require significant investments—Tomahawk 6 chips and photonic 1.6 Tbps platforms cost millions per facility, pressuring P&L. Data-center switch costs per port jumped 27% due to silicon photonics shifts. Energy-efficient Ethernet adoption potentially halves power during low traffic, yet integration costs remain high.

OPPORTUNITY

Edge computing and industrial automation.

Industrial Ethernet embedded switch revenue hit US $3.5 billion in 2024. Major manufacturers like Moxa launched 64‑port Layer‑3 rack systems with 16 × 10 GbE uplinks. China’s smart grid, rail, transportation sectors leverage switches in 5G-enabled networks; industrial market is forecast to reach US $3.9 billion by 2030.

CHALLENGE

Fragmented vendor landscape and intense competition.

New entrants like Ubiquiti, Netonix, Cumulus are disrupting with niche-premium offerings. Switching chip market is led by Broadcom (~80% share), Cisco’s ASIC, and Marvell, creating a duopoly for silicon, stacking pricing pressure. Additionally, hyperscalers are demanding disaggregated systems—Accton’s 800 GbE line offers 64‑port, 51.2 Tb/s density—fragmenting architecture choices.

Ethernet Switch and Router Market Segmentation

The switch/router market is split by type—100 MbE/1 GbE, 10 GbE, 40 GbE, 100 GbE—and by application—Carrier Ethernet, Data Center, Enterprise & Campus, Other. Segmentation indicates tiered demand: 100 MbE/1 GbE dominates edge and campus deployments; 10–40 GbE serves mid-tier enterprise; 100 GbE+ is essential in backbone and data-center environments with high-density port counts and multi-terabit throughput.

By Type

100 MbE and 1 GbE: These legacy ports remain foundational for campus, SME, and residential networks. In 2023, 1 GbE accounted for 56.5% of campus switch revenue, with shipments growing 24.2% y/y. Installed base exceeds 500 million units globally, with an annual shipment volume of 120 million ports thanks to telecom and wired broadband initiatives.
10 GbE: addresses mid-size enterprise uplinks and ToR links in smaller data centers. In 2023, this segment held 20.4% share in campus revenue and posted 5.3% year-over-year growth. Approx 40 million ports were shipped globally, valued at over US $4 billion, serving SAN and server-connectivity applications.
40 GbE: is an intermediary backbone staple. Port shipments reached 15 million units in 2023, with an installed base of 75 million. It caters to enterprise core networks and smaller-scale data centers, contributing around US $6 billion in hardware spend.
100 GbE: is a fast-growth sector; shipments hit 3.6 million ports in Q1 2019—a rise of 85.3% versus prior year. Combined residual demand drives annual port counts over 10 million, worth roughly US $12 billion in hardware procurement. 100 GbE uplinks are central to hyperscaler and cloud IaaS expansion.

By Application

Carrier Ethernet: Transport providers deploy Carrier Ethernet switches across 50 million ports annually. The global footprint includes over 90,000 metro networks and 12,000 service-provider POPs. The segment contributed 30% of total hardware spends, approaching US $10 billion.
Data Center: Includes spine-leaf and ToR architectures. Q1 2023 global shipments reached 28.9 million ports. Hyperscaler back-end Ethernet spend hit US $15 billion in 2024. 200/400 GbE ports grew 126% y/y in Q2 2024. Data-center switch inventory exceeds 200 million total ports worldwide.
Enterprise and Campus: Campus edge and core switches manage millions of global sites. 1 GbE accounts for 56.5% of campus switch revenue (~US $8 billion). 10 GbE and 40 GbE manage backbone links in large buildings, with combined revenue of US $6 billion.
Other: Includes industrial, transport, and IoT networks. Industrial switch market was US $2.47 billion in 2023, expected to reach US $3.9 billion by 2030. This covers ruggedized, hardened, PoE and DIN-rail switches in sectors like smart manufacturing, rail, and energy.

Ethernet Switch and Router Market Regional Outlook

Global market distribution reflects regional infrastructure investments and digitalization. North America dominates with 36% share, Asia-Pacific next at ~33%, Europe around 21%, and Middle East & Africa (MEA) plus Latin America covering the rest.

North America

accounted for about 36% of market share in 2025. In Q4 2024, U.S. data-center Ethernet switch sales rose 41.3% year-on-year, with annual growth of 18.9%. The U.S. router & switch market was valued at approximately US $22.27 billion projected by 2031. Canada and Mexico added robust demand—Canada posting a 9% increase in switch/router usage and Mexico 8.1% over the same timeframe —mainly driven by 5G and enterprise cloud adoption.

Europe

held roughly 21–25% of the global Ethernet switch/router market in 2025. The EMEA region grew Ethernet switch shipments by 19.5% in Q1 2025. In 2024 the switch market in Europe reached around US $4.96 billion. Digital transformation in telecoms, smart city projects, and enterprise networking are key demand drivers underlying nearly 5% annual increases in infrastructure spend.

Asia-Pacific

held about 33% of total market in 2025. Its Ethernet switch segment reached US $3.80 billion in 2024—about 23% of global switch revenue. China notably contributed US $1.71 billion, followed by India at US $456 million and Japan US $525 million. APAC saw the fastest expansion, with switch shipments increasing 11.3% y/y, fueled by cloud rollouts, 5G infrastructure, and smart manufacturing.

Middle East & Africa

plus Latin America combined for approximately 10% of the global market. EMEA region’s switch segment grew 19.5% in early 2025. Infrastructure programs linked to telecom modernization and data-center builds in GCC and South Africa, along with metro fiber expansion, drove switch/router investments by an estimated US $1.8 billion in 2024.

List of Top Ethernet Switch and Router Companies

ADTRAN
Alcatel-Lucent
Allied Telesis
Arista
ASUSTeK
Belkin
Brocade
Buffalo
Ciena
Cisco
D-Link
Dell
Enterasys
Ericsson
Extreme
Hewlett-Packard
HP
Huawei
Intel Corp
Juniper
MERCURY
Motorola Inc
Netcore
NETGEAR
Siemens AG
SMC
TELLABS
Tenda
TP-Link
ZTE

Cisco: Held the highest global market share, powering over 80% of Fortune 500 enterprise networks via Catalyst and Nexus products. In Q4 2024, its Ethernet switch sales grew 18.9% y/y in North America.

Arista Networks: Ranked second by share, shipping over US $1 billion of AI‑optimized switches in 2025.

Investment Analysis and Opportunities

Investment in Ethernet switch and router infrastructure is intensifying across several fronts. Hyperscalers are injecting more than US $15 billion annually into high‑speed back‑end Ethernet deployments, primarily funding 200/400/800 GbE fabrics. In 2024 alone, data‑center switch traffic surged 126% year‑on‑year for 200/400 GbE and achieved 23.8% sequential growth in Q3 2024. These figures signal stable demand for ultra‑high‑speed gear from major cloud providers, creating lucrative opportunities for vendors and investors. Carrier-grade investments are also on the rise; North America’s service‑provider router and switch market topped US $10.5 billion in 2023, comprising over 35% regional share. 5G backhaul and metro Ethernet upgrades account for a sizable portion of this figure, as telcos deploy higher‑capacity edge nodes and routers. APAC investments show strong momentum: Ethernet switch revenue reached US $3.8 billion in 2024, with China alone accounting for nearly US $1.7 billion. India’s market, worth US $456 million in the same year, is rapidly expanding with 11.8% switch shipment growth. This opens opportunities for global vendors to partner with regional integrators, capitalize on Make in India telecom spending, and serve smart‑city infrastructure.

Enterprise networking continues to attract investment: campus 1 GbE switches accounted for 56.5% of campus switch sales in 2023, while 10 GbE and 40 GbE uplinks accounted for US $6 billion in hardware investment . There’s growing demand for Wi‑Fi 6/7 campus fabrics and converged PoE access switches, especially in universities and hospitals. Emerging market investments are also significant. MEA region Ethernet switch build-outs—including telecom fiber and IDC roll‑outs—clocked about US $1.8 billion in 2024. Eastern Europe and Latin America contribute another US $1.5 billion collectively. Investor interest is heightened by the rise of software-defined architectures. SDN adoption grew by approximately 55% over five years, boosting controller‑driven switch and router sales. Startups and chip vendors offering disaggregated systems are attracting Series C and later funding for open networking, AI‑managed fabrics, and edge‑optimized modular switches. Overall, the investment landscape is characterized by high‑velocity capital injections in hyperscale, edge, enterprise, and service‑provider segments. Key opportunities exist in supply of high‑speed optics, programmable switch ASICs, SD‑WAN software, and geographically diversified deployments. Strategic investors can exploit rising demand for multi‑terabit fabrics, cloud‑edge convergence, and IoT‑driven industrial networking.

New Product Development

The Ethernet switch and router market has experienced a surge in new product development between 2023 and 2024, with a strong emphasis on speed, programmability, AI optimization, and open networking standards. A major development occurred with the introduction of Arista Networks’ 800 GbE switch platforms in 2024. Based on Broadcom’s Tomahawk 5 and 6 silicon, Arista's new 51.2 Tb/s chassis delivers 64×800 GbE ports or 128×400 GbE in a 2U form factor. This breakthrough product targets hyperscale AI workloads and is optimized for GPU cluster connectivity, representing a significant leap in bandwidth and density. Similarly, Cisco upgraded its Nexus 9800 series switches to support up to 25.6 Tb/s throughput per chassis with ultra-low latency and enhanced telemetry powered by Cisco Silicon One chips. These platforms offer dynamic buffering and predictive congestion control using AI-based analytics, supporting faster and smarter data-center operations. Meanwhile, Juniper Networks has launched AI-native routers and switches under its Mist AI platform, combining Layer 3 switching and real-time anomaly detection via deep learning engines. Juniper’s EX4400 series and QFX5200 have been enhanced to support MACsec, EVPN-VXLAN, and AI-driven configuration profiles.

In parallel, the industrial Ethernet segment saw a wave of rugged, application-specific switch developments. Moxa introduced a 64-port rackmount Layer 3 switch with 10 GbE uplinks, tailored for railway and energy grid automation, while Siemens launched IP67-grade Ethernet switches featuring PoE++ capabilities up to 90 W per port for outdoor deployments. These developments are vital for smart infrastructure and mission-critical OT environments. On the open networking front, vendors such as Edgecore and Accton released open-hardware 800 GbE switches pre-loaded with SONiC, enabling disaggregated network stacks for hyperscalers. This aligns with the trend of software-defined networking and vendor-neutral interoperability. In campus networking, TP-Link expanded its Omada series with 10 GbE multi-gig switches featuring centralized SDN control and DPI integration, designed for educational institutions and enterprise access layers. Huawei added a new S12700E high-end campus switch series offering up to 57.6 Tb/s switching capacity and integrated AI-driven security analytics for east-west traffic control. Additionally, Broadcom announced the SBS90000 switch chip, supporting 1.6 Tbps PAM4 optics and advanced load balancing for future-ready Ethernet fabrics. It enables manufacturers to produce ultra-high bandwidth switches at 800 GbE and beyond. These hardware innovations are complemented by software upgrades, such as programmable telemetry, dynamic power scaling, and zero-trust enforcement embedded in network OS layers.

Five Recent Developments

Arista’s 800 GbE Launch - Arista’s multi-terabit 800 GbE switch based on 51.2 Tb/s ASIC launched mid‑2024, priced north of US $100 000 per chassis.
Cisco Forecast Upgrade - Cisco raised its 2024 network hardware forecast following strong AI-driven data-center demand, with Q1 2024 revenue at US $13.84 billion.
TP-Link Security Scrutiny - U.S. federal agencies reviewed banning TP-Link routers (65% U.S. small-business share) over national-security vulnerabilities.
Dell’Oro High-End Router Decline - Q3 2024 saw a 19% drop in North America high-end router revenues; Nokia gained share with a 10% increase y/y.
Broadcom SBS 90000 Chip - In late 2024, Broadcom announced its SBS 90000 1.6 Tbps switch chip with PAM4 optics support, targeting hyperscale router platforms.

Report Coverage of Ethernet Switch and Router Market

This report delivers a detailed examination of Ethernet switch and router ecosystems, segmenting by type, application, and geography with numerical data to guide strategic decision-making. It profiles types: 100 MbE/1 GbE, 10 GbE, 40 GbE, 100 GbE, including modular vs. fixed‑configuration architectures. The base‑year 2024 switch market was valued at US $14.8–18.2 billion globally, with 100 GbE ports totaling over 3.6 million units in Q1 2019. The report outlines per‑port shipment volume (e.g. 28.9 million data‑center ports in Q1 2023) and unit traffic. Application segmentation covers Carrier Ethernet, with over 50 million ports deployed annually and US $10 billion spent. Data Center figures include 28.9 million ports in Q1 2023 and US $15 billion infrastructure investment. Enterprise/Campus accounted for 56.5% share via 1 GbE switches and US $6 billion in 10/40 GbE spends. Industrial and Other segment adds US $2.47 billion in rugged switches alone. Geographically, the report maps North America (36%), APAC (33%), Europe (21%), and MEA+Latin America (≈10%) share distributions. Region-specific annual unit/port shipment, hardware spends, and infrastructure pipeline are detailed. North America leads with US $22 billion worth in 2023; APAC’s switch revenue was US $3.8 billion in 2024 and China contributed US $1.71 billion; Europe posted US $4.96 billion in switch sales.

Vendor coverage includes 25+ providers including Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Huawei, Ericsson, NETGEAR, ZTE, TP‑Link, HP. Market share data shows Cisco and Arista together control over 50% of global switch/router dollars. Investment in open‑switch platforms (SONiC, ONIE) is quantified, noting that disaggregation captured 35% of hyperscaler expenditures. The report also includes sections on market opportunities—edge computing (industrial switch segment worth US $3.5 billion in 2024), Carrier Ethernet densification, and IoT growth trends. It touches on restraints such as deployment complexity, cost per port rising ~27% for silicon photonics, and router inventory corrections (North America high‑end router revenues down 19% in Q3 2024). Methodology covers historical data (2019–2023), quarterly port shipment trackers, trade matrixes (e.g. China 108,783 switch unit exports), vendor financial analysis, and scenario modeling for 800/1 600 GbE adoption curves. Target users include telcos, hyperscalers, enterprise C‑suite, system integrators, chip manufacturers, and investment funds assessing next‑gen networking infrastructure asset allocations.