Dell’Oro Group Projects Higher-Speed Ports to Exceed Half of Campus Switch Revenues by 2029

Dell’Oro Group projects that by 2029, higher-speed ports will account for more than half of Campus Switch revenues as enterprises replace unsupported equipment and respond to AI-related security concerns.

Why the refresh is accelerating

Dell’Oro Group links campus switch replacement to security audits and the need to refresh unsupported IT equipment, citing fears of breaches after reports of rogue AI agents hacking firms. “Supporting multi-gig interfaces and more Power over Ethernet (PoE) becomes critical when replacing older switches,” said Siân Morgan, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group.

Morgan also forecast that “by 2029, the Campus Switch market will no longer be dominated by sales of 1 Gbps ports,” and that sales of higher speed ports, from 2.5 Gbps to 400 Gbps, will make up over half of Campus Switch revenues.

Forecast figures and shipment scope

The Campus Ethernet Switch 5-Year July 2026 Forecast Report covers Ethernet switches built and optimized for deployments outside the data center. It includes tables on manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and port/unit shipments by speed, including 100 Mbps; 1/2.5/5/10/25/40/50/100/400 Gbps Ethernet.

The report also provides regional breakouts as part of its market overview for campus-focused Ethernet switching.

Additional report themes

Within the report’s highlights, vendors are preparing for expansion of industrial networks tied to physical AI. The report also states that modular form-factor revenue has been outpacing the market recently, but expects the trend to reverse in 2026.

Other highlights include an expectation that richer feature sets, including AIOps functionality, will increase vendor software revenues. The report also states that Wi-Fi 7 adoption and an earlier introduction of Wi-Fi 8 will grow multi-gig access demand.

This Analyst Signals brief reflects a neutral, fact-based summary of the original research note.