L2-L7 LAN switch revenue hit $3.8bn in the fourth quarter, up 22% on the year, according to latest research from Infonetics, with Cisco once again leaving its footprints all over the market.

L2-L3 ethernet switch revenue dominated the market, taking $3.6bn of total sales, though this was down 3% on the previous quarter. Revenues in this sector should grow 2% over the coming year, the firm predicted. Gigabit is finally outpacing 10/1000M sales, added Infonetics.

Cisco was the dominant vendor, surprise surprise, especially in the chassis market, and took 56% of the L2–L3 fixed configuration switch market by revenue and 29% by port share. However, the research group noted, the firm has been losing fixed configuration port share over the year to competitors like NETGEAR and D-Link. 3Com was second in L2-L3 fixed configuration share.

Cisco leads the L4-L7 switch/load balancer segment without SSL segment with 44% revenue share and 43% port share, while F5 leads in L4-L7 switch/load balancers with SSL, taking 54% of revenue and 56% of ports. ®

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