Network Refreshes and Preparation for AI Will Fuel Market in 2026
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.
According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, the Campus Ethernet Switch market rebounded in 2025, but did not grow enough to compensate for the 19 percent contraction in 2024 revenue.
“Vendors are dodging campus switch component shortages that are appearing because of the massive AI build out, and this is driving up costs,” said Siân Morgan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “There has already been one round of price increases, and we expect more to come. Prices are growing at a time when enterprises must refresh their older switching gear to ensure security compliance, and to prepare for the proliferation of AI agents. Customer demand, combined with the higher prices will drive market growth over the next five years,” continued Morgan.
Additional highlights from the Campus Ethernet Switch 5-Year January 2026 Forecast Report:
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Demand for PoE ports is increasing, with the higher power requirements of IoT devices and WLAN APs.
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For the second time in history, spending on modular form factors will grow faster than the total market in 2025.
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Richer feature sets, including AIOps functionality, are expected to drive up vendor software revenues.
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Wi-Fi 7 adoption and the introduction of Wi-Fi 8 APs will continue to fuel demand for multi-gig ports.
About the Report
The Dell’Oro Group Campus Ethernet Switch 5-Year Forecast Report offers a complete overview of Ethernet switches built and optimized for deployment outside the data center, to connect users and things to the Local Area Networks. The report contains tables covering manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and port/unit shipments by speed (100 Mbps, 1/2.5/5/10/25/40/50/100/200/400 Gbps Ethernet), plus regional breakouts.
