Worldwide sales of service provider routers accelerated in the third quarter with a 30 per cent increase over the same period last year, new market data has revealed.

Research from Dell'Oro Group suggests that Cisco Systems was the clear market leader with more than 55 per cent revenue share. Rounding out the top four were Juniper Networks, Alcatel and Redback Networks.

The report highlights a "notably strong demand" for edge routers, which grew at more than twice the rate of core routers and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the $1.5bn service provider router market.

"Over the past three quarters, the edge router market growth has accelerated as service providers look to prepare their networks for next-generation broadband services such as IPTV and VoIP," said Shin Umeda, vice president of router research at Dell'Oro Group.

"At the same time, the core router market has slowed but is still registering solid double-digit growth."