Worldwide router sales reached record levels in 2006 as service providers upgraded infrastructures to cope with high-bandwidth video traffic.

An analysis from Dell'Oro Group said that Cisco Systems continued to dominate the global router market, enjoying year-on-year sales growth in 2006 of 27 per cent.

Juniper Networks came in second, with a modest one per cent sales increase last year, while Alcatel secured third place with annual sales growth of 219 per cent. 

"2006 saw the race to deliver video content and television services over the internet kick into high gear," said Shin Umeda, vice president of router research at Dell'Oro Group.

"Service providers invested heavily in high performance routers to beef up the capacity of their networks to accommodate the video traffic.

"Most router vendors benefited from these investments, and we expect the momentum to carry into 2007."