In a quarter that was sequentially flat for the IP services transport equipment market (and down in North America), Juniper Networks increased its revenue from IP core routers 36% sequentially, according to research analysis firm RHK. The increase narrowed the gap in core router market share between Juniper and its market-leading rival, Cisco Systems, by about 14%.

Amid the overall IP services transport equipment market, Juniper closed the gap between its market share and Cisco’s by about 5%, RHK said. But on a rolling four-quarter basis, the swing in market share was only 2%, RHK analyst Mark Seery said. Those preliminary numbers will be followed by final numbers in a few weeks, he added.

Juniper, the distant second-place vendor in the IP core routing market, has been advancing its position at Cisco's expense for several quarters. In the third quarter of 2003, Cisco held 76.3% of the market to Juniper's 20.9%, according to a recent report from Merrill Lynch and Synergy Research. But a year later, at the end of last year's third quarter, Cisco's share had slipped to 69.1%, and Juniper's share had climbed to 29.4%.

In the fourth quarter of 2004, Cisco's revenue from IP services transport infrastructure declined in all regions, RHK said. Juniper also saw modest growth in edge networking equipment during the quarter.

Both companies unveiled new core routers in December, following the release of Cisco's much-anticipated CRS-1 in May 2004.