Juniper Networks was back in the second spot for revenue among IP edge and core router vendors, according to a recent market report by Infonetics Research.

For the third quarter, Cisco is still the overwhelming leader in router market share, but Juniper jumped back to No. 2, while Huawei, which was previously second, fell to the fourth spot behind Alcatel-Lucent. Cisco, Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei together accounted for 88 percent of total IP router revenue (edge and core) in the third quarter.

In the third quarter, the global IP edge and core router and carrier Ethernet switch market dropped by 5 percent, both sequentially and from the year-ago third quarter, to just under $3.4 billion.

“The performance of the router/switch market roughly reflects economic conditions, and true-to-form economic weakness in Europe, North America and Latin America drove down IP router and switch revenue in the third quarter,” said Michael Howard, Infonetics Research’s co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks. “EMEA posted another negative quarter amid the ongoing fiscal crisis in Europe, and we may not see much of the usual final quarter budget flush, as it seems just as the European Commission gets closer to economic steadiness, more negative reports arrive.”

“Although North America is showing positive economic signs, carrier router/switch revenue is down 2 percent from the year-ago quarter, and Latin America is slowing as many of the year-long projects in South America and Mexico wind down.”

Helped by a 31 percent spike from Japan, Asia Pacific was the only region up sequentially from the second and third quarters of this year, but Infonetics said it was only slightly up.