Networking leaders Cisco and Juniper are both issuing new releases to their product portfolio this week that expand on the promise of speed and service convergence. Cisco is rolling out new mobile and carrier solutions while Juniper is ramping up a new dynamic services product line.

The new offerings come as the market for IP routers are rising at a rapid 40 percent growth rate in the second quarter of 2008 hitting $2.8 billion. Fuelling demand for the networking gear is an increasing amount of traffic that is only going to grow more over the next few years.

"We see a six fold increase between 2007 and 2012 in network traffic, by 2012 we see half a zettabyte (define) crossing the global network" Mike Capuano, marketing director for Cisco's service provider routing and switching unit, told InternetNews.com. "Mobile data and video are growing rapidly while consumer video is a huge driver and we see that quadrupling by 2012. This is driving a need for consolidation through a single packet infrastructure that can handle IP efficiently."