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Alcatel-Lucent's new 7950 XRS core router can stream 2.5 million HD videos every second.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In a world where we're constantly connected and video sucks up an ever-growing chunk of precious bandwidth, Internet service providers are getting desperate for ways to crank up their speed.

Networking challenger Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) is about to give them what they want.

The company announced Tuesday that it has developed the "7950 XRS," a core Internet router that is capable of speeds up to five times faster than those of its nearest competitor. Just one 7950 XRS router can deliver 16 terabits of data per second. That's about 2.5 million HD video streams every tick of the second hand.

It's roughly five times faster than the CRS-3, networking giant Cisco's latest and greatest core router, which debuted in 2010.

Core routers sit at the epicenter of the Internet, serving as the traffic cops at the biggest intersections on the busiest data highways. They direct huge amounts of traffic, connecting visitors' requests to sites like Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Netflix (NFLX) or CNNMoney and sending data back to the right place in return.

It's a crucial part of the Internet backbone, but it's a market in which Alcatel-Lucent hasn't participated until now. Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) and Juniper (JNPR) are by far the two largest players in core routing. Few have challenged them since the dawn of the Internet.

"Alcatel-Lucent faces a big challenge," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder at Infonetics Research. "It is hard for service providers to change or add new products and new vendors in any critical area, and core routing is a critical area."

But if history is any guide, Alcatel-Lucent has a shot at making a serious dent in Cisco's market share. In 2003, the company began challenging Cisco and Juniper in "edge routing," which take individuals' requests and sends them to core routers. Think of edge routers as the on-ramps to the information superhighway.

Starting from a customer base of zero, Alcatel-Lucent now controls 24% of the market, surpassing Juniper as the No. 2 vendor in edge-routing last year and bringing in $2 billion in revenue.

Link:
How Alcatel-Lucent made the Internet 5 times faster