Core router vendor Avici Systems Inc. likely kicked off what could be an interesting race among superpowers in a segment that, like Avici before it, gained profitability and has been eerily quiet.

The company on Feb. 15 detailed the creation of a universal control plan product due out later this year that portends to make life easier for next-gen network builders, if all goes accordingly to Avici’s plan, by letting them use a broader array of often lower-cost technology components in their construction efforts.

The move, which also featured the creation of a new Avici business unit for the product, was seen by analysts as upstaging much large routers such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc., which made their early money in building large core routers.

More importantly, it’s seen as a critical effort to address the needs of service provider members, and thus their equipment suppliers, of the IPsphere Forum, an international industry association that’s meeting this week for a plenary confab.

I would be both shocked and awed if Cisco, Juniper and others sat back and let Avici run to the finish line uncontested with this planned product, called a universal control plane. That’s in part because they have time and more resources to come up with an entrant of their own, not to mention financial motivation.

And what of smaller vendors who risk having their product lines – and existence – challenged by a company that already has AT&T Inc. as its largest service provider customers and at least two quarters of profitability behind them?

If people didn’t like races, we wouldn’t have NASCAR, track and field or competition in general, so I’m assuming once one resource-rich Avici rival takes the challenge, we’ll have some solid viewing ahead. And if the analysts are correct, service providers will be the winners.

With the mammoth focus on everything IPTV for so long, the core routing vendors have been working hard outside the markets and product lines that got them established and successful in the first place. Look for them to turn much of their focus back to good old routing innovation and product development this year.

But even if Cisco and Juniper ignore Avici’s efforts, which seems highly unlikely, the big pressure will obviously still be on Avici to deliver, and deliver big, without missing a beat. That’s because once you reveal development of a breakthrough technology or product, you take the industry spotlight and keep it.

And that’s not something Avici has been exposed to for a very long time.

Stay tuned for what could be a wild ride.