Contact:
Greg Wood
Internet2
ghwood@internet2.edu
+1-202-331-5360
ABILENE INTERNET2 BACKBONE NETWORK
DEPLOYS NEXT GENERATION INTERNET PROTOCOL
Native IPv6 Service Offered
to Thousands of US Research and Education Institutions
Ann Arbor, Michigan—August
5, 2002—Internet2
today announced that the nationwide Abilene backbone network now offers
native next generation Internet Protocol (IPv6) service. This deployment makes
high-performance IPv6 service available to over 200 Internet2 member
institutions and thousands of other research and education institutions across
the United States that have access to Abilene.
The deployment in Abilene also marks the first large
scale deployment in the United States of native IPv6 on Cisco
System's 12000 series routers. Abilene's native IPv6 service
complements existing IPv6 deployment in other research and education networks
around the world, such as ESnet in the United States, Renater
in France, and SURFnet
in the Netherlands.
"The Cisco 12000 Series
Internet Router plays a prominent role in next-generation IPv6 networks. Abilene is a great example of
continued success and innovation around this technology," said Tony Bates,
vice president and general manager, High End Routing Group. "As pioneers
of IPv6 technology, Cisco helped to shape the definition and development of
IPv6 and today leads the industry with IPv6 protocol and platform breadth
allowing the Internet2 Abilene network to provide cutting-edge IPv6
services"
"Deploying native IPv6
continues Abilene's evolution as a leading-edge network
environment that supports the development of new applications,"
said Steve Corbató, director of backbone network initiatives for
Internet2. "We believe the deployment of IPv6 could be critical to
sustaining the scalable growth and innovation that has distinguished the
Internet's development over the past 30 years."
IPv6 is the next version of
the Internet protocol, updating the data packaging and routing standard. The
current version is IPv4; IPv5 was experimental and was never widely deployed.
IPv6 offers several improvements over IPv4. Most importantly, with 128-bit long
Internet addresses instead of the 32-bit addresses of IPv4, IPv6 vastly
increases the number of addresses available which, along with other
improvements, paves the way for a large range of new applications.
For more information about
IPv6 activities in the Internet2 community, see: http://ipv6.internet2.edu/
About Abilene
Abilene, developed in partnership
with Qwest Communications, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Nortel Networks and
Indiana University, is an Internet2 backbone
network providing nationwide high-performance networking capabilities for over
200 universities and research facilities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For more information on Abilene please see: http://www.internet2.edu/abilene/
About Internet2(R)
Led by over 190 U.S. universities, working with
industry and government, Internet2 is developing and deploying advanced network
applications and technologies for research and higher education, accelerating
the creation of tomorrow's Internet. Internet2 recreates the partnerships among
academia, industry, and government that helped foster today's Internet in its
infancy. For more information about Internet2, see: http://www.internet2.edu/
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