INTERNET2 MEMBERS PARTICIPATE IN DoD PROJECT TO EVALUATE IPv6 INTEROPERABILITY IN THE UNITED STATES

Testing Conducted on Internet2 Abilene Network

ANN ARBOR, MI – December 3, 2003 – Internet2(R) today announced that more than 10 members of its membership are participating in the Moonv6 project, a large-scale implementation of the next-generation Internet Protocol.  Moonv6 is a collaborative effort with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the North American IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF), the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (UNH-IOL) and the Joint Interoperability Testing Command (JITC) to evaluate Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in support of network-centric military operations.

Moonv6, a multi-site IPv6 network, tests the interoperability of numerous IPv6 implementations and is the largest multi-vendor IPv6 network to date.  The project will provide strong support for IPv6 by testing and demonstrating its effectiveness under everyday circumstances.

A majority of the testing is being conducted on the Internet2 Abilene network a nationwide 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) high-performance network.  In addition to the Abilene Network, Internet2 has 26 connectors, 24 peers and 34 members IPv6 enabled.

“Internet2’s participation in Moonv6 has helped to showcase not only the readiness but the effectiveness of the next-generation Internet,” said Ben Schultz at University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory. “Internet2 continues to play a crucial role in helping us bring together university, industry and government organizations to demonstrate that IPv6 is ready for wide-area deployment throughout North America and the world.”

Jim Bound, Chair of the North American IPv6 Task Force www.nav6tf.org and Chair of the IPv6 Forum Technical Directorate www.ipv6forum.com, added, “Internet2 has been instrumental in the deployment of Moonv6 to provide core backbone services and support for IPv6, the North American IPv6 Task Force is honored to work with the Internet2 community to assist with the proliferation and deployment of IPv6 and to assist the Department of Defense and other U.S. Government Agencies learn more about IPv6.”

Internet2 corporate members participating (in alphabetical order) in the Moonv6 project include:

+ Cisco Systems, www.cisco.com
+ Foundry Networks (www.foundrynet.com)
+ Fujitsu (www.fla.fujitsu.com)
+ Hewlett-Packard Company (www.hp.com)
+ IBM (www.ibm.com/us)
+ Ixia (www.ixiacom.com)
+ Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net)
+ Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)
+ Procket Networks (www.procket.com)
+ Spirent Communications (www.spirentcom.com)
+ Sun Microsystems (www.sun.com)

The Moonv6 project is the first in a series of tests to move the DoD’s Global Information Grid network to IPv6 by 2008.  The project will be conducted in two phases with the first phase concluded on Oct. 17, 2003.  Results will be announced at the U.S. IPv6 Summit 2003 in Arlington, VA on Dec. 9.  Phase two is scheduled to begin in Jan. 2004.

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About Internet2(R)
Led by more than 200 U.S. universities working with industry and government, Internet2 develops and deploys 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, visit: www.internet2.edu.

About Moonv6
The Moonv6 project is a collaborative effort between the North American IPv6 Task Force, (NAv6TF), the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), the Joint Interoperability Testing Command (JITC) and various other U.S. Defense Department agencies and Internet2.  Taking place across the United States at multiple locations, the Moonv6 project represents the most aggressive collaborative IPv6 interoperability and application demonstration event in the North American market to date.  For more information, visit: http://www.moonv6.org.

About the University of New Hampshire’s Interoperability Laboratory
Established in 1988, the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is a non-profit organization that offers comprehensive interoperability and conformance-based testing through 16 technology-based groups, called consortiums.  Test solutions created at the UNH-IOL offer a set of methods to increase interoperability through protocol operations, signaling, point-to-point and multi-system scenarios.  For more information, visit: http://www.iol.unh.edu.

Contact:
Michelle Pollak
Internet2
(202) 285-4590
mpollak@internet2.edu