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Moonv6 phase II Will Launch Network As A Permanent IPv6 Backbone

[March 08, 2004]

Moonv6 phase II Will Launch Network As A Permanent IPv6 Backbone

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) has begun a new battery of tests focusing on the backbone technology of the next-generation Internet, known as IPv6. The project will ultimately serve as the foundation for a native IPv6 backbone available for peering from anywhere in the world.

Two weeks of testing have begun at the UNH-IOL in phase II of Moonv6, a collaboration between industry leaders, the North American IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF), the UNH-IOL, Internet2 and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The current battery of tests will examine aspects of the IPv6 protocol key to widespread deployment of the technology, which is due to replace the Internet's current data transport protocol (IPv4) over the next several years.

Running March 7 – March 19, phase II of the Moonv6 project will cover:
• network routing protocols;
• applications;
• security and
• transition mechanisms.

Verification of routing, application and security functionalities is important because commercial deployment of the new Internet protocol depends in part on confidence in the technology's ability to run applications with a high degree of stability and security over complex, distributed networks. Transition mechanisms will be key during the migration from the current Internet protocol to IPv6, during which the two protocol versions will coexist. Moonv6 phase I, launched in October 2003, involved approximately 80 servers, switches and routers from major networking companies and stretched from Durham, N.H. to California.

Preliminary results from the testing will be made public in a joint press conference scheduled for 2 p.m. ET Monday, March 22. Members of the media and industry analysts RSVP and obtain dial-in information by contacting Chris Volpe, UNH-IOL Public Relations Manager at (603) 862-4349, or [email protected].

"The North American market is beginning to ship the products that will run the next version of the Internet's underlying code, and at no time has security, application performance or interoperability between vendors' products been more crucial," said Ben Schultz, IPv6 managing engineer at UNH-IOL. "Launching the project as a globally available IPv6 backbone would be the next logical step."

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