News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

Editorial Contacts:
Frank Zajaczkowski, Ixia, 818.871.1800, 

Lori Choi, Ixia, 818.444.2334, 

   
Greg Wood, Internet2, 202-331-5360, 


IXIA PROVIDES INTERNET2 COMMUNITY WITH UNPARALLELD VISIBILITY INTO 
INTER-DOMAIN PERFORMANCE

Abilene network uses IxTraffic to monitor BGP routing and traffic 
performance

CALABASAS, CA, July 30, 2002 - Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA), a leading provider 
of high-speed, multiport network performance analysis and optimization 
systems, announced today that as part of its sponsorship of Internet2 it 
has donated its inter-domain traffic engineering software, IxTraffic, 
for use in monitoring routing and traffic flows on the Internet2 Abilene 
network.  IxTraffic is used to optimize the performance of Abilene, the 
world’s most advanced research network.

"Organizations using the Abilene network demand the highest standards of 
end-to-end traffic performance," explained Steve Steve Corbató, Director 
of Backbone Network Infrastructure.  "This requires that we monitor and 
optimize both internal network performance and performance at the edges 
of the network where Abilene interconnects with other academic and 
research networks.  IxTraffic provides us with unprecedented visibility 
and understanding of our inter-domain traffic."

IxTraffic was deployed in June 2002 and is now providing network 
engineers with live, domain-wide visibility into the behavior of 
Abilene’s border gateway protocol (BGP) routing, enabling rapid 
identification of problems and anomalies.  Correlation between this 
routing data and traffic flow information is also enabling detailed 
analysis of traffic usage patterns between participating organizations.

"As a sponsor of Internet2, we are pleased to be in a position to help 
ensure the continued high performance of the Abilene network," said Eran 
Karoly, vice president of marketing for Ixia.  "Ixia is committed to the 
continued development of leading edge networking technologies."

Underscoring this commitment, Ixia is currently partnering with the Asia 
Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), STAR TAP, and the RouteViews project 
sponsored by the University of Waikato, New Zealand.

More than 200 academic and research organizations participate in the 
Abilene network, interconnecting at speeds ranging from OC-3 to OC-48. 
Connectors include 29 peer networks, such as the Defense Research and 
Engineering Network (DREN), the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy 
Sciences Network (ESnet), NASA’s Integrated Services Network (NISN) and 
Research and Education Network (NREN), the very high performance 
Backbone Network Service (vBNS) sponsored by the National Science 
Foundation, as well as more than 50 non-U.S. research and education 
networks.

At this week’s Internet2 Joint Technical Workshop, in Boulder, Colorado, 
staff from Ixia and the Abilene network operations center (NOC) at 
Indiana University will provide demos of IxTraffic and hands-on training 
sessions in inter-domain traffic engineering.  Topics include: 
short-term traffic management, including routing optimization and 
congestion mitigation, and longer-term network planning involving 
peering analysis and evaluating requirements for new capacity and 
services. Routing and traffic load information from Abilene’s 13 core 
routers is available from the Abilene NOC, http://www.abilene.iu.edu.

"Trend analysis and correlation of network metrics is fundamental to 
understanding the Internet’s evolution and to the design of future 
protocols and technologies," explained Guy Almes, Internet2's chief 
engineer. "The data collected by IxTraffic will be an important source 
of information for the network research community."

In addition to providing real-time network monitoring and optimization 
benefits, IxTraffic data will be available for off-line analysis by 
participating Internet2 researchers.

About Ixia
Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA) delivers powerful, distributed, multiport traffic 
generators, and performance/conformance analyzers for wire-speed 
verification of optical networking equipment, LAN, MAN, WAN multi-layer 
switches and routers, and sophisticated routing protocols. Its products 
utilize a variety of interfaces - Packet Over SONET, BERT, 10 Gigabit 
Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet, and USB. Ixia’s 
network operations applications address the industry’s growing 
requirements for a higher level of control over network optimization, 
traffic engineering, traffic profiling, and security.  Ixia’s analysis 
solutions are distinguished by their accuracy, reliability, high port 
density, support for emerging protocol standards, conformance adherence, 
and adaptability to the industry's constant evolution.

For more information, contact Ixia at 26601 W. Agoura Road, Calabasas, 
CA 91302; (818) 871-1800, Fax: (818) 871-1805; Email:  
or visit our Web Site at http://www.ixiacom.com.

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/

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/

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