News for and about the Internet2 community

["Michelle Pollak" <>]

NEW WORLD RECORD ANNOUNCED FOR INTERNET PERFORMANCE

Caltech and CERN send data at more than 6.25 Gbps across nearly 11,000 km

ARLINGTON, VA - April 20, 2004 - An international team has set a new
Internet2(R) Land Speed Record by transferring data across nearly 11,000
kilometers at an average rate of 6.25 gigabits per second (Gbps), nearly
10,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection, from Los
Angeles, Calif. to Geneva, Switzerland.  The Internet2 Land Speed Record
(I2-LSR) is an open and ongoing competition for the highest-bandwidth,
end-to-end networks.

The mark of 68,431 terabit-meters per second, which used the same IPv4
protocols deployed throughout the global Internet, was set by a team
consisting of members from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
and CERN.  The same team previously set a new mark of four Gbps over the
same distance using IPv6, the next generation of Internet protocols.

"The team from Caltech and CERN has again set a new measure for Internet
performance," said Rich Carlson, Chair of the I2-LSR judging panel.  "By
pushing the envelope of end-to-end networking, their efforts demonstrate new
possibilities for enabling research, teaching, and learning using advanced
Internet technology."

"This new record is of great importance to the future of data intensive
Grids such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Computing Grid that CERN,
together with its LHC partners around the world, is actively deploying.  We
are hopeful that new IPv4 and IPv6 Internet2 Land Speed Records will be
established this year, bringing us closer to 100 petabit-meters per second
marks, or nominal 10 gigabits per second throughputs," said Olivier Martin,
Head of External Networking at CERN and Manager of the European Union
DataTAG project.

"This new multi-stream record is an important step towards next generation
Grids where scientists are able to share an ensemble of links based on 10
gigabit per second optical wavelengths efficiently.  Recent studies of
network requirements by the U.S. Department of Energy have shown that high
energy physics, astrophysics, fusion energy, climatology, bioinformatics and
other fields will require networks in the terabit per second range within
the next decade.  In order to realize this vision, we are now working on
moving these developments into a production setting, and moving on together
with our partners to higher speeds and hybrid networks involving both
traditional links and dynamically switched optical paths," said Harvey
Newman, Professor of Physics at Caltech, US CMS Collaboration Board Chair,
and Chair of the Standing Committee on Inter-regional Connectivity of the
International Committee on Future Accelerators.

The new mark was announced today in conjunction with the Spring 2004
Internet2 Member Meeting in Arlington, Va.  The most recent record was set
with the support of Microsoft (www.microsoft.com), S2io (www.s2io.com),
Intel (www.intel.com), Cisco Systems  
(www.cisco.com), HP (www.hp.com), the U.S. National Science Foundation
(www.nsf.gov), the U.S. Department of Energy (www.doe.gov), the European
Union through the DataTAG project (www.datatag.org), and the Corporation for
Education Network Initiatives in California (www.cenic.org).  More
information can be found at: http://ultralight.caltech.edu/lsr/.

Details of the winning entries, complete rules, submission guidelines and
additional details are available at: http://lsr.internet2.edu/.

                                                        # # #

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.

Contacts:
Michelle Pollak
Internet2

+1-202-285-4590

Harvey Newman
Caltech


Olivier Martin
CERN