News for and about the Internet2 community

[Jimmy Kyriannis <>]

For immediate release:

New York University is the First University in the United States To Provide 
IPv6 Connectivity to a Supercomputer


NEW YORK, NY, Aug 23, 2005 – New York University (NYU) today announced that 
it has begun offering IP Version 6 (IPv6) Internet network connectivity to 
a recently-installed IBM eServer BladeCenter system.  IPv6 is the 
next-generation replacement for IP Version 4 (IPv4), the communications 
system currently in use worldwide on every computer that connects to the 
Internet.  IPv6 natively offers greater features than IPv4, such as support 
for much larger numbers of systems, embedded security, and native support 
for mobile technologies.  This milestone event marks the first time a 
university in the United States has announced general availability of IPv6 
access to a large-scale supercomputer.  According to the TOP500 List, a 
ranking of supercomputers published at www.top500.org, NYU’s supercomputer 
is the fastest in New York City and the 117th fastest supercomputer in the 
world, capable of a peak performance of 4.5 TeraFlops.

IPv6 connectivity for this NYU supercomputer will enable it to establish 
communications with a growing set of network-based resources both within 
the United States and international research and education 
communities.  IPv6 is rapidly being adopted in Asia and Europe, and is 
increasingly becoming the only means of access for customers of Internet 
Service Providers (ISPs) in those regions that cannot obtain large numbers 
of currently-used Internet (IPv4) addresses.  In support of NYU 
collaborations with organizations both in these areas of the world and the 
United States, IPv6 is enabling new Computer Science initiatives.  NYU 
faculty are porting research software they’ve developed for IPv4 to IPv6 in 
the fields of network and system security, as well as exploring the use 
IPv6 in distributed systems in support of high-bandwidth, QoS-sensitive 
applications such as visualization of simulations at high levels of 
detail.  It is expected that the use of IPv6 at NYU will increasingly 
foster communications with a growing population of users of the Internet.

NYU has been involved in IPv6 network development and deployment since 
early 1997, as one of the first universities to establish a connection to 
the 6bone, the world’s first global IPv6 network.  An early pioneer and 
adopter of IPv6 technology, NYU has most recently continued that trend with 
an ongoing collaborative IPv6 network design and engineering endeavor 
between NYU and NYSERNet, begun in the Fall of 2004.  NYSERNet provides NYU 
with high-bandwidth research network connectivity through its statewide 
optical network, and global connections through networks including 
Internet2's Abilene and CANARIE's CA*Net 4. Over the NYSERNet network, NYU 
researchers can use IPv6 and IPv4 with equally high performance, to reach 
their collaborators anywhere in the worldwide research community.

The principal technology lead at NYU for IPv6 is Jimmy Kyriannis.


About NYU
New York University, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, was 
established in 1831 and is one of America’s leading research universities 
and a member of the selective Association of American Universities.  It is 
one of the largest private universities in the US and a leader in 
attracting international students and scholars in the U.S.; it sends more 
students to study abroad than any other U.S. college or 
university.  Through its 14 schools and colleges, NYU conducts research and 
provides education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, business, 
dentistry, education, nursing, the cinematic and performing arts, music, 
public administration, social work, and continuing and professional 
studies, among other areas.

About NYSERNet
NYSERNet is a private New York State not-for-profit corporation created to 
foster science and education in New York State through advanced network 
technologies and applications. An Internet pioneer, NYSERNet has delivered 
next-generation network services to New York State's education and research 
community for twenty years. More information about NYSERNet can be found at 
http://www.nysernet.org.

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