News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren Rotman" <>]

Internet2 Commercial Peering Service Continues to Expand

 

Service provides members enhanced performance, cost savings; Now supports

Commercial IPv6 traffic, New regional networks participating, and new routes

added

 

ANN ARBOR, MICH. - JANUARY 24, 2008 - Internet2 is pleased to announce that

its Commercial Peering (CP) Service has expanded, adding close to 10,000 new

routes, as well as new regional R&E network participants. In addition, through

the guidance and technical direction of the Internet2 Network Technical

Advisory Committee (NTAC), comprised of technical leaders from the

organization's member community, Internet2 is in the process of migrating IPv6

commercial connections to the CP service platform.

 

"The Internet2 community has supported IPv6 and multicast peering with

commercial networks as a method of promoting the adoption of next-generation

standards. With the deployment of the CP service, Internet2 now has strong

connectivity to a number of key commercial peering exchanges. By transitioning

Internet2's current commercial IPv6 peering to the CP service, these locations

can be leveraged for additional commercial IPv6 peering. This in turn will

increase the number of potential commercial IPv6 peers and in many cases

provide redundant paths to these peers," said Jeff Bartig, chief network

engineer for WiscNet and chair of the NTAC peering subcommittee. "Strong IPv6

connectivity with commercial networks will better position the U.S. research

and education community as a global leader in advanced networking."

 

Through coordination with the Global Research Network Operations Center

(GRNOC), Internet2 will work together with Internet2 Connectors to ensure

proper adaptations are made to enable the new routing. Information regarding

the migration of IPv6 traffic to the CP platform was presented during the

Winter 2008 ESCC/Internet2 Joint Techs Workshop held in Honolulu, HI this

week. An archived netcast of the session, titled "Internet2 IPv6 Connector

Changes - Moving Commercial IPv6 to CPS," can be found at:

http://jointtechs.es.net/hawaii2008/netcast.html

 

Since its inception in late 2006, the CP service has provided settlement-free

connections between the advanced Internet2 IP Network and major content and

Internet service providers to provide participating members enhanced network

performance, cost savings and additional collaboration opportunities. Today,

fifteen Internet2 Connectors and members currently participate in the CP

service.

 

Offered to Internet2 members at no additional charge through their existing

connections to the Internet2 IP Network, CP has enabled participants to

realize significant savings in their monthly commercial Internet expenditures.

With over 72,000 routes available through Internet2's nationwide peering

partnerships, participants are reporting an average of 50% reduction in

traffic on their links to the commodity Internet.

 

The Great Plains Network, a CP Service participant, has reported peaks of over

one gigabit of traffic since using the service. As additional routes are

added, GPN anticipates this volume will increase and users will continue to

experience application performance improvements.

 

"Utilizing the CP service has provided tangible value to the GPN region

enabling us to better utilize and gain greater value from our high performance

connection to the Internet2 Network as well as provide our users immediate

performance improvements in their interactions with sites available on the CP

service," said Dale Finkelson, director of networking, University of Nebraska-

Lincoln.

 

The Internet2 CP service encompasses four national peering connections points

which include Chicago, Seattle, Palo Alto and New York City. To further

augment the CP service's connectivity at public switches, Internet2 has worked

to increase capacity through additional private peerings with major traffic

generators at its nationwide peering points. Additional public and private

peering opportunities are under evaluation to expand and diversify routing

capabilities and the commercial network peering structure.

 

To learn more about the Internet2 CP Service, visit

http://www.internet2.edu/network/cp or contact . 

 

About Internet2

Internet2 is the foremost U.S. advanced networking consortium. Led by the

research and education community since 1996, Internet2 promotes the missions

of its members by providing both leading-edge network capabilities and unique

partnership opportunities that together facilitate the development, deployment

and use of revolutionary Internet technologies. Internet2 brings the U.S.

research and academic community together with technology leaders from

industry, government and the international community to undertake

collaborative efforts that have a fundamental impact on tomorrow's Internet.

For more information: http://www.internet2.edu/

 

Media Contact:

Lauren Rotman, Internet2

202.331.5345