BEIJING INTERNET INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES RESULTS OF WORLD’S FIRST PUBLIC CORE ROUTER IPV6 INTEROPERABILITY AND PERFORMANCE TEST

BEIJING (March 4, 2003) -- The Beijing Internet Institute (BII), a leading global research and testing facility, today announced the results of the world’s first public core router trial, designed to test Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) interoperability and performance. Four network equipment developers, Fujitsu, Ltd; Hitachi, Ltd.; Juniper Networks; and NEC Networks, successfully participated in the trial which was conducted from October to December 2002 in Beijing by BII, in collaboration with China’s 6TNet (IPv6 Telecom Trial Network). A report on test results is available at www.6tnet.com.cn/testing/ipv6coreroutertestingreport.pdf.

The core routers tested were the Fujitsu GeostreamR920, the Hitachi GR2000-20H, the Juniper Networks M20, and the NEC CX5210. Agilent Technologies provided test systems, IPv6 test methodologies and technical support for the event.

Using the Agilent RouterTester, BII conducted independent tests of each core router, including routing protocol conformance testing, OC-48 IPv6 performance testing, IPv6 routing stress tests and BGP4+ and OSPFv3 interoperability tests, to verify the feasibility of IPv6 deployment. Based on test results and measurements, all participating routers successfully demonstrated the ability to support commercial IPv6 networks and provide basic IPv6 capabilities, including support for IPv6 routing protocols, forwarding of IPv6 datagrams at wire rate and IPv6 interoperability between the equipment tested.

“ This event marks an important step forward in advancing the deployment of the next- generation IPv6 protocol, and delivering the many benefits it brings to the world’s core networks,” said Hua Ning, chief technology officer of BII. “We were extremely pleased to host China’s first IPv6 test event and to make the results available to the world’s networking community. While this was not a comparative performance test of different router vendors, we achieved our collective purpose by publicly verifying the feasibility of IPv6 deployment.”

“Juniper Networks is pleased to have participated in this landmark project, having been a pioneer in the development of robust platforms that advance the adoption and deployment of IPv6,” commented Pradeep Sindhu, chief technology officer of Juniper Networks. “IPv6 is essential to accommodate the growth in worldwide Internet usage, spurred on by the development of new IP-based services and Internet-enabled devices. It is essential, therefore, for service providers to begin planning to support IPv6. This test clearly demonstrates that carrier-class solutions that support IPv6 are available now.”

IPv6 is the next-generation protocol defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Today, global Internet traffic is transported using IPv4, which is limited to 32?bit addresses. With the growing demand for wireless Internet addresses, and expanding interest in integrating Internet connectivity into other devices (such as automobiles and appliances), the demand for IPv4 addresses will exceed supply. IPv6 overcomes this, as well as other IPv4 limitations, by expanding addresses to 128 bits and offering a variety of other enhancements to support future Internet growth.

In order to migrate networks to IPv6, network equipment developers and service providers must ensure that core routers and networks can support both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic during the transitional period. In addition, core network routers must be able to deliver IPv6 forwarding at wire rates, without sacrificing performance or reliability. IPv6 core routers must also support IPv6 routing protocols, such as BGP4+, OSPFv3, ISISv6 and RIPng, as well as migration mechanisms such as tunneling, dual stacks and protocol translation.

The Agilent RouterTester is the world’s leading IPv6 & IPv4 test solution, offering protocol emulation for the IPv6 versions of all key routing protocols, plus fully integrated traffic generation and analysis across a wide range of interfaces. Additional information on RouterTester IPv6 testing capabilities is available at www.agilent.com/comms/routertester.

About BII

The BII Group, based in Beijing, China, evolved from the Beijing Internet Institute. Since its founding in 1995. BII is currently the only total solution provider committed to development of carrier-class IPv6 solutions in China. BII has cooperated closely on research and market development activities with the Chinese government, IT and other industries in China, and with major research institutes and technology companies in the United States, Japan and Europe. BII is committed to close and broad cooperation with the telecommunications and Internet industries of China and the world, and to facilitating the development of technologies and solutions for the future.

In March 2002, BII and the Research Institute of Telecommunication Transmission of MII jointly established 6Tnet (IPv6 Telecom Trial Net), the first IPv6 trial network for service provider and multi-vendor interworking in China.

About RouterTester

RouterTester is the industry's only test solution capable of simulating an environment that accurately reflects the potential scale, complexity and volatility of today's IP networks and services. RouterTester offers Ethernet, POS and ATM test interfaces ranging from 10/100 Ethernet through 10 GbE (LAN and WAN Phy) and OC-192c/STM-64c Packet Over SONET/SDH. Agilent RouterTester can be used to emulate a variety of traffic encapsulations including IPv4, IPv6, MPLS and PPP; a complete spectrum of unicast and multicast routing stacks including BGP-4, OSPF and IS-IS; and MPLS signaling protocols, including RSVP-TE and LDP/CR-LDP. Further product and technical information is available at www.agilent.com/comms/RouterTester.

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