Internet2 thrashes speed records

Universities involved in the Internet2 project, which specialises in high speed data transfer between academic institutions around the globe, set two consecutive new land speed records this week.

An international team led by the University of Tokyo successfully transferred data at a rate of 7.67Gbps over standard. The next day, the team used a modified version of TCP to achieve a throughput of 9.08Gbps, proving that IPv6 networks are able to provide the same, if not better, performance as IPv4.

Both records were carried out over a path 30,000km in distance, crossing six international networks over three quarters the circumference of the Earth.

Kei Hiraki, professor at the University of Tokyo and LSR team leader said, “These records are final for the 10Gbps network era because they represent more than 98 per cent of the upper limit of network capacity. Through collaboration by a number of institutions, we have demonstrated the ability to overcome the distance and achieve this newest mark.”