MCI and France Telecom R&D Demonstrate Multicast Video Application Over Multi-vendor Moonv6 IPv6 Network

DURHAM, N.H. and ASHBURN, Va., June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Known as the next-generation Internet protocol, IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) has been proven viable for international business and distance-learning video applications in joint testing by MCI, Inc. , France Telecom Research and Development, the University of New Hampshire-InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) and Lucent Technologies .

The tests, which represent the groundwork for future commercial IPv6 communications services, linked the North American IPv6 Task Force's Moonv6 network to MCI's global IP backbone via MCI's MAE(R) Extended Services infrastructure, from San Jose, Calif. to Durham, NH. The MCI backbone provided the essential transport and its MAE West facility hosted the IPv6 application servers from France Telecom R&D, Lucent Technologies and Panasonic.

"To my knowledge, this is the first wide-area commercial multimedia testing on IPv6 with true multicast routing at its core," said Timothy Winters, lead UNH-IOL research and test engineer on the project. "Carrier-class testing on this scale uncovers possible issues and nuisances that can be corrected to help clear the way for the commercial deployment of IPv6 in North America."

IPv6 is addressing limitations of IPv4, the current language of the Internet, such as limited IP address space needed for the growing number of devices and private IP-enabled networks connecting to the Internet. IPv6 is also expected to add several improvements, such as enhanced network routing, network auto-configuration and stronger security, while allowing for better mobility support and more easily enabling renumbering.

"This industry collaboration between global carriers and equipment and application vendors is a significant milestone toward the global offering of IPv6 services," said MCI Enterprise Network Engineering Director Tom Bechly. "With our partners, MCI is leading the way for the commercial implementation of IPv6 and all the benefits that it brings to our customers."

As testing for IPv6 moves outside the laboratory environment, many companies are joining forces to test this real-world scenario. France Telecom R&D provided unicast and multicast applications that ran across the network. The applications include the ePresentation suite of multimedia communications software, developed by France Telecom R&D. Panasonic provided IPv6 Web-enabled video cameras at both ends of the network for live video communications.

Lucent Technologies contributed the Domain Name Server (DNS) infrastructure which provided name resolution services for all the major Moonv6 locations for this round of testing at the UNH in New Hampshire, MCI in San Jose, Calif. and Lucent Technologies in Malvern, PA. Lucent Technologies also provided DNS and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6) services.

In addition to stateful and stateless DHCPv6 services, Lucent Technologies also provided stateful and stateless DHCPv6 clients for various operating systems to facilitate the testing. Support for Dynamic Domain Name Server Updates was available in Lucent Technologies' DHCPv6 server and clients and DNS server to facilitate peer-to-peer applications. (A stateful protocol maintains information about a user's session while a stateless one does not.)

MCI created the conformance test plans and executed the associated tests which reflected key IPv6 attributes of interest to the Internet community. These attributes included IPv4-to-IPv6 transition methods, such as Generic Routing Encapsulation overlay and IPv6 islands over a MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) core.

The tests performed by MCI also included evaluation of basic protocol functionality concerning IPv6 extensions to the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol in a dual stack IPv4/IPv6 environment and in a native IPv6 environment. The tests were performed across multi-vendor platforms for interoperability validation. MCI engineers executed rigorous test scenarios to assess the scalability, stability and convergence properties of the IPv6 protocols and equipment in the Moonv6 experimental network. Additionally, MCI engineers tested IPv6 applications and services such as DNS, Web servers, Web browsers, videoconferencing using multicast, and IPv6 transport over an IEEE 802.11b wireless environment.

In January, MCI and UNH-IOL announced that MCI had connected the Moonv6 network to the commercial Internet backbone allowing direct connections to the test bed. Moonv6 is the largest permanently deployed multi-vendor IPv6 network with a footprint extending from New Hampshire to California. The UNH-IOL administers testing on Moonv6 for service providers and network equipment companies both privately and in large-scale interoperability test events.

Experts believe IPv6 will gradually replace IPv4, with the two protocols co-existing for a number of years during the transition.

About MCI, Inc.

MCI, Inc. is a leading global communications provider, delivering innovative, cost-effective, advanced communications connectivity to businesses, governments and consumers. With one of the most expansive global IP backbones and wholly-owned data networks, MCI develops the converged communications products and services that are the foundation for commerce and communications in today's market. For more information, go to http://www.mci.com/ .

About France Telecom

France Telecom is one of the world's leading telecommunications carriers. Through its major international brands, including Orange, Wanadoo, Equant and GlobeCast, France Telecom provides businesses, consumers and other carriers with a complete portfolio of solutions that spans local, long-distance and international telephony, wireless, Internet, multimedia, data, broadcast. France Telecom is the second-largest wireless operator and Internet access provider in Europe, and a world leader in telecommunications solutions for multinational corporations. France Telecom is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges. For more information, go to: http://www.francetelecom.com/

About Moonv6

The Moonv6 project is a global effort led by the North American IPv6 Task Force that includes industry leaders, the UNH-IOL, Internet2 and various U.S. government agencies. Taking place across the U.S. at multiple locations, the Moonv6 network is the largest permanently deployed multi-vendor IPv6 test network in the world. For more information, visit the organization's Web site at http://www.nav6tf.org/.

About the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory

Established in 1988, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is a non-profit organization housed in 32,000 + square feet of laboratory space offering comprehensive interoperability and conformance-based testing in 19 data communication technologies. Test solutions created at the UNH-IOL offer a set of methods to increase interoperability through protocol operations, signaling, point-to-point and multi-system scenarios. For more information, visit the UNH-IOL website at: http://www.iol.unh.edu/ .