Service provides members enhanced performance, cost savings; Now supports Commercial IPv6 traffic, New regional networks participating, and new routes added: Internet2 announced 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 its Web site or contact network@internet2.edu.