WASHINGTON, DC -- Internet2 today announced that the next edition of the Internet2 Land Speed Record (I2-LSR) competition for the highest-bandwidth networks in the world features a new category for the next generation Internet protocol called IPv6. The contest is open to anyone and is expected to attract entries from around the world. Awards will be presented at the Spring 2002 Internet2 Member Meeting to be held in Arlington, Virginia on May 6 to 9. "The Internet2 Land Speed Record demonstrates the ultimate end-to-end performance an application can achieve over both the current, and Next Generation, production quality IP based networks." Rich Carlson, Network Research Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, and chair of the I2-LSR judging panel. The current I2-LSR was set on March 28, 2000 by the University of Washington, the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California, Qwest and Microsoft using the High Speed Connectivity Consortium (HSCC) Network to transfer over 8.4 gigabytes of data at a rate of over 830 megabits per second from Redmond, Washington to Arlington, Virginia. Entries are judged on a combination of how much bandwidth they use and the distance they cover end-to-end. Eligible entries will use standard Internet (TCP/IP) protocols in separate v4 and v6 categories. The deadline for entries is April 14, 2002. Complete rules, submission guidelines and additional details are available at: www.internet2.edu/html/i2lsr.shtml