MCI and UNH will link the North American IPv6 Task Force’s Moonv6 network to existing commercial Internet backbones, enabling companies to connect directly with the IPv6 test bed and determine their level of interoperability with the new, faster web under real-world conditions.
Moonv6 is the largest, permanently deployed, multi-vendor IPv6 network in the world. It is a joint effort between private industry and government agencies to test aspects of IPv6 deployment and help industry better understand the evolving state of IPv6.
MCI’s connectivity to the Moonv6 network will give test participants a native, non-tunneled connection to Moonv6 via MCI's MAE Services network exchange points located in San Jose, Calif., Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Miami.
MCI’s MAE infrastructure enables nationwide Layer 2 interconnectivity and public peering between Internet service providers.
IPv6, or Internet Protocol Version 6, is designed to replace the current Internet protocol, IPv4, and is expected to solve some of the Internet’s ongoing problems, including the limited number of web addresses available under IPv4.
IPv6 also is expected to bring several improvements, including network routing and network auto-configuration. IPv6 will gradually replace IPv4, with the two protocols co-existing for a number of years during the transition.
"MCI's link to Moonv6… will help the NAv6TF attract additional commercial enterprise sites to participate in the Moonv6 evolution," said Jim Bound, chairman of NAIPv6TF and chief technology officer of the IPv6 Forum.
Tom Bechly, director of MCI MAE engineering, added, “The ability to establish native IPv6 connectivity in addition to tunneling should help facilitate testing and enable test participants to better assess how IPv6 equipment performs in real-world deployments.”