Sprint and SUNET Set Internet Data Speed Record

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ — Sprint and the Swedish National Research and Education Network (SUNET) were today officially awarded the Internet Land Speed Record from Internet2 at their fall member conference in Austin, Tex. The Sprint/SUNET engineering team used readily available hardware and software to send bulk data over the public Internet farther and faster than before, beating academic teams operating specialized private networks, and topping its own current listing in the Guinness Book of World Records.

A new Internet land speed/distance record of 4.31 Gigabits/second was set Sept. 12 when, without special hardware or software, 1,830 gigabytes of data (equal to 124,400 pin-drop quality voice calls or 2,800 audio CDs) took about 60 minutes to travel 18,013 miles/28,983 km without data loss over everyday Sprint and SUNET networks between California and Sweden. That rate of speed is at least 4,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection, and is relevant for high-bandwidth applications like large-scale videoconferencing, HDTV distribution, meteorological computing and business-continuity remote- storage initiatives among others.

Data transfer over the Internet becomes more challenging as speed, distance or both increase because of delays due to the speed of light or other factors. The Internet2 ongoing Land Speed Record competition ( http://lsr.internet2.edu/ ) is for the highest bandwidth end-to-end networks, with judging based on the transfer speed multiplied by the distance traveled. With a mark of 124,900 terabit-meters per second (Tb-m/s), the Sprint/SUNET team beat the previous record by over 20,000 Tb-m/s.

“This is now the Internet’s fast lane,” remarked Kathy Walker, executive vice president – Network Services, Sprint. “We’ve demonstrated that a high- reliability, high-performance, end-to-end, congestion-free design can be implemented over geographically diverse networks. This signals a new era in the Internet’s evolution, opening doors to new applications and new business practices.”

Technical Information

Internet land speed record: single stream IPv4 category

On Sept. 12, approximately 1,831 Gigabytes of data was transferred in about 61 minutes between a Sprint facility in San Jose, Calif., and the Lulea University of Technology (LTU) in Sweden near the Arctic Circle. The data path spanned two continents and traveled three times across the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of 18,013 miles/28,983 km using the GigaSunet backbone and the SprintLink(SM) core network at a speed of 4,310.62 Mbit/sec. An IPv4 single stream transmission record of 124.935 Terabit-meters per second was set. Details can be found at: http://proj.sunet.se/LSR3/ .

The achievement updates a record set last April when the team sent nearly 840 gigabytes of data from a PC in San Jose, Calif., roughly halfway around the globe to associates at another PC at the University of Lulea in northern Sweden in under 27 minutes. The bulk data traveled 10,157 miles from balmy California to near the Arctic Circle across Sprint’s global Internet backbone SprintLink and the GigaSUNET IP backbone at 4.23 Gigabits per second. This result earned them a record listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. Details of the accomplishment can be found at: http://proj.sunet.se/LSR2/ .

“This accomplishment proves that carefully designed, all-purpose networks can also serve very demanding users,” said Borje Josefsson, CTO of SUNET. “The amazing thing about our record versus others is that we have done this transmission on the production infrastructure while in use by other GigaSunet and SprintLink customers. Despite the great distance and speed of the Sprint/SUNET test, data integrity was maintained without loss of a single packet of information.”

“The choice is clear for any customer needing high-speed data transfer,” added Chase Cotton, director – Data Systems Engineering, Sprint. “They can buy relatively expensive private network capacity or turn to Sprint for the speed they need. This performance can be found on the entire Sprint network and across four continents — all at pin-drop quality.”

About Sprint

Sprint is a global integrated communications provider serving more than 26 million customers in over 100 countries. With more than $26 billion in annual revenues in 2003, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States’ first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint provides local communications services in 39 states and the District of Columbia and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless network in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.sprint.com/ .

About SUNET

SUNET is the organization for the national higher research and education network (NREN) of Sweden. SUNET operates the GigaSUNET network which is built with 10 Gbit/sec DWDM connections in a redundant architecture. The GigaSunet network connects 22 cities nationwide and provides 32 universities and university colleges in Sweden with Internet access. More information is on the SUNET web site at http://www.sunet.se/ .

Sprint

CONTACT: John Polivka of Sprint, +1-972-405-5139,john.m.polivka@mail.sprint.com ; or Borje Josefsson of SUNET, +46 70 561 0837,bj@sunet.se

Web site: http://lsr.internet2.edu/http://proj.sunet.se/LSR3http://proj.sunet.se/LSR2http://www.sunet.se/http://www.sprint.com/