CESNET2 Network Supports IPv6 Multicast Addressing

Support for the IP version 6 protocol (IPv6), which has been available in CESNET2 experimentally since 1999 and operationally since 2003, has now been expanded to include another advanced service – the transport of multicast-addressed packets. The service is currently semi-operational and is available at a limited number of nodes (in Prague, Brno, Ostrava and Liberec). However, it could be provided at all the other backbone nodes in the CESNET2 network in the case of interest. The multicast delivery is connected to the GÉANT2 network, which also supports IPv6 multicast.

IPv6 is a new version of the core Internet protocol. It has been under development since the first half of the 1990s and has now reached the stage where it is starting to be deployed in real networks. But it is quite hard to prevail the contemporary IPv4 so the IPv6 support is rare so far.

Multicasting enables one sent packet to be delivered to a whole group of recipients, potentially spread out over various parts of the Internet. It is used primarily in video conferences or for on-line broadcasts of audio and television signals, where classic individual (unicast) addressing would place a great burden on the sending machine and the network leading to it. Multicasting is also available for the current IPv4 protocol, but is supported by very few internet providers.

The CESNET association was established by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is currently financed by the government Council for Research and Development and by its members. The association performs research and development on information and communication technology and is building and developing the CESNET2 national gigabyte optical network for science, research, development and education. Thanks to its research activities and the results it has achieved, the CESNET association is the Czech Republic's representative in the project for the construction of the Pan-European GEANT2 network and is actively contributing to its implementation. In addition, at the current time it is co-operating on the construction of the Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF).