Internet2 Wednesday said international teams led by the University of Tokyo have broken the records for highest-bandwidth, end-to-end IP network. One upshot of the effort is that IPv6 is catching up to IPv4 in terms of its ability to handle high-performance applications.

The Internet2 Land Speed Records, as they are known, represent the fastest rate at which data is sent multiplied by the distance traveled. Records broken involved IPv6 and IPv4 single and multi-streaming.

The University of Tokyo teamed with JGN2, Microsoft, Pacific Northwest Gigapop and other institutions to break the IPv4 record with a data rate of 7.99Gpbs over a path 18,641 miles long that crossed eight international networks.

For the IPv6 record, the University of Tokyo again joined JGN2, Pacific Northwest Gigapop and WIDE Project, and added Chelsio Communications and others, to transfer data at 6.18Gbps across an 18,641-mile path covering five international nets.

"For researchers and scientists around the world, this is a positive indication that IPv6 is now ready to be used in prime time for their high-performance applications," said team leader Kei Hiraki, a professor at the University of Tokyo, in a statement.

The university has led three previous record-breaking efforts. Internet2 Land Speed Records are commonly broken more than once a year, as discussed in this story about network industry records.

Internet2 is a collection of more than 200 U.S. universities (including Harvard University) that work with government and industry on advanced network technologies. It participated in funding the recently completed National LambdaRail high-speed research network.