Network engineers have successfully demonstrated routing, firewalls, quality of service and other key features of IPv6, the next generation of the Internet's main communications protocol, according to test participants.

The tests were conducted this month on Moonv6, the largest native IPv6 backbone. Moonv6 is a joint operation of the University of New Hampshire, the U.S. Defense Department, the North American IPv6 Task Force and the Internet2 university consortium. It links approximately 80 servers, switches and routers located in sites from New Hampshire to California.

More than two dozen vendors including service providers, hardware and software manufacturers participated in the tests.

"Moonv6 is a very important project because it allows basic testing of the applications that sit on top of the network, and that's crucial to their rollout for everyday practice," says Rick Summerhill, associate director of backbone network infrastructure for Internet2.

The Moonv6 tests were designed to help boost deployment of IPv6, which has lagged in the U.S. behind Europe and Asia.

Developed by the IETF, IPv6 promises easier administration, tighter security and an enhanced addressing scheme over IPv4, the Internet's current protocol.

Moonv6 participants say they successfully tested QoS, firewalls, mobile IPv6, DNS and routing protocols. The Moonv6 participants also tested the performance of IPv6 over high-speed l0G bit/sec links.

Ben Schultz, who oversaw the testing as managing engineer at the UNH Interoperability Laboratory, says the results indicate IPv6 is clearing hurdles for adoption.

"We were able to demonstrate that IPv6-ready firewalls can do what they claim to do," Schultz says. "In terms of QoS, we proved that IPv6-capable routers could allow different classes of traffic and maintain different priorities. . . . In terms of application testing, we demonstrated IPv6 Web-enabled video cameras."

This is the second set of tests run on the Moonv6 backbone. In October, engineers succeeded in running FTP, Telnet and teleconferencing applications.

The network will remain in place as a native IPv6 backbone available for peering from anywhere in the world. It will serve as an ongoing testbed for industry, universities, research labs, ISPs and the U.S. military.