1998
In April, CERNET-IPv6, the first IPv6 trial bed was set up in China. CERNET adopted the tunneling technology (IPv6 over IPv4) and established CERNET-IPv6, a IPv6 trial bed which is the first in our country to register with 6Bone and connect the eight cities at home. It passed through the 6Bone assessment and won the first batch of IPv6 addresses as the first 6Bone backbone node in China.
In August, CERNET undertook the IPv6 Model System, a subject of National 863 Program. It carried out the research on the IPv6 technology on the basis of CERNET-IPv6 and has made tremendous achievements in backbone construction, router technology, transitional technology, search engine, network behaviors and other aspects, which propels the research and development of IPv6 technology in China.

1999
In January, CERNET and CSTNET jointly hosted ’1999 Symposium on Sino-US Advanced Network in America with scholars from UCAID, ICANN, vBNS and Abilene of network circle.
In February, CERNET and CSTNET assigned delegates to attend the academic conference “Asia-Pacific Advanced Network Organization” held in Japan and organized the establishment of APAN-CN working group.
In May, CERNET officially accessed the international 6REN network for IPv6 academic services.
In November, CERNET undertook to construct NSFCNET, which won support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China as an officially ratified project. In 2001, the first NSFCNET of NGI was established based on the optical transmission technology of DWDM. Meanwhile, the overall design for NSFCNET was defined as consisting of network infrastructure, service and application, which has provided a world-class network experimental environment for research on the theories and applications of NGI.
In December, CERNET started cooperation with Nokia to set up the IPv6 trial bed in Beijng.

2000
In March, CERNET officially signed an agreement of interconnection with INGI. On 29 March, CERNET’s representatives attended Internet2 academic conference in America and signed a MoU with president of UCAID, as well as an agreement of interconnection with Abilene. At the end of May, 2000, UCAID further signed MoUs with CERNET, CSTNET and NSFCNET.
In August, the first academic conference APAN was held in Beijing.
In September, under the coordination by MII (Ministry of Information Industry), China Telecom and China Netcom separately donated two international lines of 10Mbps to connect Japan and America. In the same year, the network exchange center of NGI was set up in Tsinghua University, Beijing, which realized the interconnection with APAN of INGI and become a formal APAN member.
In October, CERNET took the lead in providing the service of IPv6 address allocation in China.

2001
In March, CERNET became the first to realize the interconnection with Internet2.
In August, CERNET experts were selected as vice presidents of APAN.

2002
In January, the country initiated the Sino-Japan IPv6 Joint Project of NGI. With the support from the former State Planning Commission and Japanese Ministry of Economy, CERNET cooperated with Japanese Communication Industry Association to start up the Sino-Japan IPv6 Joint Project of NGI. The Sino-Japan IPv6 trial network, IPv6-CJ connected Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with its research based on IPv6 network management, router and other key technologies of network system. It was developed through the significant application of IPv6 to define and form the IPv6-related standards, which was officially approved by the State Development and Reform Commission in 2003.
In May, Tsinghua University and other units jointly undertook the key subject of National 863 Program, Comprehensive Experimental Environment for New Generation Internet Technology. In December 2003, 863-IPv6, the IPv6 trial network in Beijing, was built up with the IPv6 high-performance router and other network equipments developed by Tsinghua University and other colleges, thus exploring a new batch of typical applications of IPv6.
In August, the State Development and Reform Commission officially set up Expert Committee of Research on Development Strategies of NGI to start up the research project on the key problems of soft science, Research on Development Strategies of NGI. The expert committee was located in the network center of CERNET. Under the leadership of the State Development and Reform Commission, the whole team of experts made joint efforts and worked out the Research Report on Development Strategies of NGI in October. In May 2003, they also accomplished Suggestions for Implementation Programs of Model Project of NGI in China.

2003
In June, CERNET won COMPUTWORLD Prize for Distinguished Contribution in Global Information Technology and the nomination for gold prize due to its outstanding performance in promoting the research on NGI in China.
In August, the State Council approved the Proposal for Promoting NGI in Our Country brought forward by the State Development and Reform Commission and other seven ministries and commissions directly under the State Council, which officially announced the startup of CNGI Model Project. In the same month, the State Development and Reform Commission entrusted Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) to invite public bidding for the core network of CNGI Model Project (worthy of RMB 600 million). The CERNET exchange center submitted to CAE Bid to Undertake the Construction of Core Network for CNGI Model Project, and won the bid as No.1. to construct CERNET2, the biggest and the only academic core network of CNGI. In December, Ministry of Science and Technology approved 2003 National Key Infrastructure Research’s 973 Program --- Research on Theories of NGI Structure, and CERNET experts were assigned as central scientists.