CERNET2 is the largest core network of CNGI, a model project of the next-generation Internet (NGI) in China, and the only nationwide academic network as well. It is the backbone of NGI through the application of the pure Ipv6 technology, which leads the world in its scale at present.

The CERNET2 backbone will take full advantage of the nationwide high-speed network of transmission to link the CERNET2 core nodes in the twenty cities at a speed of 2.5Gbps-10Gbps. It will realize the high-speed Ipv6 access of 200 colleges in the country onto NGI while providing such services to other research institutes and R&D centers. Moreover, it will connect NGI at home and abroad through the exchange center of NGI, CNGI-6IX.

The CERNET2 backbone adopts the pure IPv6 protocol to provide a broad experimental environment for the IPv6-based NGI technology. CERNET2 will partly use the advanced IPv6 core routers of independent intellectual property developed domestically, which will become the key infrastructure for research on NGI technologies, exploration into the NGI-based application and promotion of NGI industry.

Initially established in 1994, CERNET is the first nationwide network with IPv4 technology and has profoundly influenced the development of Internet in China. Under the leadership of MOE, CERNET set about its first research and experiment on NGI in 1998 and built the IPv6 test bed ---CERNET-IPv6. In 2000, it set up NSFCNET and DRAGONTAP in Beijing, the former of which was the first NGI in China while the latter served as a NGI exchange center. CERNET also joined the INGI (International Next Generation Internet) Organization and thus realized the connection with the INGI. In 2001, CERNET proposed the plan of constructing the nationwide NGI, CERNET2, which was later included into CNGI, a model project under the collaborative leadership by State Development and Reform Commission and other seven ministries and commissions directly under the State Council.

In October 2003, the experimental CERNET2 was officially initialized for trial operation, which connected the core nodes in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. On January 15, 2004, the largest academic networks gathered in the EU headquarter in Brussels, capital of Belgium, which included American Internet2, EU’s GEANT and China’s CERNET. They announced to the whole world the startup of IPv6 NGI services.

In March 2004, CERNET2 trial network formerly began to provide IPv5 NGI services for users.