On 31 December (New Year's Eve) 2006, a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo, Japan, led by professor of computing science Dr Kei Hiraki, the WIDE Project and NTT Communications transmitted 585 gigabytes of data across 32,372 km (20,115 miles) of network in approximately 30 minutes - an average rate of 9.08 gigabits per second. The network stretched from Tokyo to Chicago (USA) to Amsterdam (Netherlands) the back to Tokyo via Seattle (USA). New Year's Eve was chosen as Internet traffic is traditionally at a low. The Internet2 Land Speed Record (I2-LSR), as it is known, is an open and ongoing competition to push the Internet's performance over high-bandwith, end-to-end networks.
