by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is projected to catalyse new business and promote Africa’s digital economy.
It is the sixth revision to the IP and the successor to IPv4.
Participants from government, business, operators, industry organisations and device vendors discussed the technology at the Global IP Technology Annual Conference (IPv6+ forum) with the theme, “Accelerating IPv6+ Industry Development to Catalyse New Business” at the recent AfricaCom.
The conference explored IPv6+ values, policy development, carrier deployment practices, and device vendor solutions.
Participants described IPv6+ as a powerful assistant for digital transformation in Africa.
It can improve the digital economy, help carriers improve profitability and open up new business opportunities.
Sonny Wang, Vice President of Huawei Data Communication Product Line, pointed out that IPv6 could provide connectivity for everything.
He cited examples of securities trading which require low connection latency, intelligent electricity business which needs low connection jitter, and telemedicine which requires stable connection bandwidth.
To promote IPv6+ development, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) established an IPv6 Enhanced Innovation (IPE) working
group in October 2020 to work with industry partners to promote IPv6+ development.
Latif Ladid, Chair of IPE, delivered a speech titled “Promoting IPv6 Innovation and Accelerating Digital Transformation.”
He said IPv6 would be widely used in next-generation services, including the Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud and wireless services.
In addition, with the advent of the 5G and cloud era, IPv6-based enhanced technology innovation (IPv6+) will bring first-class service experience and become the cornerstone of next-generation service development.
According to the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC)’s report, IPv4 addresses in Africa will be exhausted in 2022, and IPv4 address allocation in Africa is insufficient.
As such, African governments attach great importance to IPv6 development.
Matano Ndaro, Director of Licensing Compliance and Standards at the Communications Authority of Kenya, introduced Kenya’s considerations of
IPv6/IPv6+ development pointing out the fact that the digital economy is becoming increasingly important in economic development.
Kenya is a leader in Africa in ICT development and promotes the development of the digital economy by enhancing the development of IPv6.
In line with the National ICT Policy of 2019, Ndaro believes that the migration to IPv6 needs to be completed as soon as possible, which will bring many benefits, including sufficient IP addresses, eradication of address translation, secure networks, and more efficient use of bandwidth.
Ndaro added that IPv6+ makes IPv6 connections faster, more reliable and smarter.
The Communications Authority of Kenya is considering encouraging operators and industries to deploy IPv6+.
Nkosinathi Nzima, Senior Manager of Fixed Network Planning and IP Core, MTN Group, said cloud services have a big market in Africa.
He said MTN Group needs to seize this rare opportunity, based on the MTN Ambition 2025 network strategy and “CASSI” as the delivery framework to build a new cloud-oriented network architecture and a non-blocking agile bearer network.
– CAJ News