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Discussions about IPv4/IPv6 are
undoubtedly taking place in every arena but, to be
fair, when say arenas what we mean is technological
arenas, at both the private and state levels.
Society in general does not have the slightest clue
as to what is going on and, generally speaking,
neither does anyone know what an IP address is,
which, in fact, is not a negative nor does it have
any bearing on technological development, much like
going for a doctor’s appointment because of an
illness does not mean that one would expect the
doctor to give a scientific explanation of what the
problem is, but rather would only need the doctor to
deal with it. The issue of the Internet is similar:
a user/client places a call to a call center to
report a problem, wanting them to resolve it. If
they change the client’s dynamic IP or if the
routing table gets corrupted, it means nothing to
this user/client.
For Internet service providers,
such a situation brings on a much greater
responsibility in terms of connectivity as well as
services and content.
Take security issues, for
example. They have become a major global Internet
problem. Implementing IPv6 can help to significantly
address this issue. Now, the authorities responsible
for that kind of security in any arena in which
Internet is developed, spend hundreds of millions on
different solutions to this scourge, but…. There is
minimal, if any, attention to solutions arising from
this new protocol–which is really not so new any
more—which costs relatively little to implement.
In addition to what is outlined
in the preceding paragraph, we could add the
depletion of IPv4 addresses, an issue that has been
more than dealt with in nearly every forum. Although
some progress is being made in raising awareness, it
is slow, but in the mean time, the depletion
“deadline” is fast approaching. The figure below,
provided by Lacnic, illustrates this, explaining in
clear terms what has been described.
The figures correspond to /8 on
the IANA central pool. This number of blocks would
mean that as long as demand does not increase, on
January 1, 2011 the /8 blocks would be depleted—a
scenario this is more than likely.
All organizations, public and
private, have professional capacity for this
technology, so as to prevent any problems arising
with this transition, and all that is needed is a
political decision for problem-solving. Let us hope
that such a decision is not held back until the last
minute.
Oscar Messano
Rapporteur
Group on issues relative to Internet resources
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