Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) is undertaking a pilot programme in partnership with a foreign service provider to prepare for the next-generation Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).
The project should get underway by the end of the year, said Abdullah Hashim, senior manager for business development and sales at Emirates Internet and Multimedia (EIM).
He was speaking at Gitex 2000 yesterday to announce that Dubai will host the two-day IPv6 Summit beginning February 26 to discuss IP addressing issues, the exponential expansion of the Internet, and allied topics.
Some 250 delegates from the Middle East representing network designers, operators, vendors and researchers concerned with the evolution of Internet architecture are expected to attend the conference, being sponsored by Etisalat.
Etisalat has become a member of the IPv6 forum, a worldwide consortium of leading Internet vendors, research and education networks and major ISPs.
It is deploying equipment that can run on the new platform, and is asking suppliers and vendors to upgrade software that is IPv6-compliant.
Hashim added that while most of today's Internet users function on the IPv4 platform, the world would have to make the transition to IPv6 due to rapid expansion of the Internet.
"The next-generation Internet protocol will have more capacity to handle more IP addresses, while affording better security through authentication, data encryption and auto configuration, and better routing," he said. "It will also permit better scalability, and thus eliminate bottlenecks."
While observing there will be a substantial period of transition when both platforms will co-exist and work in tandem, he added that users too will eventually have to upgrade their software to be IPv6 compliant.
Pointing out that IPv4 is now nearly 20 years old, Itidal Hassoon, regional manager of Case Technology and a founding member of the IPv6 Forum, said some problems are now beginning to crop up.
"The biggest of these is the growing shortage of IP addresses which are needed by all new machines being added to the network — of the world's 4.2 billion potential addresses on the Internet, there are only a few hundred million remaining to be taken."
She added that with the Internet doubling in size every nine months, the remaining addresses will be rapidly exhausted "and the Internet will become frozen in time".