By Latif Ladid, Chair ETSI IPE, President of IPv6 Forum and Researcher at Luxembourg University
Expanding the digital economy, which already accounts for more than 7% of the GDP in the EU, will bring significant benefits to societies and economies around the world – and IPv6 is the key that can unlock that potential.
Connectivity is essential to the success of the digital economy, as it is estimated that the number of devices connected to IP networks will be more than three times the global population by next year.
IETF and ETSI IPE: Synergy on IPv6 Promotion & Innovation
Earlier this month, more than 1400 Internet experts from all over the world gathered for the 115th IETF meeting in London. One of the key topics discussed was how to maximise the opportunities that IPv6 can offer.
During the event, IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and ETSI IPE (IPv6 Enhanced Innovations) held a fruitful meeting which highlighted three key facts.
First, both parties emphasised and recognised that ETSI IPE’s work is complementing the IETF’s objectives, by collecting requirements from industry use cases with the aim of incentivising the adoption of IETF protocols.
Second, ETSI IPE is helping to increase the awareness and the deployment of the IPv6 standard specified by IETF, and third, that IPv6 is helping to accelerate Digital Transformation. Working together in this constructive way is a model that IETF and ETSI IPE participants welcomed and encouraged moving forward.
As a result of the meeting, it was clear that connectivity has major challenges from many emerging scenarios, particularly where the application sits remotely from the end user, for example in industrial applications and the provision of public services.
Real-world examples include the ‘unmanned industry’, smart cities, healthcare, and connected & automated vehicles. IPv6 is becoming a basic ingredient for the network to meet the performance, support the number of connected devices, and match the demand coming from services like 5G and IoT.
IPv6 worldwide penetration is around 45%, with specific nations well above 50% (e.g., USA, India, Malaysia, Germany, France, Belgium). In order to add value to widespread IPv6 utilization and underpin enterprise cloudification and digital transformation, IP networks need to further deploy technologies like Segment Routing on IPv6 and IPv6 for IoT.
IPv6 value for the EU: foster digital transformation and competition
The promotion of full connectivity will enable the demand for high-quality services on the part of consumers, provided by the very high capacity networks whose development is a key priority in creating positive interactions. To this end, IPv6 is an essential enabler for 5G verticals’ successful market adoption thereby contributing to achieve twin green and digital transition as well as competitiveness objectives pursued by the EU.
Furthermore, 5G is expected to create an ecosystem for technical and business innovation involving vertical markets (e.g. energy, agriculture, city management, government, healthcare, manufacturing, public transportation and others). It is likely to become the cornerstone for digital connectivity and a major driver of economic growth, promoting competition and serving social needs.
5G will allow the implementation of new services such as telemedicine, large numbers of devices for the internet of things (IoT), connected vehicles and smart cities, eventually connecting everything and everyone to a single digital ecosystem. In order to ensure these developments can take place and are not delayed by a lack of action from public authorities, an appropriate regulatory framework needs to be in place as well, inter alia with a view to incentivizing a smooth transition to IPv6 in the EU. With the current exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, it is becoming crucial for the future of IP communications that a fast and efficient transition to IPv6 is achieved.
As a future-proof technology for digital transformation, IPv6 enables the creation of new services and the expansion of existing ones. It delivers effective competition allowing new entrants to compete on a level playing field, as it happened for some new operators in Europe and not only. It may be possible to postpone the transition to IPv6, but it is not possible to cancel it. Therefore, it is better to plan for the transition as early as possible to reduce unnecessary investment. Any refreshment cycle should bring only IPv6-ready hardware and set IPv6 as the preferred option.
ETSI IPE complements the work of IETF, in increasing awareness of the need to deploy IPv6, as well as enabling strategic alignment and showcasing industry best practices. The successful meeting held at the London IETF meeting should become a formal fixture for future events.
This is an important time for the adoption of IPv6. Working together will accelerate the EU digital transformation, since now more than ever the industry should strive together to deliver the benefits of the digital economy.
