African Internet service providers (ISPs) should accelerate the adoption of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) to prepare for large volumes of data traffic, says terrestrial network service provider Workonline Communications business development director Edward Lawrence.

Implementing IPv6 allows all devices connected to the Internet around the world to be given unique public IP address, which will impact positively on consumer and commercial applications.

IPv6 will facilitate the interconnectivity of devices for individuals so that they can easily use multiple, linked secure devices, from smart cars and mobile devices to wearable devices and home sensors, while companies can deploy significantly more connected devices to provide intelligence, control and early warning.

IPv6 further enables a host of new and valuable Internet services by eliminating the need for address sharing technologies, such as Network Address Translation, re-establishing the end-to-end connectivity principle envisaged by the original architects of the Internet. This makes peer-to-peer networks much easier to create and maintain, and enhances other IP services such as Voice over Internet Protocol, explains Lawrence.

“There are lots of subtle efficiency gains for ISPs arising from the proper use of IPv6. Managed effectively, IPv6 allows the amount of information stored on network devices to route packets to their destinations to be reduced. “Smaller routing information bases increase efficiencies and performance, and improve the overall costs of operating a network,” he says.

IPv4 was first defined in 1981, and uses 32-bit address identifier resulting in roughly 4.3-billion addresses available globally. IPv6 enables 340-undecillion (3.4 × 1038) 128-bit IP addresses. Many regions have exhausted the IPv4 resources available to them and, while African region registrar AfriNIC still has the most IPv4 resources left, their resources will soon be depleted.

ISPs throughout Africa and South Africa should use the opportunity presented by AfriNIC still having resources available to train their employees on IPv6 standards to prepare for its adoption, and learn from implementations of IPv6 in regions where the IPv4 resources have already been depleted, he says.

To spur the adoption of IPv6 in the region, and to allow network engineers to familiarise themselves with the protocol, Workonline Communications is offering 100 Mb/s of IPv6 IP transit free of charge to AfriNIC members present at any of the vendor neutral hosting company Teraco data centres in South Africa.

“ISPs in Africa and South Africa have the ability to prepare for IPv6 in a controlled and independent way, rather than scrambling to adopt the protocol once AfriNIC implements the protocol,” says Lawrence.

Transition to IPv6 will take time, as many of the existing telecommunications infrastructure systems on the continent are designed to operate IPv4 protocols and are unable to operate IPv6 protocols. In some extreme cases, ISPs and network operators will have to rebuild their network architectures and nodes to enable customers to deploy IPv6 systems and functions over their networks, he concludes.