KUALA LUMPUR: Organisations that choose not to migrate to the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) risk constraining their ability to innovate and drive business growth, said IPv6 Forum Malaysia chairman Professor Emeritus Dr Sureswaran Ramadass.
IPv6 gives a unique IP address for each user and allows more devices, networks, and services to be connected, said Sureswaran, adding that IPv6 provides large address space (340 trillion unique combinations), improved security, performance, better network auto-configuration capabilities, and scalability.
He said businesses rely on information technology’s ability to deliver new services to end users and customers, but these services and the infrastructure used to support them require IP addresses, meaning an IPv6 migration.
“Every electronic device for example mobile phones, laptops and tablets need to communicate to another device online using the IP address as IP is the principal set of rules for communication on the internet.
“Since IPv4 (version 4) addresses have already been exhausted, now the world is using IPv6 addresses. With IPv6, devices can stay connected to several networks simultaneously,” he told Bernama.
Sureswaran said IPv6 would be beneficial to any business to drive business growth. Major web content providers such as Google, Alexa, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, LinkedIn and others have achieved full IPv6 migration while most mobile operators, internet service providers (ISPs), and mobile device manufacturers support both standards concurrently.
“Any new user can only use an IPv6 address since we do not have any IPv4 address left,” he said.
Meanwhile, the IPv6 Enhanced & 5G Global Conference 2023 was held on Aug 22, 2023, and saw more than 130 participants from both the public and private sectors.
The conference was hosted by IPv6 Forum Malaysia and supported by Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NLTVC Education Sdn Bhd, Adastanetwork Sdn Bhd, and MLABS Systems Bhd.
Government agencies, internet and telecommunications service providers, and multinational companies were present in the diverse audience, said IPv6 Forum Malaysia in a statement.
Among the highlights of the conference was launching the Asia-Pacific (APAC) v6 Council, led by Sureswaran, while the council unveiled a whitepaper titled “IPv6 Evolution Roadmap and Implementation Guide”.
The APAC v6 Council, in collaboration with the World Broadband Association (WBBA), aims to amplify awareness, cultivate best practices, and facilitate cross-border cooperation for IPv6 implementation in the Asia Pacific region. – BERNAMA
