Dubai, 28 February 2016: The General Authority for Regulating the Telecommunications Sector (TRA) has hosted an IPV6 training workshop at its headquarter. The workshop, organized in cooperation with RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC), a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) providing Internet resources and related services in the region, aimed to introduce the country’s telecom providers du and Etisalat to the latest technologies in adopting the most advanced version of internet protocol.
The workshop focused on various key topics including adopting future plans and strategies required to maintain pace with the International standards and technologies and developments witnessed by the ICT sector in regards to the IPv6 deployment. Topics discussed included defining the fundamentals of IPv6, using the new protocol to strengthen safety standards, as well as meeting the growing demand for internet access in the era of major technology transformative trends such as Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities and Device-to-device (D2D) communications.
H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA Director General, commended the efforts made in holding this workshop saying: “This workshop comes as a result of our continuous efforts focusing on shaping and foreseeing the future to adopt the necessary plans that respond to the needs of the next phase which will take the country to a new era of massive expansion in Internet use. The UAE is taking rapid strides towards applying the concepts of Internet of things and smart cities and D2D communications. And in this context, we are working according to a well-defined strategy directed towards IPv6 deployment at the national level and we spare no effort in order to reinforce the UAE’s leading position on the global ICT sector stage. We fully recognize the economic significance of this process to achieve the optimum use of the UAE ICT sector’s infrastructure as well as provide greater opportunities to benefit from data and digital input and use it efficiently in application development and building future plans and projects that meet the growing demand for IPv6.”
“In the transition to 4G wireless broadband networks, we need 20 times more Internet protocols than what is required for 3G networks, which obliges the telecom service providers to develop practical strategies in order to deal with these requirements,” H.E. added.
Paul Rendek, Director of External Relations at the RIPE NCC said: “We are enthusiastic about empowering the local community, which comes within our strategic partnership with the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority. We applaud the encouraging progress achieved by the United Arab Emirates towards IPv6 deployment, and we renew our commitment towards supporting and helping our members and network operators in the country with technical expertise and services. We provide training in a range of subjects, including IPv6 and DNSSEC, noting that we have unique tools like RIPE Atlas and RIPEstat that have been developed in close consultation with the technical community over a number of years”.
After completing this training session, participants will be able to implement IPv6 in their core network, understand the differences and similarities between IPv4 and IPv6 security, know how to configure IPv6 on network equipment, as well as understand different transition mechanisms.
Upgrading to IPV6 is one of the initiatives launched by TRA with the aim of facilitating services provided by the government and empowering the UAE to lead the region within the ICT sector. The TRA hosts this workshop to support future innovations and ensure that the UAE is home to the most advanced technologies. This training program is one of the key initiatives launched by the UAE National WSIS Committee, which works in collaboration and complete coordination with all government entities and institutions and telecom services providers to ensure the commitment and delivery of WSIS objectives.
-Ends