Imagine a new world in which cars have wireless devices installed and can communicate from any part of this world with other wireless enabled devices; fridges can be controlled from the office; and robots at home can be prompted to do an emergency laundry while their owners are still at work. This world, fortunately or unfortunately seems to be closer to us than we think. One tool that will be the great enabler of this kind of world is what is called Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Like it or not, it has come to stay and for good reasons too. Is it of any benefit to us? I say yes but just as the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), may create further dimensions of the digital divide.
Internet Protocol (IP) may be simply defines as the rule or method by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet. The first widely used version of IP is the IPv4. Despite its advantages, IPv4 came with its problems; addresses were not distributed equitably between the various regions and contributed to creating the digital divide. However, the new Internet protocol (IPv6) presents an opportunity for developing countries to participate further in the global information economy through equitable addressing policies. This will no doubt help provide leapfrogging opportunities for these countries and hence bridge the digital divide.
According to research commissioned by the Internet Governance Project, IPv6 promises to “unlock a range of opportunities for network operators, in terms of service provision continuity, growth, and innovation on one hand, and network management efficiencies and savings on the other. For hardware manufacturers IPv6 is key enabler of smart grids, intelligent buildings, sensor networks, and other hardware- (and application-) dependent innovations”. Demand for new hardware will grow with the deployment of IPv6. The promise of a virtually unlimited address space is expected to spur innovation in monitoring, tracking and remote management software and applications for developers. Generally, IPv6 offers simpler and more resource efficient infrastructure management and routing.
But without the development of equitable address allocation policies, developing countries may not participate as much as reap the full benefits described above. That is why it was very important for the AfriNIC and LACNIC communities, which account for majority of developing countries to initiate through a multi-stakeholder approach, the development of global policy for allocating the remaining IPv4 address space. This is a strong indication that the developing countries are ‘ready to play game’.
IPv6 adoption and transition are important challenges worldwide but more importantly in Africa and other developing regions, there is the perception of lack of demand from the users - lack of end-users applications, perception of huge costs related to transitioning, lack of awareness on real IPv6 development cases, lack of transparent compatibility with IPv4, people are still struggling to properly deploy IPv4 Networks – extensive usage of NAT especially in the Africa region. However, statistics show that the Africa region is slowly adopting with 33% of allocations announced on the global routing table (46% in APNIC, 33.6% in ARIN, 32% in LACNIC, 49% RIPE. In Africa, South Africa has the highest adoption level with about 26% followed by Kenya with 6%. Ghana has just 1% adoption.
What AfriNIC is trying to do in the Africa region is to create awareness, organise training workshops one of which took place in Ghana recently and provide laboratories for live IPv6 practicals. It has also created an environment within the technical community to exchange IPv6 initiatives throughout the continent through afripv6-discuss@afrinic.net. AfriNIC is also supporting research and building v6 ready platform infrastructure. These initiatives and more will sure help the developing regions bridge the digital divide.
The AfriNIC CEO said during the Internet Governance Forum in Hydradad, India, that ”Just as many developing economies have leapfrogged the extensive wired telephone network with wireless, new networks and developing economies can bypass IPv4-only networks. Instead, they can incorporate IPv6 from the start, avoiding much of the transition cost. It is essential, however, that equipment vendors provide IPv6 upgrades and functionality at minimal extra cost, and that those whose products do not yet provide IPv6 support should develop upgrades without delay.”
The developing world can indeed take advantage of this new protocol as a leverage to bridging the digital divide, but, despite all the gains made by the developing regions to participate in the ‘next big thing’ of the Internet, there is one study to show that there is some correlation between GDP and adoption of IPv6. This means inherently that lower income countries will adopt less of IPv6. The study further indicated that “in particular, the 65% of the world population in countries without extensive Internet infrastructure experience even greater inequality in IPv6 addressing resource distribution than in IPv4 address distribution. A mitigating factor is the sheer number of IPv6 addresses, which will decrease the likelihood of hoarding by richer or more powerful nations”. Governments of developing world need to build infrastructure, and adopt best practices in terms of regulations and understand the IPv6 debate. With these in place, I am of the view that we will not be talking about IPv6 further creating another dimension of the digital divide, we shall be talking about how to compete with the developed world.
The new Internet protocol provides new opportunities for the developing world to participate in the global information society through equitable allocation policies. AfriNIC has for instance been working on encouraging adoption in the Africa region but countries in the regions need to participate in this transition, else, further dimensions of the digital divide will be created.
More references
IPv6 BGP Geopolitical Analysis [online]. Available from http://www.caida.org/research/policy/geopolitical/bgp2country/ipv6.xml [Accessed 8 July, 2009]
Mueller, Milton (2005). Competition in IPv6 Addressing: A Review of the Debate [online]. Available from http://www.internetgovernance.org/pdf/igp-v6.pdf [Accessed 8 July, 2009]
Akplogan, Adiel (March 2009). What is AfriNIC, IPv4 exhaustion & IPv6 transition [online]. Available from http://www.icta.mu/mediaoffice/2009/atu_day2/AfriNICipv6.pdf [Accessed 8 July, 2009]
IPv6 Growth Increases 300 Percent in Two Years (2008), [online]. Available from http://www.nro.net/documents/IGF-v6-draft-pw.pdf [Accessed 8 July, 2009]
