Lagos, Nigeria, June 7, 2020: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the
Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Mr. Muhammed Rudman has
explained why the need for new Internet Protocol (IP) and for stakeholders to
embrace the Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6).
Mr. Rudman, who also is the chairman, IPv6 Council Nigeria, gave this insights
at the 2020 Digital Rights Series webinar on Nigeria IPv6 Roundtable hosted by
ITREALMS in collaboration with DigitalSENSE Africa Media on Saturday, with
the theme: Role of IP in 5G v COVID-19 Debate.
Rudman, whose paper was on the “Role of IPv6 in 5G v Covid-19”, noted that
every device connected to the Internet needs a unique number, known as an IP
address, divided into two categories of addresses, namely the IPv4 and IPv6.
He also said that at inception of the Internet when connectivity to the
commercial Internet was in its infancy, “the pool of around 4 billion IPv4
addresses seemed huge. No one could have predicted the impact the Internet
had on our lives and it soon became clear that the pool of IPv4 addresses was
not going to last as long as was hoped.”
For this fact, he said, “IPv6 was developed as the solution. The pool of IPv6
addresses contains 2 128 IPv6 addresses, or roughly 340 trillion, trillion, trillion
addresses.”
On why a new IP is needed in today’s world, Rudman said that its only
compelling reason for more addresses to be made available to the world.
This, he pointed out would help in addressing the future of global population,
which is estimated to be at 9 billion by 2050.
For billions of new users, he cited that in China, and India among others, “there
is about 4.7 Billion people already connected to the internet, across Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, cars, appliances to name a few. In
addition to over 300 million registered domains, there is need to make provision
for some billions of new devices, at least for the Internet of Things.
IPv6 features, Rudman said include scalability of 340 trillion, trillion, trillion,
improved security, real time application, auto-configuration, mobility, addressing
and routing and extensibility to mention but a few.
On the link between IPv6 and Fifth Generation (5G) the chairman pointed out
that with the Internet of Things (IoT), which is a system of interrelated computing
devices, mechanical and digital machines provided with unique identifiers (UIDs)
and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human
or human-to-computer interaction, citing some instances under this object to
include connected security systems, thermostats, cars, electronic appliances,
lights in household and commercial environments, alarm clocks, speaker
systems, vending machines and more.
Currently leading the pack in deployment of 5G, he said, is South Korea with
coverage in 85 cities. China takes second place with 57 cities, followed by the
United States of America (US) with 50 and the United Kingdom (UK) with 31.
While the remaining countries in the top 10 for 5G are Saudi Arabia, Spain, the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), Australia, Germany, and Romania.
“Nigeria, in November 2019, became the first country in West Africa to test-run
5G technology and applications, thus has not deployed 5G.
Rudman emphasised that 5G technology entails beamforming, dedicated radio
signal towards the user; a 4G signal is typically spread across a wide area,
which enabled by massive Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO)
technology, identifies most efficient signal path, whereas improving connection
reliability, it reduces interference(unwanted signals) and boost efficient use of
spectrum and power thereby allowing for allowing for more simultaneous data
streams.
On the electromagnetic spectrum, Rudman said that all radiation falls into two
classifications – ionising and non-ionising, as such does not have implication
connected to 5G.
