IPv6, or Internet Protocol Version 6, is designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as the successor to IPv4.

“Known to many as the ‘new Internet’, or ‘next generation Internet’, IPv6 seeks to solve various issues with the current implementation of IPv4 including shortage of addresses and adds features such as network auto-configuration and improvements to routing and security,” explains Mr Singh.

“Most of today's internet uses IPv4, which is now nearly twenty years old. Notably, there is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses, which are needed by all new machines added to the Internet.”

Mr Singh says that IPv6 provides many improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network auto-configuration.

“IPv6 is expected to gradually replace IPv4, with the two coexisting for a number of years during a transition period.

“If we are not IPv6 ready, when the rest of the world moves to it, we will be left behind.”

Mr Singh adds that the University of the South Pacific has shown the lead in the Pacific and deployed IPv6 in parts of its infrastructure and is on the right path to be part of the new Internet.

PacINET is the annual gathering of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) experts and enthusiasts organised by the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC).

The meeting is being held this year at the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) conference centre in Honiara, Solomon Islands, from the 15th to 21st August 2007, with the theme ‘National ICT Strategy Building’.

PICISOC is an active chapter of Internet Society (ISOC), covering 22 Pacific island states and territories with a membership of over 400 individuals across the region. ISOC is a professional membership organisation with around 100 organisational and over 26,000 individual members in more than 180 countries.

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