The drive is on for IPv6

By 2010, users in Thailand will be able to benefit from the next-generation Internet Protocol known as IPv6.

That's the mission of the Thailand IPv6 Development Plan developed by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry.

The plan is intended as a guideline for the country's move towards IPv6 technology and in the next two years, both Internet users and service providers should be ready to use and offer Internet-based services based on IPv6 technology.

IPv6 is designed to give new capabilities over the existing IPv4. It's believed the next generation of the Internet will be laid on IPv6.

Due to the increasing use of the Internet, IP address numbers are expected to run out in the near future. Chalermpol Charnsripinyo, the chief of the Network Technology Laboratory at the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec), said IPv6 was a technology which would tackle the problem.

As IPv6 has been designed to lengthen IP addresses from 32 to 128 bits, it will enable a whole new variety of devices to be assigned their own IP address to connect to the Internet network and enable the so-called ubiquitous-computing concept to become a reality.

The use of IPv6 is just in the experimental stage in research institutes and universities. The ICT Ministry plans to make a technology transition from IPv4 to IPv6 in the next two years.

As a committee member of the Thailand IPv6 Association, an organisation to help draft the IPv6 Development Plan, Chalermpol said the plan would cover IPv6 development from 2007 to 2010.

While the mission at the end of the plan is to lay down IPv6 infrastructure in Thailand and make IPv6 available for real use, the short-term plan initially covers building IPv6 knowledge within the country.

"We're trying to educate the public to understand the importance of the new technology so that they can prepare themselves to move to the new protocol. Under this plan we will set up a Centre of Excellence to encourage the use of IPv6," Chalermpol said.

The Centre of Excellence will be established this year and is designed to promote the use of IPv6 in Thailand while being a test-bed centre to show potential applications based IPv6 technology.

A variety of applications can emerge from the advent of IPv6. Since various electronics devices can be assigned their own IP address, allowing them to connect together via the Internet, users can, for example, use their mobile device to control their electrical home appliances or check the status of any appliance wirelessly from anywhere.

The technology, meanwhile, can better conduct rich multimedia applications. Many experts predict that key IPv6 applications will be related to Voice-over IP, virtual private networks to access corporate intranets, mulitple-access mobile data services, secure mobile e-commerce, video and audio streaming as well as instant messaging.

Chalermpol said that since the new protocol also offered new qualities of service and authentication which were not found in IPV4, it allowed Internet users to get better Net services while service providers could also take advantage of these features to develop secure new applications.

IPv6 will also benefit the development of new electronic-learning applications and support multicast technology as well as medical applications.

"We hope we will have various applications to demonstrate at the centre to allow people and businesses to see proof of concept and then move towards the new Internet protocol," he added.

After the centre is established, the plan will also encourage the development of IPv6 infrastructure in the government sector. It aims that by 2009, the government's Internet network will be ready to use IPv6 while the private sector, especially telecommunications and service providers, will begin to lay down IPv6 infrastructure for practical use.

"Internet users, both in government and private sectors, as well as individual users, should see results from these efforts in 2010," he said.

Before moving into practical use, Nectec is offering IPv6 testing facilities under its Tunnel Broker service. The service allows users to link to Nectec and test the use of IPv6-based services with no need to make any changes to their infrastructure.

Those who are interested in the testing service can register at http://ftp.ipv6.nectec.or.th and they need to download a small program to test IPv6.

About 2.5 billion IP addresses based on IPv4 technology are now distributed around the world. Only about 16 per cent of possible addresses remain and if the use of Internet grows as it has, these addresses will run out in the next 1,000 days.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation