TRA hosts a workshop on IPv6

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the Kingdom of Bahrain has hosted a 3-days technical workshop on the IPv6 protocol. The workshop, organized in cooperation with MENOG (Middle East Network Operators Group) and RIPE (Reseaux IP Europeans) who provided the trainers and equipment, took place at TRA’s offices from 18 to 20 September 2012 and was attended by 30 representatives from the local fixed and mobile internet service providers. Commenting on the workshop, TRA’s General Director, Mr. Mohamed Bubashait, said: “With this workshop we are bringing international experts to provide practical guidance on IPv6 in order to help internet service providers understand the requirements for IPv6 upgrading and assist them in the continuous provision of internet communications services to consumers.” Mr. Bubashait went on to say: “On Friday 14 September, 2012, the RIPE NCC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia, distributed the final IPv4 address space from its reserves of IP addresses version 4. With the ever-increasing demand on the devices which require internet connection, the industry must more than ever be ready to accommodate this increasing demand and ensure that the new users and the new devices are connected on the internet in an effective and efficient way.” IPv6 is the latest revision of the Internet Protocol (the communications protocol upon which the Internet is built). IPv6 is intended to complement the previous IPv4, which is still used for the vast majority of Internet communications. IPv6 was initially developed to overcome the limited number of IP addresses available with IPv4. IPv6 implements a much larger range of IP address space than that previously available with IPv4. All devices on the Internet, such as computers and mobile phones, are assigned an IP address in order to communicate with other devices, and the dramatically increasing number of these new devices requires an equivalent number of IP addresses.