The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the IPv6 Forum have agreed to cooperate to ensure that the next generation internet address numbering protocol is rapidly integrated with emerging third generation (3G) broadband wireless systems.
While IPv6 has struggled to emerge smoothly from the standards process initiated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its ultimate success is deemed essential to the realisation of the mobile internet vision. IPv6 massively increases the finite number of addresses that can be supported by the internet, as well as improving security.
Now ETSI and the Forum will co-sponsor a series of promotional conferences and so-called IPv6 bake-off interoperability tests. The integration of IPv6 with UMTS (the next generation universal mobile telephone system specification) will make it possible for a plethora of new devices, from mobile phones to vending machines and even individual machine components, to have a unique internet identity.
Latif Ladid, the Forum’s president, said individuals may require as many as 100 unique addresses of their own within the next 20 years.
