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The conduct of day-to-day commerce relies on a strong infrastructure to facilitate transactions, transport goods and connect markets. Likewise, the Internet as a key catalyst for economic development and the e-commerce activities it enables, require a reliable digital infrastructure with the capacity to scale as an economy grows.
As the number of users and devices that connect to the Internet has increased, there has become a growing strain on the predominant addressing system on which the Internet relies, IPv4. With IPv4 addresses capped at 4.3 billion and with a conservative estimate of over 20 billion devices to be connected by 2020, there is a clear technical hurdle to the growth of the digital economy.
IPv6, with about 100 addresses for every atom on the surface of Earth, offers a respite. However, without a smart, long-term approach economies may face challenges of scalability and the potential for a new digital divide which will hamper end-to-end Internet connectivity and the potential of e-commerce as a tool for economic growth; especially in the developing world.
This session, with contributors from the technical community, government and business, will explore the different facets of IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 deployment.
More importantly, it will consider how the different stakeholders can work together to ensure sustainable growth of the Internet as an essential enabler of e-commerce.
Speakers:
Anne-Rachel Inne, Vice President of Global Engagement, ICANN
Michael Kende, Chief Economist, Internet Society
Chris Buckridge, External Relations Manager, Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre
Wim Degezelle – Internet Policy Analyst and Consultant to the IGF BPF on IPv6 Adoption
Eliot Lear - Principal Engineer, Cisco Systems
