Anticipating the global evolution of the internet with Orange’s IPv6 programme
The introduction of IPv6 is an essential stage in the growth of Orange’s internet services and is vital to the evolution of the Group’s networks as part of “Conquests 2015”.
To plan ahead for the shortage of global IPv4 addresses and prepare for deployment of IPv6, Orange set up a programme as early as 2008 specifically aimed at defining and establishing the strategy for introducing the new protocol in the Group’s network infrastructure and services. This IPv6 programme covers both fixed and mobile environments as well as the home and business markets in all Orange countries around the world.
Work to make information systems and network infrastructure and services compatible began in 2010 and continues in other country. New deployment projects were launched in 2012 in other Orange countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Kenya and Uganda.
Africa in the IPv6 digital era
with support from Orange in association with AfriNIC and ISOC, African countries are also involved in the deployment of IPv6 network and services, even though there will be no shortage of IPv4 addresses in Africa before 2014. In fact, operators and service providers want to ensure that their customers have access to all online content, including that which is now available only in IPv6, such as content developed by the Asian countries of China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Thailand since 2011.
Naturally, the IPv6 programme set up by Orange supports its subsidiaries based in Africa. No fewer than twelve IPv6 projects have already been launched in that region of the world, with availability of IPv6 connectivity services to begin in 2012 for some subsidiaries, such as Mauritius Telecom.
Orange Business Services has been helping businesses transition to IPv6 since 2009
Businesses need to anticipate this change for their own growth, particularly in Asian countries. Orange Business Services has thus offered a VPN service (Virtual Private Network) and IPv6 Internet since 2009, along with consulting services to help businesses plan their migration down to the last detail. These services are structured around six stages: inventory, technical design, security, transition strategy, project team creation and deployment.
For more information about IPv6 offers for businesses from Orange Business Services:
www.ipv6.orange-business.com.
Strengthening technical leadership and developing new markets
The IPv6 protocol is not just a long-term response to the shortage of IPv4 addresses; it is also a catalyst for new services capable of dealing with the explosion of data services available on mobile handsets while encouraging the growing development of machine-to-machine communication services.
These emerging services benefit not only from the nearly unlimited addressing capability of the IPv6 protocol, but also from the automation functions of machine configuration processes (plug & play) and from the discovery of available services, which are both characteristic of the protocol.
Orange has undertaken several IPv6 protocol development projects on this account in order to offer new services, with the first experiments to be available beginning in 2013.
