This year, at the third National IPv6 Conference, the developments in the sector were put on the table.
The conference, hosted by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, was attended by Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, Deputy President Ahmet Kılıç, Prof. Dr. Latif Ladid, President of the IPv6 Forum, Prof. Dr. Şeref Sağıroğlu, President of the IPv6 Türkiye Forum, department heads, and guests.
BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, who spoke at the program, talked about IPv6. Karagözoğlu said, “I hope IPv6 will reach a happy ending, a conclusion, together with 5G. We need IPv6 to bring technologies like 5G, IoT, and M2M to life. I thank everyone who contributed to this program.”
Deputy Minister Sayan: We Are Planning Our IPv6 Vision Simultaneously with 5G
Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, also shared his views on IPv6. In his speech, Sayan stated, “Just a moment ago, we held the opening of the 5G Valley at our Hacettepe laboratory related to 5G. There, we saw how collaboration between universities, industry, and public institutions will be carried out, under the structure of the 5G Forum specific to 5G, and we gave the first signal of 5G. Why is 5G important? With 5G, the number of M2M devices is already equal to the number of person-to-person communications, but with 5G, these numbers will increase 10-fold, 100-fold. From now on, rather than human communication, object communication will take place, and it is well known to all of us that IPv4, which has become a scarce resource, is insufficient. Countries have determined their strategies regarding these. Turkey is one of the first countries to take action in this regard, but it is a fact that there is a need for a coalition of forces, joint action, and guidance to finalize this.”
Drawing attention to the fact that the conference will be effective in achieving this coalition of forces, Sayan said, “The IPv6 Türkiye Conference and the collaboration of all operators under the regulatory institution are very important. Countries have opted to transition to IPv6 not from today to tomorrow, but through a certain transition process that we can call soft landing. Ours will not be different, but especially when 5G arrives and we haven’t transitioned yet, it means we will face much bigger problems. We are planning our IPv6 vision simultaneously with our 5G efforts. In fact, a Prime Ministry circular was issued. Awareness efforts related to this were supposed to start very quickly. But there were small delays. I consider this conference very important to overcome this delay. You will have an address like your own phone number. The unique operation of M2M devices—we provide IPv4 in the same way, this scarce resource is becoming increasingly expensive. Its distribution is getting harder, and the resource is virtually depleted. Every day, countries are competing for IPv4 and it’s getting more expensive. With IPv6, we no longer have these problems. I want to emphasize the importance of this transition, especially in terms of content, adapting our local contents accordingly, and the simultaneous work of customers and operators.”
At the program, Communications Director General Gökhan Evren and BTK Information Technologies Department Head Bülent Arsal spoke about IPv6. The conference continued with the panels held.