October 01, 2009

In preparation for the upcoming MENOG 5 / RIPE NCC Regional Meeting -Beirut, October 25th- 29th 2009-, the TRA organized a roundtable meeting on September 29th , to discuss the introduction of IPv6 and its implications. Representatives from Cyberia, IDM, Solidere, and Broadband Plus attended the meeting covering the following topics:

• Status of IPv6 capability in the current ISP setup (including the scarcity of IPv4 real IP addresses ) and the main cost factors to upgrade any premises that do not support the Dual Stack.
• Available Plans for a smooth IPv6 Introduction including Double Running, as well as the readiness of their Tier-1 providers to IPv6 transition and parallel running
• The Status of lb domain registrar towards the Double running and the technical and financial implications
• The Status of the existing IXP Node
• Industry’s and other stakeholders’ role

The outcome of the discussion showed that ISPs have not planned for IPv6 introduction yet as most of them had no problem obtaining IPv4 addresses recently. In addition to that , ISPs expressed their fear of running dual stacks of v4 and v6 on the same routers as this might create too much load on their equipment and thus the need for additional investment. However, all attendees supported the idea of creating a task force consisting of ISPs, DSPs, Ogero, MoT, major universities, ESCWA, OMSAR and possibly the TRA to promote and help with IPv6 introduction. They also expressed their interest in attending the upcoming MENOG conference to get deeper technical and industry knowledge regarding IPv6 implementation.