"Imagine This" Applications To Soar With IPv6!

For the dreamer, the Internet has always been about, "Imagine This". Well there will be plenty of room for dreamers to dream when the next generation IPv6 Internet comes fully online over the next decade.

For the Internet, it’s always been about having enough address space to do what you want. And if there’s one thing the next generation Internet has, it's IP addresses – about 340 trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion IP addresses according to the Education Department’s Peter Tseronis.

“There were 4.3 billion addresses the first time around for IPv4. Addresses go on a device so that it can communicate; so with more addresses there are more opportunities to communicate, to share data, to have global Internet mobility with “always on” devices,” says Tseronis “You’ll have mobile ad hoc networking, new methods of communicating whether it’s through a service or an application.”

That’s what it’s all about, explains Tseronis.

Tseronis made his comments during the recently broadcast Federal Executive Forum on IPv6 airing on Federal News Radio and WFED 1050 AM in Washington, DC. Hosted by Jim Flyzik of The Flyzik Group, panelists discussed issues, challenges, security concerns and gave their vision of what an IPv6 future will hold.

"I really look forward to having a small hand held device for email and to do real time video conferencing. I think from a business perspective that’s a huge value. I don’t have to have a desk top system and a laptop. I don’t have to have a PDA and a laptop. I get it down to a single device. I really think though that the consumer and the corporate world, that’s where we are going to see that growth first. And I think we are going to see that early in hand held devices."

Charlie Wisecarver, Deputy CIO, Department of State

"Diplomats have to be mobile. Now we’ve been able to do a certain amount of that with IPv4 but it’s really just not scalable. So that’s what we look forward to with IPv6. We are going to be able to take this to a much greater stage and have that diplomat, whether it be bilateral talks or out visiting an aid mission or they are in Santa Domingo or if they are in Bucharest or in Baghdad, we are going to be able to extend the tools and information that they need to make the right policy decisions and to support US policy and diplomacy overseas."

Fred Schobert, Networx Program Manager, GSA

"When you really look at what is our overall goal, well it’s to have a seamless, secure, interoperable government. What does that mean and how does IPv6 help? Well the benefits of IPv6 could be things like increased operational efficiency, improved security we’ve talked about, but also I think 2 of the keys are the mobility features it gives you with the additional addresses and the address auto configuration. So now you can have mobile platforms like police cars or soldiers in the field.

If you think about things like friendly fire, it’s new ways to give everybody an IP address and make them a known, make even on a battle field they can automatically be reconfigured in terms of the IP address to know where people are and people can certainly communicate with each other real time."

Tom Patterson, CEO & President, Command Information

"I’m not talking about 2008 or 2010 or some amorphous future, Command Information worked with Cisco and we built a solution for first responders so that with existing equipment that’s already v6 capable (phones and computers), when a fire truck and a police car that have never met each other before show up at a disaster and want to help they will automatically (after ID authentication) be able to share sensor data with the fire engine. Even if they’ve never met each other before and will never see each other again. Right then and there they can network together and they can work to save lives. You can’t do that with the old internet. You can do it with today’s internet. That means 2007."

David West, Director, Field Operations Federal Center of Excellence, CISCO

"Imagine first responders that quickly go to a building that are able to download the blueprints of that building, understand the status of the building, look at the building material, know what’s happening, understand the toxicity in the building. Imagine EMT folks walk in, police, FBI, other folks that want to communicate in that same first responder incident to be able to share information, to be able to collaborate seamlessly. Imagine as these first responders evacuate people to be able to send back critical information so that emergency response personnel, hospitals can react to that first responder in that crisis. That’s the vision of v6; to be able to do all those things and so much more."