Potsdam/ Berlin. Until next year, Germany should implement the internationally acknowledged new data traffic rules for the internet of the next generation on a large scale. This is the explicit demand of the German IPv6 Council. At a national Ipv6 Summit on Thursday, May 14, at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, the board of internet experts from academia, business, and government and public administration ratified a corresponding “National Plan of Action”. The plan stipulates that Germany shall participate actively in the worldwide technical advancement of the internet. The measures lined out for the transition to the new internet protocol IPv6 will be discussed at the next IT Summit of the German Federal Government. At a festive event with internet pioneer Dr. Robert E. Kahn (70) during the 2nd German IPv6 Summit, science patron Prof. Hasso Plattner named the American computer scientist an “HPI-Fellow.” Furthermore, six award recipients from Germany, France, and Italy were honored at the Berlin Museum for Communication. They are the winners of an international contest, set up by the German IPv6 Council. 41 experts from 19 countries have participated in the contest and submitted new products and concepts for the large-scale use of the new internet standard.
“The internet is the backbone of modern society and must be further developed in Germany as well– just as it already has been done in Asia and the USA. Otherwise we will fall behind as a technology location”, Prof. Christoph Meinel, Chairman of the German IPv6 Council and director of Hasso-Plattner-Institute, explained. The scientist pointed out at the conference of experts in Potsdam that the new standard IPv6 is already defined and well-engineered. It is, for example, an important precondition for the internet communication with and between vehicles as well as in sensor networks with RFID technology. The main concern is basic application possibilities of the “Internet of Things” as they are also described in the Theseus Program of the Federal Government of Germany.
The national plan for action for an internet of the next Generation demands that until 2010 at least 25% of German users should be able to access content and services on the IPv6 internet without recognizing a difference in comparison to the current standard. “This demand of the German IPv6 Council is in accordance with the position of the European Commission,“ Meinel emphasized. In a video message to the participants of the second German IPv6 Summit, EU Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that it is time for the public authorities to invest in their own IPv6 infrastructure: ”We must become serious about using IPv6 in our own work environment,” Reding said. If this took place in a concerted effort across Europe, it would produce an enormous increase in demand which will vitalize the market.
At the conference of experts in Potsdam, State secretary Dr. Hans Bernhard Beus, the Chief Information Officer of the Federal Government called the implementation of IPv6 standards an “important infrastructure-related policy decision.” He announced that the federal government itself would also “use IPv6 and advocate its further spread.” During the opening of the summit at the Potsdam-based Hasso-Plattner-Institut Dr. Robert E. Kahn, together with Vint Cerf one of the two “fathers” of the internet, advocates a rapid transition to IPv6 in order to guarantee the continuous growth of the internet. He said he would not be surprised if IPv6 occupied a dominant position in the future.
Award Ceremony with Internet Pioneer Robert Kahn and Hasso Plattner
Internet Pioneer Kahn was also present when the award recipients of the International IPv6 Application Contest were honored on Thursday night at the Berlin Museum for Communication. Mark Palkow, General Manager of the Berlin-based company Daviko GmbH (founded in 2001) was chosen as the winner in the category “IPv6-Implementations.” Using new software, the company facilitates special internet video conferences: Participants can follow an ongoing meeting on their portable PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and easily switch to a static tele-presence system in a meeting room. The award which comes with 10,000 Euros prize money was presented to Palkow by HPI-founder Prof. Hasso Plattner and HPI-director Prof. Christoph Meinel.
Gilles Haiat, head of research of the French company Vizelia in Nanterre, won second place with a new environment monitoring software. It was developed in cooperation with the Californian Arch Rock Corporation. The solution uses wireless sensor technology in order to process data on the internet which come directly from the surrounding air, climate key figures, devices, circuits, and measuring instruments. Dr. Lothar Mackert, Vice President Public Private Partnerships of the Sponsor IBM Deutschland handed the prize, complete with a 5,000 Euro money award, to Haiat.
Tobias Neumann from Leingarten, Consulting System Engineer of network supplier Cisco, placed third. The application presented by him, Cisco Unified Communications (CUC), comprises network solutions für internet telephony, video conferencing, Unified Messaging (Integration of existing communications services and channels), mobile communication, and further applications. Due to its multiple use components (dual stack) CUC makes it easier for companies to implement IPv6-based communication services on a step-by-step-basis, without completely removing the IPv4 standard and potentially losing functionality. Prof. Michael Rotert, President of the sponsor eco, Association of the German internet industry, presented the price of 2,000 Euro to Neumann.
The three best ideas submitted for the internationa contest of the German IPv6 Council received prices of 1,000 Euros each. The recipients were Dr. Roland Bless from the Institute for Telematics at the University of Karlsruhe (1st Price), Emanuele Goldoni from Italy, a doctoral student at the University of Pavia (2nd Price) and Maximilian Weigmann, system administrator from Ampfing. The sponsors of these prices were the IT industry association Bitkom, the IT Security company Secunet and the Hasso Plattner Institute.
In his contest submission Bless explored the possibilities of using the new internet standard IPv6 in so-called peer-to-peer-networks (PC-Networks which offer equal cooperation for all participating computers). Goldoni proposed a new way of electronic messaging to group members in university networks, in principle a reverse RSS-Feed on the basis of IPv6. Weigmann developed the idea to permanently monitor the vital data of elderly or chronically ill people with an IPv6 infrastructure. This way it would be possible to notify a specified person like the nearest physician or pharmacist automatically.
Background: German IPv6 Council
The German IPv6 Council, established in 2007 by Prof. Christoph Meinel, is the German national branch of the international IPv6 Forum, an umbrella organisation for more than 50 national bodies. It is the professed goal to unite all national industrial, academic, political, and administrative actors who are concerned with the improved technical standards for data transmission on the new internet and to advocate the implementation of the new internet protocol. This objective should be achieved through an increased awareness of end users and industry for a more refined and secure internet as well as improvements in technology and marketing. Currently 18 representatives from politics, industry, and academia work together in the German IPv6 council. Further information: www.ipv6council.de
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