WASHINGTON (24 May 2006) -- Just as "visionaries" of the Age of
Enlightenment in 18th century Europe pursued progress through rationality,
the 21st Century's "New Internet" will "benefit the public good by
balancing the needs of users and society," according to Dr. Ralph W.
Wyndrum, Jr., IEEE-USA's 2006 President. Delivering a keynote address on 19
May to some 125 attendees at the Federal IPv6 Summit in Reston, Va.,
Wyndrum praised the development of the new Internet Protocol (IP) that will
exponentially increase the number of assignable IP addresses on the Web. He
cited advantages of the new protocol, known as IPv6, including these:
simplified mobility, reduced network administration costs, and improved
overall network efficiency.
The IEEE-USA president projected that IPv6 could lead to new jobs and serve
as a stepping stone for the next "killer Web application." He cited as
examples "Internet on demand" and "the development of new consumer
devices," including appliances that can be controlled on the Web. According
to Wyndrum, IPv6 "allows every device to have its own unique identity"; and
the new protocol will allow for immediate notification each time personal
bank accounts are charged, helping to transform e-commerce and online
banking.
The IEEE-USA president noted that IPv6 is now a global product and other
nations "are hard at work transforming the new Internet." He stressed that
the United States must lead in setting standards for the new protocol.
Wyndrum stated that the IEEE's "Standard for Wireless Access in Vehicular
Environments" takes advantage of the enlarged spaced offered by IPv6, and
that the new technology is important "to many of the IEEE's standards
projects -- one we're open to exploring further."
With a recent Frost & Sullivan study projection that the Internet will
exhaust the old protocol's -- IPv4 -- addresses by 2012, the IEEE-USA
president called for a concerted and orderly transition to the new
protocol. He pointed to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget mandate
that all federal networks must be able to send and receive IPv6 packets by
mid-2008, and that Lucent estimates it will need three more years -- until
2009 -- to convert its customer mobility applications to support IPv6.
Wyndrum concluded with another historical reference to the development of
the telephone by one of the first IEEE members, Alexander Graham Bell. He
contrasted Bell's almost accidental discovery while working on a hearing
device for the deaf with the development of the new Internet. The IEEE-USA
president said the new technology will "not be the product of a single
person, organization or politician -- nor luck or serendipity," but will
require a sustained, collaborative effort.
For more information on the IPv6 summit, go to http://www.usipv6.com/.
IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and
public-policy interests of more than 220,000 engineers, scientists and
allied professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. IEEE-USA is part of
the IEEE, the world's largest technical professional society with 360,000
members in 150 countries. For more information, go to
http://www.ieeeusa.org.
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CONTACT: Pender M. McCarter, APR, Fellow PRSA, MIPRA
IEEE-USA Director of Communications & Public Relations/Washington
VOICE: + 1 202 530 8353 FAX: +1 202 785 0835 WEB: http://www.ieeeusa.org
