The Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Information Communication & Technology (ICT) Pheshey Dube says the Internet Exchange Point (IXP) Forum will play a huge role in ensuring that issues that relate to a better Internet infrastructure and escalating data prices in the region are tackled.
Dube was speaking during the Southern African Development Community (SADC) 2023 IXP Peering Forum which commenced yesterday and ends on the 27th of October 2023 at the Royal Villas.
He said as a country and region they acknowledge that the Internet plays a massive role in development, as a result, bottlenecks and opportunities must be addressed and exploited.
One of the other issues to be discussed during the workshop is the transition from IPv4 to IPv6.
The Eswatini Communications Commission (ESCCOM) Chief Executive (CE) Mvilawemphi Dlamini when making his remarks disclosed that the country is now running out of IP addresses to use, which means it should now look at transitioning to IPv6.
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version of the standard that routes Internet traffic and other packet-switched networks introduced in 1982 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). IPv4 is the most widely used version of the protocol despite the limitations of its 32-bit address space.
“The IPv4 is a 32-bit address, whereas IPv6 is a 128-bit hexadecimal address. IPv6 provides a large address space, and it contains a simple header as compared to IPv4. IPv6 increases the IP address from 32 bits to 128 bits to support larger address demands. IPv6 will enable the country to have unlimited IP addresses and benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT) among other things,” Dlamini noted.
Meanwhile, SADC ICT Programme Officer Chisepo Lungu who spoke on behalf of SADC Director of Infrastructure Mapolao Mokoena noted that IXPs were a vital element in the Internet’s infrastructure ecosystem, with the objective to reduce overall international Internet connectivity costs, reduce latency, provide better quality of service and browsing experience for SADC Internet users.