Panel To Review Advanced IP Implementation

The Department of Telecom (DoT) will set up a panel to review the progress of implementation of a next version of internet protocol, IPv6, in the government sector and to prepare a national IPv6 address policy. "DoT has decided to form a panel of consultants for IPv6 implementation in the government sector and to prepare the national IPv6 address policy for the country," the ministry said in a statement.

The move was decided by the central and nodal officers in a meeting to review the progress of IPv6 implementation. Security and law enforcement issues in view of adopting IPv6 were also discussed.

Last year, the DoT had released a national IPv6 deployment roadmap under which all the government departments have to use IPv6 services by March 2012. IPv6 will increase the capacity for internet domains. Domains listed under the current protocol IPv4 are nearing exhaustion and are expected to run out by March 2012.

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According to officials, the new protocol is a scalable technology with the potential to spread the internet reach to each of India's 1.17 billion people. It is already being implemented in the US, EU and Japan, among others.