UAE opens RIPE 75 Meeting to explore opportunities in developing policies on Internet numbering resources allocation
UAE - October 22, 2017 – The RIPE 75 meeting, hosted by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) kicked off today (Sunday, October 22, 2017), with participation from leading local, regional and international players in telecoms and information and communications technology (ICT), including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, Netflix, Orange, Omantel, OGERO, VIVA, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), and Etisalat. The meeting represents a major step towards supporting UAE's relentless efforts to create an integrated infrastructure aimed at positioning the country as a global leader in Electronic/Smart Transformation Index by 2021. This was demonstrated by the UAE telecom operator “du”, the official connectivity sponsor, providing the meeting and attendees with Internet connectivity using the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
RIPE 75, which will take place until October 26, 2017 at the Conrad Hotel, has gained strategic importance as a leading forum that brings together industry leaders, experts, governments, international players in ICT, and some of the world's leading Internet service and content providers. The participants will deliberate about the state of the Internet and the effective policies applied by RIPE NCC in the allocation of Internet numbering resources. The leading international event includes discussions, debates, and expanded meetings for exchanging and sharing expertise regarding international policies and best practices in developing the Internet in the UAE, Middle East and worldwide.
On the first day of the meeting, RIPE NCC Managing Director Axel Paulk signed two MOUs. The first was with the TRA, which was represented by H.E. Hamad Al Mansoori, Director General of the TRA and second was with the American University of Beirut, represented by Dr. Youssef Asfour, CIO of AUB, which was aimed at strengthening the cooperation and exchange of expertise among the different sectors involved in further developing the Internet. The MoUs are aimed at improving internet-based researches and activities and enhance the operational efficiency of networks in the Middle East. Both MOUs serve as an impetus towards developing Internet services by organizing a series of conferences, meetings, training programs, and awareness campaigns about IPv6 and other technologies.
The MoUs also promotes ‘RIPE Atlas', a global, open, advanced Internet Measurement Platform aimed at providing a global network of analyses that measure Internet connectivity and reachability, apart from a bundle of effective tools to help measure the performance of internet data within the local, regional and international Internet clusters. Among other initiatives include the ‘RIPE Academic Cooperation Initiative' (RACI), which serves as a platform for promoting and strengthening links between students and scholars and the Internet community through meetings, conferences, and other activities. RIPE NCC and the TRA also agreed to cooperate with universities and research centers in the UAE for briefing students and researchers on the latest Internet-related innovations and developments.
H.E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Director General, TRA, said: “Hosting the RIPE 75 meeting reflects the profound trust of the regional and international community in the UAE which has succeeded to establish the sector on par with the most advanced countries in ICT indices, following the directives of our wise leadership. We have made huge accomplishments for being the first in the region and the 34th worldwide in the ‘International Digital Government Rankings Report' published by the Institute of Digital Government at Waseda University in Japan, based on 10 key indicators. This follows from our global ranking as 7th and 9th worldwide in the e-Participation index and in promoting digital government among different segments of society, respectively.”
“This event brings together the best experts, decision makers, and policy makers under one platform that would help facilitate integrate various efforts in the sector to promote the Internet Numbering Resources Allocation Policies, in keeping with the requirements of the 21st century. On its first day, the event has proved to be an ideal venue to discuss to the most pressing issues facing the internet community worldwide, particularly with regard to the Internet of Things (IoT) and the IPv6. The event will definitely support our strategic efforts to meet the emerging needs of the ICT industry and achieve our goals of making the UAE the number one in the world in the Electronic and Smart Services Index, in line the National Agenda and the UAE Vision 2021,” H.E. Al Mansoori added.
Hans Petter Holen, RIPE Chair, said: “The high-profile regional and international participation at RIPE 75 reflects the great interest in this international meeting being held in the Middle East to discuss Internet protocols, information systems and network operation. We were delighted to choose Dubai as the host for this series of discussions, meetings and RIPE Working Group sessions, organized by the TRA to address pertinent issues that support the efforts aimed at developing the Internet number resource allocation and assignment policies and enhance the network's efficiency. These activities are aimed at meeting current and future needs in line with smart and digital transformation at the national, regional and international levels.”
“The first day's sessions have met our expectations, as the event unfolded to become ideal platform to explore new opportunities to further develop the ICT infrastructure, to support the strategic directions towards building strong economies based on knowledge, innovation and technology. We are looking forward to the discussions scheduled in the coming days, which will play a key role in strengthening communication between the leading players in the global Internet sector, to develop frameworks that cope with the rapid developments in the regional and international landscape.”
The 1st day's sessions highlighted the talks of top international speakers, including Hans Petter Holen, RIPE Chair; H. E. Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), and Benno Overeinder, RIPE Programme Committee Chair. The attendees shed light on topics which include: ‘Uncovering Traffic Pattern in Saudi Arabia', ‘Ruru: Real-Time Wide-Area TCP Latency Monitoring', ‘State of the Internet in France: Data Interconnection Market Evolution and Transition to IPv6', ‘Decoding the IoT Ecosystem', ‘An Introduction to DDOS Attack', ‘IPv6 Deployment in Cellular Networks' and ‘IPv6-only in non-cellular networks'. The discussions were held by leading experts, including Luai E. Hasnawi, Taibah University; Richard Cziva, University of Glasgow; Samih Souissi, ARCEP, the French independent administrative Authority in charge of Post and Electronic Communications regulation; Lee Howard, Retevia; Jad El Cham, RIPE NCC; Khaled Fadda, Arbor Networks; Brian Nisbet, RIPE Diversity Task Force, and Jordi Palet Martinez, The IPv6 Company.
The agenda of RIPE 75 features Plenary and Working Groups on address policy, anti-abuse, connect, cooperation, database, IPv6, measurement, analysis and tools (MAT), open source, RIPE NCC Services, DNS and routers, as well as IoT session, tutorials and workshops.
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