There is no denying that SA has more communications offerings today than would have been thought possible a few years ago. MyWireless now offers broadband, Vodacom is offering 3G and soon possibly 3.5G, while Telkom is working with WiMAX on yet another offering.
We are also starting to see a number of unlicensed mobile access technologies. If one were to combine them with the licensed technologies into one device - and there are companies starting to do this - the realisation of the dream of being connected 24x7x365 is on the horizon.
As if the prospect of all these new technologies is not exciting enough, we are also on the brink of having a second national operator, which will offer a competing service to Telkom - a truly exciting prospect.
I still firmly believe that all these technological advancements and the changes we are seeing in the communications sector locally will ultimately benefit the consumer and rightly so. Healthy competition in the sector is going to ensure SA is privy to the cost-effective communication mechanisms that are available in the rest of the world and it is about time too!
Although these advances are cause for great jubilation, companies will have to look at all the options at their disposal before deciding on what to implement. In addition to making sure they have all the facts pertaining to a technology before taking the plunge, companies will also have to carefully consider the stipulations of the Convergence Bill as per 16 February 2005. Failure to do so could result in service providers breaking the law, especially as the definitions in the bill have changed.
Having read this document, the only advice I can give players in the electronic communications game is to read the bill carefully... very carefully, as its definitions could be quite limiting for larger organisations.
Mobility distinctions
I still firmly believe that all these technological advancements and the changes we are seeing in the communications sector locally will ultimately benefit the consumer and rightly so.
Andy Brauer, Chief Technology Executive, Business Connexion`s Networks competency
Mobility is the subject of many convergence papers and conferences. However, few draw the distinction between fixed mobility and true mobility. Fixed mobility means you are mobile, but while you are communicating you need to be stationary. True mobility is when you are actually mobile while communicating, as is the case with a cellphone.
Before companies invest in a mobile solution they ought to establish their mobility needs. True or fixed? They will also need to evaluate upload and download speeds as these vary with user-to-user technology and could prove disappointing in a peer-to-peer scenario.
The reason for this is that when using the new broadband technologies in the peer-to-peer scenario, the effective throughput will revert to the lowest speed. This is to say, if two people are communicating, and one person can only upload at 64Kb while the other can only download up to 384Kb, then the effective throughput will only be 64Kb. Organisations will have to take this into consideration before making any investments.
Looking at 3.5G, 4G, 802.21 and 802.16A and 802.16E, one thing becomes quite evident: IP version 6 is on the verge of making a concerted entry into the market. In China, an ISP has rolled out a full IPv6 implementation, the Department of Defence in the US is thrusting heavily into IPv6 and in Japan there are tax incentives for using IPv6.
The reason that the Japanese are driving IPv6 so ardently is that as IPv4 becomes saturated, no additional services could be added onto it. If everyone were to become IP-enabled and used mobile devices in an always connected fashion, then we would have an addressing issue, which can be resolved with IPv6. In addition, IPv6 can solve the problem of effective billing, handover, non-disruptive communication and increased addresses. Many products from Microsoft and Cisco already have IPv6 protocol included in their offerings.
However, the take up of IPv6 will have to be phased in as opposed to the big bang approach.
The advent of IPv6 means technical staff will need to understand the newer version as well as be able to manage it. A number of software tools out there at present are not IPv6-enabled. Going forward, organisations will have to ensure the products they are using are IPv6-compliant or at the very least can be migrated, as I suspect that by 2010 IPv6 will be the dominant protocol.
On the skills side, these will have to be "upgraded" to work with the new protocol as there a few differences between IPv4 and IPv6. However, an understanding of version 4 will be good grounding for technicians. I would suggest the local community starts registering for IPv6 address ranges.
With IPv6 on our doorstep, I must wonder if IP version 8 will ever become a reality? Are we going to run out of addresses anytime soon?
* Andy Brauer is chief technology executive at Business Connexion`s Networks Competency.
Business Connexion sponsors ITWeb`s networking industry portal. In a connected world, the network is the business backbone of most companies. This portal is an invaluable one-stop source of information and news on how to gain maximum benefit out of networking infrastructure.
Share