[GB-Today] Monday Musings

[Susan Estrada]

Monday Musings
October 11, 2004

Mark Your Calendar for November's One Gigabit or Bust Roundtable

In just 5 weeks, the Roundtable will hold its fourth meeting at the 
Sheraton in downtown Sacramento.  Don't forget to check the agenda and make 
your hotel reservations before October 22.  All the info can be found at 
http://www.cenic.org/gb/events/rt1104/index.htm .

Broadband across the Pond

Last week's musings stirred up a bit of a discussion in the UK (yes, the 
United Kingdom.)  Someone helpfully provided this information about their 
broadband status.  Looks like they are on the right path.  HELLO?  Anyone 
in the US paying attention?

"The UK is expected to hit a key milestone this month as the number of 
broadband connections passes 5 million. This means that more than 20% of UK 
households will have a broadband connection. The UK also leads the G7 in 
terms of availability with 91% broadband coverage. Increased availability, 
strong marketing, more advanced services and falling prices driven by 
increasing competition are leading to strong and sustained growth. However, 
Antony Walker CEO of BSG warns "Our competitors are raising their game and 
we need to as well - we can't afford to stand still"."  You can read more 
at 
http://www.broadbanduk.org/news/news_pdfs/Sept%202004/BSG_Phase_2_PressRelease_27Sept04.pdf

"Tony Blair made broadband one of his top ten election pledges this week. 
In his party conference speech he said he wants to "bring broadband 
technology to every home in Britain that wants it by 2008". This is a 
personal initiative by the PM to ensure that the benefits of broadband are 
brought to the many not the few, especially the poorest families whose 
children might otherwise be disadvantaged by not being able to access 
broadband at home. Blair is looking to work with the BSG to work out how 
this can be delivered in practice."  You can read more at 
http://www.intellectuk.org/press/news/news_280904_blairBSG.asp

A Commercial for IPv6

Part of the UK discussion surrounded IPv6.  Today, much of the Internet is 
running on the Internet Protocol (IP) version 4.  Version 6 was created a 
while ago to solve some of the big growth and use issues.  Now there is a 
group of folks who are expounding the benefits of conversion.  Of course, 
in our gigabit world, using IPv6 as the underlying protocol is a 
must.  IPv6 is the glue that will let applications/gadgets/people bond with 
our future broadband infrastructure.

Here's a few words from our pal Vint Cerf ("father" of the Internet, SVP 
for Internet Architecture at MCI, and a really good guy) about 
IPv6.  "According to some of my informal calculations, by the year of 2010, 
100% of all communication traffic will be packetized. And while this 
scenario presents many wonderful possibilities, there is much work to be 
done to prepare Internet for the future, as a robust platform for all sorts 
of new services that we ambition for it.  One of the stumbling blocks to 
the continued development of the network is the limitation of IP Version 4, 
mostly (but not limited to) the lack of address space.  IPv6 offers an 
opportunity to re-visit design of the basics of Internet protocol -- to 
vastly expand the address base, to allow for more flexible address 
assignment policies, multicasting design, and security features to become 
basic components of the evolving Internet. IPv6 also offers features that 
facilitate the deployment of new qualities of service ( QoS), which are 
needed to serve an expanding array of applications that require multiple 
classes of services, priority, and bandwidth assignment.  As the Internet 
becomes the true global medium, we're going to need the innovations and 
persistent efforts of individuals like yourselves, to build a network 
capable of supporting a variety of services in a robust manner."  You can 
read all his remarks at http://www.ipv6forum.org/navbar/technology/papers.htm

Susan
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