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, 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 the attendees with Internet connectivity using the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
The RIPE 75 Meeting, 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 the links between the 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 appreciate RIPE NCC role in supporting the telecommunications sector as one of the most vital sectors in sustainable development. The ninth goal of the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals indicates that investment in basic infrastructure including transport, irrigation, energy and information and communication technology is a vital component in sustainable development and empowerment of societies in many countries. It has long been recognized that growth in productivity and income and improvement of health and education outcomes require investment in basic infrastructure. One of the goals of this activity is to significantly increase access to information and communication technologies and to seek comprehensive and affordable access to the internet in developing countries by 2020. RIPE NCC is in a very strategic position to support economic and social development in the region,” H.E. Al Mansoori added.
Saleem Al Blooshi, Chief Infrastructure Officer at du, said: “We are proud to partner with RIPE and provide state of the art IPv6 connectivity and infrastructure for the RIPE 75. du is putting in place next-generation infrastructure across the UAE in the knowledge that a robust network will carry the economy forward and ahead of the rest. It is necessary to maintain the sustainable, long-term development of technologies such as 5G, smart cities and the Internet of Things. du’s strategic investments aim to future-proof the nation and to exceed the expectations of the UAE leadership.”
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 networks 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.
Source: Press Release