[afripv6-discuss] The African IPv6 Task Force

[Mark Tinka]

On Friday, February 03, 2012 04:21:43 PM Hisham Ibrahim 
wrote:

> Since we seem to be at an agreement on the main FGs that
> the TF will consist of can we take a final look at their
> mandates

I'm guessing these are just general mandates, and that 
detailed deliverables and outcomes would be provided for 
each focus group as we begin to ramp up, yes?

> 1) Policy and Government
> This FG will assist governmental members and policy
> makers in defining and promoting a clear dated roadmap
> for the IPv6 implementation strategies on their large
> national networks and backbones.

Perhaps we could just neutralize this to "network" rather 
than describing it as large or small. Some parties may 
misunderstand this to think that only large networks need 
v6, e.t.c.

> This FG will also look
> into introducing IPv6 into the country through means
> such as education and services.

In a broad sense, this is fine. The devil is in the details, 
where I'm thinking this focus group will be looking at high 
level plans and policies that will encourage not only v6 
take-up by operators and enterprises, but also deployment 
and commercialization.

> 2) Core, Transit & Peering
> This FG will assist network operators in planning and
> deploying IPv6 across their core networks and
> facilitating transit and peering relationships within
> the region.

Not sure what we mean by "facilitating"; is the focus group 
responsible for looking out for peering and negotiating 
connectivity? My thinking is that the focus group could look 
at empowering interested parties so they have more knowledge 
and confidence about how and where to find v6 peering.

By doing so, the focus group can continue to look at the 
high level success of the program, while ensuring operators 
on the ground get their hands dirty and actually pick up 
skills.

But again, I think the general mandate covers this, and the 
devil is in the details.

> 3) Mobile, CPE & Access
> This FG will assist in developing roadmaps for the
> deployment of IPv6 on the access layers of the network
> up to the CPE device or customer access device. This FG
> will also facilitate collaboration for standard based
> deployments of IPv6 transition mechanisms and
> integration to customers.

This is fine. The detailed mandate would clarify exactly 
what areas need to be looked at and so on.

> 4) Web & Application
> This FG will assist ccTLDs, host and content providers in
> promotion and diffusion of IPv6 capable services on
> their networks. This FG will also facilitate
> collaboration between academic and research
> organizations in the development of IPv6 tools,
> applications and devices. The FG will attempt to
> actively contribute to the international standards and
> specification bodies tasked with IPv6 matters.

I guess this focus group will determine which applications 
are sufficiently critical to warrant attention at this 
level, so that they can provide an enabling platform for 
other applications to support v6, i.e., we shouldn't expect 
to push for an enterprise's ERP software to be v6-compliant 
with this focus group, but rather limit (deployment) 
compliance to typical Internet related software which should 
give rise to thoughts and ideas on spreading v6 farther and 
wider within each organization's domain, e.g., DNS servers, 
Web servers, Mail servers, Database servers, e.t.c.

Cheers,

Mark.
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