Speaking to ICT’s Public Relation, Mr. Valizadeh included that: “Therefore, it will take 2 to 3 years for gradual elimination of IPv4.
He further elaborated that: “Things are easier when it comes to the subject of communication infrastructure, and almost all the equipment purchased, installed and operated within the last couple of years by the operators, whether Communication Infrastructure Company, Iran Telecommunication Company, Provincial Communication firms, PAP operators, or Mobile communication operators, which means more than 90 percent of our equipment have the capacity to support the new system and only less than 10 percent of the equipment might be unable to support IPv6.”
Counting software sector as the most difficult part of the migration, Mr. Eng. Valizadeh stated that: “The problem lies here that most administrative applications such as programming systems, financial, personnel, transport …, which are web-based and internal, do not provide the required support, and with this change, Data Centers and network-based applications have to migrate.”
Emphasizing that sudden and total migration is impossible without considering these facts, he included that: “We have to adapt the ‘Dual Stack’ approach, simultaneously providing services both in IPv4 and IPv6.”
He added: “The project has started this year and we are changing the network step by step, and we intend to offer simultaneous support in the next two years.”
Valizadeh referred to the proportion of investment compared to the actual output, saying: “The technology of this sector is constantly changing on a day to day basis and we have to proceed based on those changes and development; therefore, one must be careful when making an investment in this sector so that it does not actually become obsolete and useless prematurely.”
He mentioned the endorsement of a guideline in Supreme IT Council just this past year, and included: “According to this instruction, no organization or state body is allowed to purchase equipment and software which does not support IPv6.”
He also mentioned some domestic software producers who have started working in this field and may actually be able to present a product by next year with the ability to support IPv6.