Third Itojun Service Award presented at Internet Engineering Task Force meeting
[Taipei, 16 November 2011] — The Itojun Service Award was presented today to Alexandre Cassen and Rémi Després at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting held in Taipei. The awardees were recognized for their implementation and design of “6rd,” an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) protocol that aims to speed the transition to global deployment of IPv6, which is critical to ensuring the continued growth and evolution of the Internet. The 6rd protocol has been implemented by several Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the world, including Free – the second largest ISP in France – as part of their efforts to deploy IPv6.
First awarded in 2009, the Itojun Service Award honors the memory of Dr. Jun-ichiro “Itojun” Hagino, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 37. The award, established by the friends of Itojun and administered by the Internet Society (ISOC), recognizes and commemorates the extraordinary dedication exercised by Itojun over the course of IPv6 development.
“Alexandre and Rémi’s efforts have helped to quickly bring a real IPv6 experience to hundreds of thousands of Internet users, demonstrating that IPv6 deployment can be effectively implemented on a large scale by commercial network providers,” said Jun Murai of the Itojun Service Award committee and founder of the WIDE Project. “On behalf of the Itojun Service Award committee, I am extremely pleased to present this award to Alexandre and Rémi for the significant work they have done to advance IPv6 development and deployment.”
The Itojun Service Award is focused on pragmatic contributions to developing and deploying IPv6 in the spirit of serving the Internet. The award, presented annually, includes a presentation crystal, a US$3,000 honorarium and a travel grant.
Alexandre Cassen said, “It is truly an honor to have been selected to receive the Itojun Service Award. As a software developer myself, It is particularly touching to receive an award created in the memory of a coding legend such as Itojun. I would also like to thank the entire team at Free Telecom who, in 2007, implemented and deployed 6rd, allowing any subscriber who asked for IPv6 to have it with a single click. As I write this, Free Telecom has more than 1,500,000 subscribers using IPv6 every day, and all new subscribers have IPv6 enabled by default. IPv6 is happening Itojun!”
Rémi Després said, “The Itojun award is the best possible recognition that long efforts to make IPv6 deployment practicable have been useful to the Internet community. Latecomer in IPv6 standardization, I was about to send my first email to Itojun on a technical issue when I heard of his death. I was even sadder since we undoubtedly would have otherwise enjoyed sharing our ideas and our enthusiasm. Sharing the honor of this award with Alexandre Cassen perfectly illustrates the great progress possible when a dynamic network operator with a pioneer spirit and talented engineers adopts an innovative and simple design. Making IPv6 operational on a large scale in only five weeks will be remembered as a milestone of both of our professional lives.”
Each Internet-connected device uses an Internet Protocol (IP) address and, with the number of Internet-connected devices growing rapidly, the supply of unallocated IPv4 addresses is expected to be exhausted worldwide within the next year. APNIC, the regional Internet registry charged with allocating IP addresses in the Asia-Pacific region, announced earlier this year that it had reached its last block of IPv4 addresses available for allocation. To help ensure the continued rapid growth of the Internet, IPv6 provides a huge increase in the number of available addresses. And, while the technical foundations of IPv6 are well established, significant work remains to expand the deployment and use of IPv6.
IPv6 was developed within the IETF, the Internet’s premier standards-making body responsible for the development of protocols used in IP-based networks. IETF participants represent an international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers involved in the technical operation of the Internet and the continuing evolution of Internet architecture. More information on the Itojun Service Award is available at:
http://www.isoc.org/itojun
About IPv6
All devices that connect to the Internet need an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Currently, the vast majority of the Internet uses IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses. IPv6 is the next generation address standard, offering a far greater pool of public addresses than IPv4. IPv6 has been available for use since 1999, but as the end of the available pool of IPv4 addresses approaches, the need for more understanding, awareness, and deployment of IPv6 is becoming more important.
About the Internet Engineering Task Force
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the Internet’s premier technical standards body. It gathers a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. For more information, see: http://www.ietf.org
About the Internet Society
The Internet Society is the world’s trusted independent source of leadership for Internet policy, technology standards, and future development. Based on its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society works with its members and Chapters around the world to promote the continued evolution and growth of the open Internet through dialog among companies, governments, and other organizations around the world. For more information, see: http://www.internetsociety.org
Media Contact: Wende Cover, [email protected], +1-703-439-2773