1,200 net techies converge in Dublin

IF YOU think your company network can be a headache, imagine having to make sure the global internet works.

That was the challenge before 1,200 of the world's internet mechanics this week, who met in Dublin to determine the best ways to keep the internet running smoothly for its 1.5 billion users.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an international group of designers, operators, vendors and researchers concerned with the internet's architecture and operation, chose Dublin for one of its three annual meetings.

At the meetings, which any interested person can attend, technical standards are agreed and network challenges are addressed within 115 working groups, said Gerard Ross, communications manager for sister organisation, the Internet Society.

Issues this week included managing bandwidth demand arising from the explosion in internet users uploading and downloading video and using peer-to-peer networks for sending large files.

Members also debated the best way to implement a new version of internet addressing called IPv6 (internet protocol version 6), needed because the number of internet addresses - needed by every individual website, as well as each internet user - is running out.

"The internet works because people choose to make it work. They collaborate to make it work - which is what we are doing here," said Russell Housley, chair of the IETF and an internet security expert who has worked on many of the net's security standards.

Participants attend as individuals and do not come as representatives of their organisations, but the world's leading technology companies and organisations had top technologists at the important event.

Leslie Daigle, chief internet technology officer for the Internet Society, said that while no organisation is required to use standards worked out at the meetings, most implement them to keep their networks talking smoothly to the rest of the internet.

Most of the arguments at the meeting will come over deciding which features of any new technology should be included as part of a standard, she says.

The event was hosted at CityWest Hotel by Alcatel-Lucent, and attendees were formally welcomed by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan.