14/05/2020

IMPA wins award for technological innovations.

Felipe Correia and Rosa Ladeira, from the Systems and Networks Coordination of the IT Management at IMPA, won the seventh edition of the IPv6 Challenge, organized by LACNIC (Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean). The award recognizes technological innovations and, this time, the winning project was the one that changed the institute's connectivity protocol.

“In IT, understanding new technologies in their most intriguing complexities is a daily task. Professionally, overcoming the challenge was very rewarding. The analog world is migrating to the digital, and more and more media, telecommunications, and computing need to integrate,” Rosa celebrated.

Nearly 40 initiatives were submitted this year and evaluated by the Selection Committee, composed of Azael Fernández, Jorge Villa, Nicolas Antoniello, and Alejandro Acosta. “Choosing the winner was more difficult due to the value of the projects presented,” stated Acosta, who coordinates the Research and Development area at LACNIC.

The installation of IPv6 at IMPA represents an evolution from the old IP address system, expanding the addressing limit. The change also makes routing more efficient, improves packet processing and security, and supports new services.

The project presented by the duo to LACNIC-IPv6 focused on the implementation of the protocol in IMPA's connectivity equipment with the Internet, in the DNS server, in a web server, in the construction of security policies and a tool for measuring post-implementation performance.

Felipe points out that recognition for innovation brings "the possibility of seeing the IoT (Internet of Things) world on the horizon in the near future and confirms that this is the right path with regard to best practices in the implementation of IPv6."

Due to the pandemic, the team had to redo the initial plan. It was necessary to redesign the schedule due to the new circumstances of working from home , without interrupting the continuity of the project.

The IPv6 Challenge has been running since 2017 and encourages organizations to deploy services to substantially expand their connectivity network. Second place in the award went to Luis Javier Barrera and Javier Soto, who analyzed the IPv6 implementation at the National Disaster Risk Management Unit of the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia.