The Caribbean Network Operator Group (CaribNOG), the largest non-commercial, technical, educational and community event in the Caribbean, will host its annual Caribbean Peering and Interconnection Forum on Wednesday, July 7, 2021.

This year, the 7th edition of CARPIF will focus on securing critical internet infrastructure in the region. The event will include sessions that address key operational and security issues facing network professionals, such as routing security and Internet exchange point administration.

Discussions will cover the experience of Internet exchange points during the pandemic, updates from Caribbean exchange point operators and Internet organizations, as well as training on routing security best practices, guidelines to secure critical Internet infrastructures.

CarPIF is an open event that brings together major players in the internet industry, including internet service providers, mobile operators, content providers, cloud and infrastructure service providers, as well as government regulators, academics and business leaders. Participants representing the Caribbean, Latin America and North America will meet with their counterparts from Africa, Europe, Oceania and the Far East. This diverse group will discuss industry threats and trends and share their knowledge and expertise, with the aim of enhancing and facilitating greater regional cooperation on Internet infrastructure and connectivity issues.

Bevil Wooding, Director of Caribbean Affairs at the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and Co-Founder of CarPIF explained, “This year, CarPIF’s work is more important than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in [in a] sharp increase in demand for local digital services in the region and globally.

This has increased the pressure on network operators to provide more reliable and secure Internet services to their customers. As a result, there is a greater urgency across the region to ensure that the critical infrastructure necessary to support the delivery, security and reliability of improved Internet services is in place. “

Wooding has been a strong advocate for the proliferation of Internet Exchange Points, or IXPs in the region for years. He and the CarPIF team readily admit that there is still a lot of work to be done to improve Internet connectivity in the Caribbean. Shernon Osepa, Director of Caribbean Affairs and

Development for Internet Society (ISOC) and co-founder of CarPIF, said: “Many operators still send regional traffic to be exchanged out of the region. This is why the CaribNOG team has formally decided to create a Caribbean forum dedicated to issues of peering, interconnection and IXP development.

CarPIF enjoys the support of several large regional and international organizations, including the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC), the Telecommunications Union of Caribbean (CTU), Google, Facebook and the Belize Public Utilities Commission (PUC) among others.

Kevon Swift, Head of Strategic Relations and Integration at LACNIC, said, “Representatives from four major Internet organizations, ARIN, LACNIC, ICANN and ISOC are all here, working with regional and global Internet players to build a Caribbean stronger and more Internet ”Together, these experts set themselves the goal of improving the Caribbean’s connections, both to its networks and to its people.

Keynote speakers at CarPIF 7 include Bijal Sanghani, director on the board of PeeringDB and co-chair of the RIPE NCC (European IP Network Coordination Center) service working group; and Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola, Commissioner of the Global Commission on Cyberspace Stability and Chair of the Cyber ​​Incident Management and Critical Information Protection Working Group of the Global Cyber ​​Expertise Forum (GFCE).

The group will also hear from leading regional experts, including Bevil Wooding, Shernon Osepa, Kevon Swift and Albert Daniels, Senior Caribbean Stakeholder Engagement Officer for ICANN. Participation in CarPIF 7 is free. Those interested can inquire and register online on the official website: www.carpif.net. (RP)

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