IN PICTURES:

Going forward, the group's biggest challenges include helping the Internet community with two much-needed upgrades: to , a new version of the Internet Protocol; and to , which adds a layer of encryption to the DNS.

"Sometimes the IETF sees a need before the marketplace is ready to embrace it. This leads to the standards being in place before the service providers are ready to deploy. DNSSEC and are two examples," Housley says. "So working on global deployment of these completed protocols to offer new capabilities is one challenge. Yet the capabilities offered by these protocols is necessary for the continued growth of the Internet as a trusted platform for communications and innovation used by billions of people around the world.''

in Network World's LAN & WAN section.