has demonstrated its ability to scale with the growth of the Internet and to operate robustly in an open environment. Moreover, significantly increased functionality can be achieved though applications—such as navigation systems—built on the DNS, or offered independently, rather than through changing the DNS directly. Hence, the need did not seem to be to replace the DNS but rather to maintain and incrementally improve it. Furthermore, given the rapidly increasing installed base and the corresponding heavy investments in the technical system and the institutional framework, the financial cost and operational disruption of changing to a replacement for the DNS would be extremely high, if even possible at all.

Yet, despite this better than passing grade, the committee’s assessments have identified a number of significant technical and institutional issues whose effective resolution is critical to the DNS’s successful adaptation to the demands on it. Chapters 4 and 5 address those issues.