IPNG Directorate (NGDIR) Reported by Scott Bradner/Harvard University The IP Next Generation area directorate met in an open meeting on Tuesday, 6 December. Reports were given on the status of the IPng effort, the IPng Area and the various documents required to define IPv6. The schedule is to have the basic set of documents ready to be forwarded to the IESG as Proposed Standards shortly after an IPng Working Group interim meeting to be held on 9 and 10 February. There was a discussion of the right time for the IPng area to be disbanded and for the working groups to be returned to their logical and normal IETF areas. The area co-director stated that the then-current understanding was that the area would be disbanded after the San Jose meeting. Strong sentiment was expressed from the audience that the area should continue until a base set of documents had been completed. (A discussion during the open plenary on Thursday concluded with the acceptance by the IESG of the later schedule.) The remainder of the meeting was a discussion of the security related portions of the IPng Area Director's recommendation on IPng. The recommendation is to require that all compliant implementations of IPv6 include support for packet-level authentication and encryption. It is not required that the default condition for a system be that the security features be used for all communication but an application must be able to call for the use of the features and be able to expect that the facilities will be in the implementations. Jeff Schiller, the Security Area Director, was invited to lead the discussion. The discussion addressed the various issues that might effect the recommendation including U.S. export regulations and rules against the use of encryption in various parts of the world. Most of the attendees supported the area director's recommendations but some concern was expressed that the requirements for the support of security might cause delays and other problems in the acceptance of IPv6. The consensus of the meeting was that the recommendations should stay as they are.