SURFnet is the national computer network for higher education and research in the Netherlands. SURFnet connects the networks of universities, colleges, research centres, academic hospitals and scientific libraries to one another and to other networks in Europe and the rest of the world. The SURFnet network enables its users to communicate with other network users and to consult the Internet from their office or their home PC.

In the summer of 2001 the national research infrastructure of SURFnet, called SURFnet5, was constructed as part of the GigaPort project and in partnership with BT Nederland and Cisco Systems. After a public procurement process these partners were awarded a six year contract at the very end of 1999, with BT Nederland supplying the infrastructure and Cisco Systems providing the router equipment.

The building of the successor to SURFnet5, called SURFnet6, started at the end of 2004 and is performed in partnership with Nortel, Avici Systems, and Telindus. SURFnet6 will be a hybrid optical and packet switching infrastructure delivering IPv4, IPv6, and lambda services to SURFnet’s constituency. The IPv6 implementation for unicast and multicast on SURFnet6 will be native and truly dual-stack, i.e. not using MPLS.