SURFnet
SURFnet operates and innovates the national research network to which more than 250 educational institutions and research centers in the Netherlands are connected. In order to hold a leading position SURFnet is continuously improving the infrastructure and developing new applications, so that users get faster and better access to new services. Since SURFnet's inception, SARA is responsible for the technical and operational management of the network.

GigaPort
GigaPort (1999-2003) and follow-up project GigaPort-Next Generation Network (2004-2008) are projects of the Dutch government, the business community, educational institutions and research centers. The aim of GigaPort is to give the Netherlands a leading position in the development and use of advanced and innovative network technology.

SARA’s role
SARA also contributed to the construction and deployment of the hybrid network SURFnet6. Through a European tender procedure in 2005, SARA was selected for the Network Operations Center and for the management SURFnet6. The expert team of SARA participates in Research on Networks (RoN), a GigaPort-Next Generation Network project, which focuses on research related to building and managing of the hybrid network.

NetherLight
NetherLight is an advanced open optical infrastructure, developed by SURFnet in the context of GigaPort, for the transportation of data streams over the optical layer to other connected networks. NetherLight is an optimal testbed for advanced network applications. The optical exchange point NetherLight is based at SARA.

New routers SURFnet6
On request of SURFnet, SARA made a significant change to the routing core of the SURFnet6 network in 2008. For this change a second routing core was created parallel to the existing network. With minimal inconvenience to the users and within schedule, the Avici routers were replaced - one by one - by Juniper equipment.