SURF is building the next generation of the SURF network: SURFnet Infinity. The first production traffic was routed over SURFnet Infinity on August 7. The first metro nodes have been installed in Breda, and the initial access rings have been migrated from SURFnet8 to SURFnet Infinity—the latest generation of the SURF network. Our colleague Max Mudde previously wrote an article about this. We shared an initial update in early June, which you can read here.

Work continued steadily throughout the summer, so time for a new update from the project team.

The core is in place

The core network was accepted on August 5. This followed a month of “soaking tests” involving continuous test traffic and simulated outages on the new core, as well as a reconfiguration of the network around Utrecht to provide extra redundancy for fiber-optic routes. The core and peering routers (HPE PTX10008) are now operational at the four core locations and two peering locations, interconnected by 400G links.

First metro location live

On August 6, the metro nodes were installed at Avans University of Applied Sciences in Breda. A day later, around 10:30 AM, the first access rings switched over to SURFnet Infinity. On-site access connections will follow in September.

What’s next

•          Migration of internet exchanges and direct peers to the new peering routers is 50% complete; finalization is scheduled for the end of August.

•          The remaining metro locations will follow—a total of 55 locations across the Netherlands.

•          In the autumn, we will bring the SURFnet Infinity route reflectors online and phase out the SURFnet8 ones.

•          Next up is the migration of NetherLight, our international exchange point.

Want to know more?

See this video! Or read SURFnet Infinity: approach and first steps to learn how the migration is structured. Technical blogs detailing the setup of the new network will follow in the coming months.