diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/netconf.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/netconf.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3064876744
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/netconf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,121 @@
+#
+# (c) 2016 Red Hat Inc.
+#
+# This file is part of Ansible
+#
+# Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
+__metaclass__ = type
+
+import os
+import re
+import socket
+import json
+import signal
+
+from ansible import constants as C
+from ansible.errors import AnsibleConnectionFailure, AnsibleError
+from ansible.plugins.connection import ConnectionBase, ensure_connect
+from ansible.module_utils.six.moves import StringIO
+
+try:
+    from ncclient import manager
+    from ncclient.operations import RPCError
+    from ncclient.transport.errors import SSHUnknownHostError
+    from ncclient.xml_ import to_ele, to_xml
+except ImportError:
+    raise AnsibleError("ncclient is not installed")
+
+try:
+    from __main__ import display
+except ImportError:
+    from ansible.utils.display import Display
+    display = Display()
+
+class Connection(ConnectionBase):
+    ''' NetConf base connections '''
+
+    transport = 'netconf'
+    has_pipelining = False
+    action_handler = 'network'
+
+    def __init__(self, play_context, new_stdin, *args, **kwargs):
+        super(Connection, self).__init__(play_context, new_stdin, *args, **kwargs)
+
+        self._network_os = self._play_context.network_os or 'default'
+        display.vvv('network_os is set to %s' % self._network_os, play_context.remote_addr)
+
+        self._manager = None
+        self._connected = False
+
+    def _connect(self):
+        super(Connection, self)._connect()
+
+        allow_agent = True
+        if self._play_context.password is not None:
+            allow_agent = False
+
+        key_filename = None
+        if self._play_context.private_key_file:
+            key_filename = os.path.expanduser(self._play_context.private_key_file)
+
+        try:
+            self._manager = manager.connect(
+                host=self._play_context.remote_addr,
+                port=self._play_context.port or 830,
+                username=self._play_context.remote_user,
+                password=self._play_context.password,
+                key_filename=str(key_filename),
+                hostkey_verify=C.HOST_KEY_CHECKING,
+                look_for_keys=C.PARAMIKO_LOOK_FOR_KEYS,
+                allow_agent=allow_agent,
+                timeout=self._play_context.timeout,
+                device_params={'name': self._network_os}
+            )
+        except SSHUnknownHostError as exc:
+            raise AnsibleConnectionFailure(str(exc))
+
+        if not self._manager.connected:
+            return (1, '', 'not connected')
+
+        self._connected = True
+        return (0, self._manager.session_id, '')
+
+    def close(self):
+        if self._manager:
+            self._manager.close_session()
+            self._connected = False
+        super(Connection, self).close()
+
+    @ensure_connect
+    def exec_command(self, request):
+        """Sends the request to the node and returns the reply
+        """
+        req = to_ele(request)
+        if req is None:
+            return (1, '', 'unable to parse request')
+
+        try:
+            reply = self._manager.rpc(req)
+        except RPCError as exc:
+            return (1, '', to_xml(exc.xml))
+
+        return (0, reply.data_xml, '')
+
+    def fetch_file(self):
+        pass
+
+    def put_file(self):
+        pass
+
diff --git a/test/units/plugins/connection/test_netconf.py b/test/units/plugins/connection/test_netconf.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2b4985603f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/units/plugins/connection/test_netconf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
+#
+# (c) 2016 Red Hat Inc.
+#
+# This file is part of Ansible
+#
+# Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+# Make coding more python3-ish
+from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
+__metaclass__ = type
+
+import sys
+import re
+import json
+
+from io import StringIO
+
+from ansible.compat.tests import unittest
+from ansible.compat.tests.mock import patch, MagicMock, PropertyMock
+
+from ansible.errors import AnsibleConnectionFailure
+from ansible.playbook.play_context import PlayContext
+
+PY3 = sys.version_info[0] == 3
+
+builtin_import = __import__
+
+mock_ncclient = MagicMock(name='ncclient')
+
+def import_mock(name, *args):
+    if name.startswith('ncclient'):
+        return mock_ncclient
+    return builtin_import(name, *args)
+
+if PY3:
+    with patch('builtins.__import__', side_effect=import_mock):
+        from ansible.plugins.connection import netconf
+else:
+    with patch('__builtin__.__import__', side_effect=import_mock):
+        from ansible.plugins.connection import netconf
+
+class TestNetconfConnectionClass(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_netconf_init(self):
+        pc = PlayContext()
+        new_stdin = StringIO()
+
+        conn = netconf.Connection(pc, new_stdin)
+
+        self.assertEqual('default', conn._network_os)
+        self.assertIsNone(conn._manager)
+        self.assertFalse(conn._connected)
+
+    def test_netconf__connect(self):
+        pc = PlayContext()
+        new_stdin = StringIO()
+
+        conn = netconf.Connection(pc, new_stdin)
+
+        mock_manager = MagicMock(name='self._manager.connect')
+        type(mock_manager).session_id = PropertyMock(return_value='123456789')
+        netconf.manager.connect.return_value = mock_manager
+
+        rc, out, err = conn._connect()
+
+        self.assertEqual(0, rc)
+        self.assertEqual('123456789', out)
+        self.assertEqual('', err)
+        self.assertTrue(conn._connected)
+
+    def test_netconf_exec_command(self):
+        pc = PlayContext()
+        new_stdin = StringIO()
+
+        conn = netconf.Connection(pc, new_stdin)
+        conn._connected = True
+
+        mock_manager = MagicMock(name='self._manager')
+
+        mock_reply = MagicMock(name='reply')
+        type(mock_reply).data_xml = PropertyMock(return_value='<test/>')
+
+        mock_manager.rpc.return_value = mock_reply
+
+        conn._manager = mock_manager
+
+        rc, out, err = conn.exec_command('<test/>')
+
+        netconf.to_ele.assert_called_with('<test/>')
+
+        self.assertEqual(0, rc)
+        self.assertEqual('<test/>', out)
+        self.assertEqual('', err)
+
+    def test_netconf_exec_command_invalid_request(self):
+        pc = PlayContext()
+        new_stdin = StringIO()
+
+        conn = netconf.Connection(pc, new_stdin)
+        conn._connected = True
+
+        netconf.to_ele.return_value = None
+
+        rc, out, err = conn.exec_command('test string')
+
+        self.assertEqual(1, rc)
+        self.assertEqual('', out)
+        self.assertEqual('unable to parse request', err)
+
+    def test_fetch_file(self):
+        pc = PlayContext()
+        new_stdin = StringIO()
+        conn = netconf.Connection(pc, new_stdin)
+        self.assertIsNone(conn.fetch_file())
+
+    def test_put_file(self):
+        pc = PlayContext()
+        new_stdin = StringIO()
+        conn = netconf.Connection(pc, new_stdin)
+        self.assertIsNone(conn.put_file())
+
+