FOR US EMBASSY LUSAKA Overview of Technical Criteria Pre-bid - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

RFP: BACKUP INTERNET SERVICES FOR US EMBASSY LUSAKA

Overview of Technical Criteria

Pre-bid Meeting Wednesday May 16th, 2019

Objective

• Our objective is to obtain high quality Internet Connectivity with a

high level of service and support for the lowest price possible.

• These services will be used primarily as a backup to our primary

internet connection, provided by Liquid Telecom.

• Only vendors who can provide service along routes separate from

those used by Liquid Telecom are eligible for consideration.

• Your response must clearly demonstrate the independence of those

routes, and that sufficient capacity is available.

Objective - Continued

• It is acceptable for your organization to receive services from Liquid

Telecom, so long as you also maintain sufficient additional capacity on

• ther routes to support this circuit at normal operating levels even in the

event that Liquid Telecom suffers an outage. (D1.7)

• In the event you change the design of your network, your upstream

providers, or make other changes that increase your reliance on services provided by Liquid Telecom, you will immediately inform the U.S. Embassy

• f these changes, and demonstrate how you plan to maintain sufficient

additional capacity on other routes to support this circuit at normal

• perating levels even in the event that Liquid Telecom suffers an outage. If

it is longer possible for your network to offer that level of independence, the U.S. Embassy may elect to terminate the service. (D1.8)

Intended Use

While the circuit is initially intended primarily as a backup route, the U.S. Embassy may choose to operate with this link as our primary or only connection to the Internet for extended periods of time, to load balance data across this link and other links, or to use the link for a variety of other purposes. Vendor should assume that the circuit will pass traffic at all times, and not only during outages of our primary circuit. (D1.6)

About the RFP

• This is a complex RFP, and we understand preparing a response for it

will be a significant effort.

• We encourage you to carefully read the RFP. If there are questions,

you should ask them to ensure you can submit a conforming proposal.

• The criteria listed in this RFP become the eventual components of the

statement of work in the final contract.

Technical Evaluation Criteria

• The evaluation criteria in this RFP are very detailed – we need the information to

evaluate your ability to deliver the services requested.

• We have listed and described each of the evaluation criteria in the text of the RFP.

An example is below:

D1.9 Data Transfer Limits The circuits provided under this category must operate without any data volume transfer limits, caps, or quotas. The only limitation on circuit throughput should be the quoted bandwidth of the circuit.

• It is critical that your response address each criteria clearly. For the example

above, your response must clearly and explicitly indicate there are no data volume transfer limits on the circuit type being discussed.

• Proposals that fail to address any of the evaluation criteria may be disqualified.

Additional Highlights

• D1.2 Latency to the US

The circuits in this category must provide an average Round Trip Time (RTT) latency of 300ms or less to ASN 6966 as tested from the customer handoff to IP address 169.252.4.21 over a total of 1000 packets on an unloaded circuit.

• D1.4 Packet Loss

The circuits in this category must provide for a packet loss of 0.01% (no more than 10 packets lost out of 1000) to ASN 6966 as tested from the customer handoff to IP address 169.252.4.21 over a total of 1000 packets on an unloaded circuit.

Additional Highlights

• D2.5 Routing

It is desired that the circuit provider have a direct interconnection (on either a Peering or Transit basis) with a major Internet Service Provider in the United States (Eg: AT&T, CenturyLink/Level3, Verizon, GTT, Sprint, HE). If such a relationship is not in place, you will need to demonstrate convincingly your ability to provide sufficient throughput to US providers, and manage those issues with your upstream providers.

Additional Highlights

• D3.1 Overland Connectivity

This circuit must be supported by a minimum of two (2) diverse fiber optic connections from Zambia to regional undersea cables. Provide a detailed map

• f these connections in your proposal, along with a table indicating (a)

Owner/Operator of the physical cable (list all, if multiple segments) (b) circuit speed (c) current average circuit utilization (d) primary, load balanced, or backup route. At least one of these routes must be completely independent from routes used or operated by Liquid Telecom in Zambia. We are asking this to ensure we have sufficient, actual redundancy on these circuits and others we procure separate from this contract.

• This data will not be shared - it is “Procurement Sensitive” and will be

closely protected among only a limited number of staff in the Embassy.

Additional Highlights

Start Point End Point Owner / Operator Speed Utilization Use Notes Lusaka, ZM Kazungula, ZM FiberCom 10GB DWDM 40% Primary Route Leased DWDM Kasane, BW Francistown, BW BoFiNet STM-64 45% Primary Route Leased SDH Francistown, BW Gaborone, BW BoFiNet STM-64 45% Primary Route Leased SDH Mafikeng, SA Joburg, SA Infraco 10GB DWDM 40% Primary Route Leased DWDM Joburg, SA Mtunzini, SA DFA 10GB DWDM 40% Primary Route Leased DWDM Note: This table is for example purposes only – these providers may or may not actually exist or provide connectivity along these routes.

Example Response to D3.1

Category A Circuits – Additional Highlights

• D3.2 Undersea Connectivity

The circuits in this category must be supported by a minimum of two (2) fully diverse undersea fiber optic cables with geographically diverse routing and landing points. Please list the undersea cables in your proposals, and if you have an ownership stake or direct contract the cable consortium or if you contract with a third party (please identify them in your proposal) for access to the undersea cable. Please also list the amount of bandwidth you have access to on the circuit.

Additional Highlights

Note: This table is for example purposes only – these providers may or may not actually exist or provide connectivity along these routes.

Example Response to A3.2

Cable Landing Point Contracted Capacity Relationship Notes Seacom

Mtunzini, SA

STM-16 Leased access WACS Walvis Bay, NA STM-64 Ownership Stake Express Lane ACE Melkbosstrand, SA STM-64 Ownership Stake

Additional Highlights

• D4.1 Fiber Optic Primary Connection to the Service Location

The primary delivery path for the circuit must be fiber optic cable from the provider’s hub in Lusaka to the U.S. Embassy. Please provide in your response a map of the route these cables will take from your Lusaka hub to the service location, including details on any intermediate points of presence. The path many not be delivered over infrastructure owned or operated by Liquid Telecom.

• D4.2 Ownership & Installation of Primary Fiber Optic Cable

Please provide details on who will own and do the physical install the Fiber Optic Cable discussed in your response to D4.1 – either your organization, or a subcontractor (please identify the subcontractor).

Additional Highlights

• D5.1 Uptime Monitoring & Alerting

The service provider will continuously monitor the condition and performance of the circuits provided to the US Embassy, and collect, log and make this data accessible in real time to the U.S. Embassy through a web based portal.

• D5.2 Alerting & Notification for Unplanned Degradation or Failure

The service provider will provide notification within 5 minutes of any degradation or failure of the circuit via email, SMS or voice call to identified points of contact on 24x7x365 basis. This includes notifications due to degradation or failure of either last mile, regional or international link, including notices of loss of redundancy and restoration of service.

• D5.3 Service Advisories for Planned Events

The service provider will provide notification to identified points of contact in advance during business hours via email of any planned network maintenance, repairs or upgrades that would impact the circuit or decrease its redundancy.

Additional Highlights

• D6.2 Support & Technical Personnel

The vendor must have adequate and competent technical support, field support and engineering resources within Lusaka to configure, maintain and repair the circuits under this agreement. Detail your capabilities and experience in this area and identify any subcontractors used (for example, for fiber optic repairs) or if resources are managed in house.

Additional Highlights

• D7.1 Circuit Availability

The circuit must have an overall availability, in conformance with the Service Quality indicators detailed in D1, of 99.5% when calculated on the basis of a calendar month. This translates to no more than 3h 45m hours of downtime or performance degradation in any given month. Describe your plans to meet this part of the SLA.

A7.2 Technical Support & Repair Availability – Business Hours

10 minutes via telephone or email, and within 120 minutes for onsite response

A7.3 Technical Support & Repair Availability – Off Hours

30 minutes via telephone or email, and within 180 minutes for onsite response

Additional Highlights

• D8.2 Circuit Upgradeability

Circuits provided under this contract should be administratively upgradable in 1mbit/sec increments to a minimum of 56mb/sec without needing to replace the underlying hardware. Please describe your plans to meet this requirement.

• D8.3 Modification of Existing Circuits

Future modifications to existing circuits provided under this contract, such as bandwidth increase, additional IP addresses, etc should be activated and available for customer use within 5 business days of a signed amendment of this contract.

Other Highlighted Points

• A1.2 – Technical/ Engineering Point of Contact

In addition to the Account Manager, the Vendor shall assign a Technical or Engineering point of contact who is familiar with all technical aspects of the circuits supporting the US Embassy and can serve as a technical point of escalation for issues that are beyond the scope of normal support desk capabilities.

A1.3 – After Hours Contact

Outside of normal business hours the Vendor shall make available a named point of contact via phone or email beyond their Network Operations Center who is familiar with the US Embassy account and can coordinate response to urgent issues or issues where the Network Operations Center is unable to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of the US Embassy. This may be the same person as the Account Manager, but is not required to be.

Other Highlighted Points

• Access for Fiber Optic Cable
• We currently have fiber from 3 separate providers, including SmartNet (Single

Route Only), installed to our Demarc Room.

• We have additional conduit capacity from various points on the Embassy

property to the Demarc Room.

• Bringing the cable from the public right of way to those access points

(including any lateral boring) is the responsibility of the vendor.

• After this presentation we can go and look at the demarc room and

those access points if requested.

Other Highlighted Points

• C1.5 Roof Access and Line of Sight

The U.S. Embassy may provide limited and reasonable roof space at the point of demarcation for vendor furnished CPE but cannot guarantee clear line of sight in all directions. Vendor is responsible for ensuring its far end points of presence are within available line of site of the point of demarcation.

• D1.1 Restricted Access

The service location and point of demarcation for all circuits delivered under this contract are in restricted access areas controlled by the U.S. Embassy. Approval is required in advance for vendor personnel to access these locations and shall be at all times escorted by approved U.S. Embassy staff while on site. The vendor shall, in a timely fashion, furnish information requested by the U.S. Embassy about its personnel who need access to these locations.

Other Highlighted Points

• The offeror shall address its plan to obtain all licenses and permits

required by local law (see DOSAR 652.242-73 in Section 2). If offeror already possesses the locally required licenses and permits, a copy shall be provided.

Questions?

• Q&A Now
• Q&A via email after todays meeting. Any Questions and responses

will be shared with all prospective bidders.