Laredo Independent School District Data Transmission Fiber Services E-Rate Round 20 (FY2017) RFP#16-039

Transcription

1 Q&A Summary Laredo Independent School District 1. Please clarify the ownership statement on pg 4 of the RFP? " All equipment and materials required to deliver the service will be owned and maintained by the awarded vendor with no option for transfer of ownership to the District. " The statement applies to all aspects, and components required to meet specifications described in the RFP that deliver a lit or dark fiber solution. The only exception would be modulating electronics as defined in section 2.3(b) of the RFP which the District intends to seek funding support for the purchase and outright ownership of the electronics under a potential Dark Fiber arrangement. 2. Is the District seeking Maintenance and operations as part of the bid response for the leased dark fiber option? As per the RFP, " All equipment and materials required to deliver the service will be owned and maintained by the awarded vendor with no option for transfer of ownership to the District ". "Equipment and materials" is inclusive of all outside plant. Therefore, the District is seeking monthly pricing per site for dark fiber proposals that are inclusive of all maintenance necessary to meet the performance requirements stated in section 3.1 which includes mean time to repair. Finally, providers are reminded that any dark fiber proposed will be owned fully by the awarded bidder, therefore it is expected that the provider is responsible to address cable locating, relocating of fiber, negotiation with and coordination with utilities and municipalities for right of ways, and restoral of service in the event of a fiber break, as a function of the included maintenance in the total monthly pricing. Per E-Rate program guidelines it is assumed that the dark fiber network is part of a more comprehensive fiber infrastructure of the service provider. The respondent will include only the portion of maintenance that is required to support the District fiber segments versus overall network maintenance. If the fiber serves multiple customers, the cost of maintenance should be shared among all the recipients. 3. May we know, please, the make and model of the switches at each facility which will be receiving the transport? The District is standardized on Cisco switches throughout the wan edge and has a mix of switches. The Table below shows what is installed throughout the District with the respective IOS. The mix and counts will change as the District conducts upgrades, but each site will have one of the models loaded with the ios listed below on the wan edge.

2 4.Can you confirm that there will be available GigE ports at each remote and the hub to take the hand off? a) Dark Fiber Solution: As stated in the RFP, the District is seeking to purchase the modulating optics to make a dark fiber solution functional. As per section, 2.3(b) the District will own and be responsible for the configuration of the optics with existing District equipment. The modules required to light the fiber are listed in section 4.3. The existing switches have space for, and are compatible for these modules. b) Lit Fiber Solution: Vendors are reminded that the lit fiber specification calls for a multi-mode handoff required to support all industry standard and Cisco proprietary "layer 2" switching, trunking, and link aggregation protocols including but not limited to: 802.3ad (or equivalent link aggregation protocol), 802.1q/802.1aq. This is the preferred handoff method. However, this will very likely require for the provider to place and operate their own electronics at, or very near to each site to meet this specification. While the District prefers a multi-mode handoff, the District will consider proposals for lit fiber solutions that consist of a single-mode handoff so long as it meets the other requirements above. The District does have available ports to take either handoff. 5. Can Laredo ISD clarify/verify if dark fiber requires 4 fibers from each remote site to School District core data center Yes, dark fiber requires 4 fibers from each remote site to the School District Core Data Center. The District intends on running full 10Gpbs over each pair for a total 20Gbps. 6. Can Laredo ISD clarify/verify if lit requires (2) redundant 10GE links from each remote site to School District core data center in a Hub and Spoke or MEF E-Tree solution. The District is NOT seeking 2 10Gig links in a redundant configuration. The district requires 2 independent 10Gbps links which when bonded or load balanced can provide a total of 20Gbps capacity from each campus/site to the hub at any given time. Both links will terminate from each site to the core hub. 7. Question: Can customer clarify if route diversity for DF or Lit services is required? It is not required for Lit or DF services.

3 8. Question: Is 2 conduit a requirement or can service providers implement their own standard or alternative industry standard for that application? 2" conduit is the minimum requirement. Service Providers are not discouraged from implementing a solution that exceeds the requirement while meeting all applicable national, state, and local codes. 9. For lit service, will MEF defined CE 2.0 E-LINE service meet Laredo ISD s service requirements? Please see response to question 4 section b. 10. We can meet all industry standards listed but will not be deploying Cisco equipment therefore cannot commit to supporting Cisco proprietary protocol, will this be a disqualifying response? The District prefers solutions that can support a Cisco proprietary protocol but will consider proposals from vendors who provide Ethernet support based on industry standard protocols. Ultimately, providers will be responsible for ensuring their lit solution is interoperable with the existing cisco equipment and ios versions provided above in question 3 keeping in mind the remainder of the requirements addressed in question 4b and Can Laredo ISD provide additional clarification of resilient fiber route design"? The District will evaluate dark fiber responses in part, based on the physical route design of the proposed solution as defined in 2.3(a). This includes the routes to reach the actual sites and how they tie in to a service provider's infrastructure. It is assumed that the proposed dark fiber network is part of a more comprehensive, provider-owned, resilient fiber infrastructure which can be leveraged where possible to meet or exceed the minimum service performance requirements and service level agreements. To assist the District in assessing the overall quality of the network services proposed, respondents are asked to submit information about their organization and the local infrastructure that will be leveraged to deliver services as per section 3.8 and 3.9 of the RFP. As per 3.6, service providers bidding dark fiber are also required to submit their designs in print but are encouraged to also submit them electronically in a.kmz file via CD or USB with their bid response. 12. Can you identify which locations have existing and usable conduit from the public right of way? All vendors will need to provide their own. All existing conduits are, and will remain, actively in use by current incumbent service providers. 13. For Construction and Installation, does the district have set work hours? What access will workers have on property and inside buildings from point of entry to MDF? Vendors will need to be prepared to work after hours and weekends for any work required on the District property. 14. Regarding Insurance, the RFP states LAREDO I.S.D. must be added as an additional insured for the Comprehensive Automobile Liability. Question: Can you provide insight into this requirement? The District will need an actual certificate. Though the District does not need to be an additional insured party unless an award is made by the District.

4 15. Is the district open to pay the portion of the Special Construction costs unreimbursed by e-rate over a period of up to four years? As stated in 2.3(a) The District prefers proposals from providers that do not require special construction. However, the District will consider proposals that require special construction as a one-time up front cost only. Should the District award a proposal featuring special construction, the District will pay the full discounted share of Special Construction charges pursuant to an approved Funding Commitment Decision Letter and upon completion of the construction work. The vendor will need to invoice USAC directly for the remainder. 16. Should the references be of the same or larger size as Laredo ISD? It is preferred they be of the same or larger size but not required. 17. Does the district require the Service Provider maintain a 24x7x365 Network Operations Center (NOC)? It is not required, however providers will be evaluated in part on their administrative and support capabilities as part of section 3.9 and 3.8 which require respondents to provide information on their organization in this context. 18. Please identify your specific Historically Utilized Business requirements. We do not have any. 19. Section 3.5 makes a reference to Materials Management General Terms and Conditions. I am not able to find the Materials Management General Terms and Conditions section in your RFP. Please advise and /or provide a copy. The Materials Management General Terms and Conditions do not apply to this RFP as there is no payment or performance bond required. The District is only requiring a Bid Bond to be submitted as part of the bid response as specified in 3.5 to guarantee successful execution of a contract upon award. 20. Is the district requesting a payment and performance bond for the term of the contract (60Months)? Due the fact that this a multi-year lit/dark fiber lease, our bonding company is advising us that they can only do a payment and performance bond for the initial 12 months during the construction phase of the project. Will this meet the requirements of your RFP. See response to Question 19. There is no payment or performance bond required for this project. The only requirement is for vendors to submit a bid bond at the time of their bid submittal. 21. Will the traffic from the remote campuses to the District Data Center strictly be Ethernet traffic?. Lit Fiber -YES Dark Fiber- YES, however the District will re-evaluate over time and may change to different transport technologies. 22. Do fiber jumpers need to be included from the LIU enclosure to the SFPs? It is not required.

5 23. Regarding 2102 E Lyon St, 2400 San Bernardo, 2600 Palo Blanco, and 1619 Victoria St are not on this list of 74. Do we need to consider those sites? Those sites are not part of this RFP. The total number of sites to be serviced is Do the two 10G s need to be turned up at the same time in order to use the circuit as 20G or can they be turned up one at a time and used individually? This is not necessary. The connections can be turned up in phases. The District will only pay for the connections that are actually activated. 25. Using single mode fiber handoff may allow for some sites to go with an edgeless design (no electronics ie muxing unit), will Laredo ISD allow for a SMF handoff instead of MMF? The District perfers a lit solution with MMF handoff as stated in question 4 but will consider solutions that work on SMF handoffs provided that the solution is compatible with the existing equipment listed in question 3. The District has ports available to support either design.