Description
In the absence of other qualified sources, it is the intent of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to negotiate with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), located at 1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, Colorado 80305, for access to Internet, Internet2, and National Lambda Rail (NLR) connectivity to support various missions of the Department of Commerce (DOC) Boulder campus organizations. BACKGROUND: The needed connectivity provides a bidirectional path for information to the American Public, other U.S Government organizations, Universities, and the world research community. DOC Boulder organizations continuously move large quantities of data in and out of the campus over several network connections. The average data flow in and out of the DOC Boulder campus is approximately 1 Terabyte per day and growing. The primary users of this information are research partners. These research partners are generally affiliated with universities and are located worldwide. In order to provide connectivity to all DOC Boulder customers, connections to the commercial Internet, Internet2 and the National Lambda Rail (NLR) are required. DEFINITIONS: (1) The commercial Internet is the network that is most commonly used by government, corporations, small companies, and individuals. It developed out of the original ARPAnet (or DARPAnet). It is a loose connection of many commercial companies that provide worldwide network interconnection to the general public. (2) The Internet2 is a next generation network that has been built on an advanced backbone that interconnects regional network aggregation points called GigaPOPs. The Internet2 network is a single connection operating at 10G bit/sec. The Internet2 project is being led by a consortium of 205 universities called the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Design (UCAID). A connection to Internet2 can only be acquired through one of the regional GigaPOPs and requires membership in UCAID. An organization connected to Internet2 is only allowed to use the network for research related traffic. All other network traffic must traverse the commercial Internet. Most of the network traffic in and out of the DOC Boulder campus is research related and flows to/from UCAID organizations over Internet2. It would be impossible for many of the DOC Boulder organizations to fulfill their missions without Internet2 connectivity. (3) The NLR is a private fiber network currently under construction that will connect research organizations in major US cities with 40 optical wavelengths, each operating at 10G bit/sec. The NLR is sometimes referred to as Internet3. The long-term future of information technology in the United States will be based on the technology of the NLR. It is critical to the missions of the NOAA-Boulder organizations that they are connected to the NLR. NLR is another connection that can only be acquired through one of the regional GigaPOPs. (4) The regional GigaPOP that provides Commercial Internet, Internet2 and NLR connectivity in the Colorado area is the Front Range GigaPOP (FRGP). The FRGP is a consortium of local Universities, research organizations and government agencies that cooperate to form an aggregation point in order to share Wide Area Networking (WAN) services including commercial Internet, Internet2, NLR and local peering. (Local peering is a byproduct that occurs because of the aggregation point that must be set up to connect all the FRGP partners. It is virtually free network connectivity.) UCAR is the managing partner of the FRGP and provides engineering and administrative support. There are a number of advantages gained by sharing services through such a GigaPOP, and there are similar GigaPOPs throughout the United States. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: The contract to be negotiated is for a 3-month base period followed by four 1-year option periods and one 9-month option period. SOLE SOURCE: The FRGP is the one and only responsible source for the required combination of commercial Internet, Internet2 and NLR connectivity in the Colorado area. The Government intends to contract with UCAR since they are the managing partner of the FRGP. As described above, the only way to access the Internet2 and NLR is through regional GigaPOPs. The FRGP is the only regional access point in Colorado. Cooperation at GigaPOPs is done regionally because the complexity and cost of these advanced networks increases with distance. In Colorado there is not enough user density to justify more than one GigaPOP. Connecting to a GigaPOP other than the closest is not only prohibitively expensive but it is far more complicated to do technically, which makes the system unreliable to an unusable level. Due to this, the GigaPOPs will not permit competition for this NOAA Boulder requirement. This is not a formal solicitation. This notice may represent the only notice. See note 22.