Various Bandwidth in Afghanistan

Request for Information (RFI) Various Bandwidth US Facilities in Afghanistan to Multiple Locations 27 Mar 09 General : THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is seeking information that will assist the Agency in assessing the commercial availability of large bandwidth, 622Mbps or 155Mbps, terrestrial leased circuits from US facilities in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to termination points in Western Europe, SouthWest Asia, and Japan. Purpose : This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, DISA is not at this time seeking proposals, and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Responders are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party's expense. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked PROPRIETARY will be handled accordingly. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if any is issued. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the U.S. Government to form a binding contract. It is the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to this RFI. 1.0 Description •1.1 DISA is seeking information pertaining to the feasibility of a telecommunications provider (TP) supplying STM-1/STM-4 telecommunications services over a contractor-installed telecom network infrastructure. Physically diverse paths traversing a northern path through Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, an eastern route through Pakistan and a southern route through Kandahar into Pakistan are all of interest, particularly: •· Service that could be provided from Afghanistan to Germany on a land route through Uzbekistan, but avoiding Iran. •· Service that could be provided from Afghanistan to Qatar or Kuwait via Pakistan Indian Ocean submarine fiber optic cable, but avoiding Iran. •· Service from Kandahar, Afghanistan to Japan via a Pakistan and undersea cable route diverse from that proposed for Afghanistan to Qatar/Kuwait. 1.2 DISA is seeking information for terrestrial capacity over terrestrial fiber cable and microwave infrastructure already installed in Afghanistan. If current efforts are underway to install a physical network, then DISA would also be interested in the progress of those efforts. Because of the greater capacity and performance of fiber cable systems, for solutions which use microwave, the government is interested in intentions and timelines to replace microwave segments with fiber. Information on large capacity over satellite will be reviewed, but the primary interest is terrestrial fiber cable Information on services other than leased line, services such as MPLS or ATM, will be reviewed, but the primary interest is on international private leased line service. 1.3 DISA is most interested in capacity at STM-4 and STM-1. Information on service at DS-3 (45Mbps) and E.3 (34Mbps) will be reviewed. 1.4 Preferred service is Synchronous Digital Hierarchy/ Synchronous Transport Module (SDH) STM-1 or STM-4 in accordance with ITU-T G.707/Y.1322 dated 01/2007 meeting the following standards. a. STM-1 Dynamic reconfiguration with VC Contiguous and Virtual Concatenation. (1) 1 AU 4 or (2) 3 AU-3 b. STM-4 AU-3 & AU-3 Dynamic reconfiguration with VC Contiguous and Virtual Concatenation. (1) 1 AU 4-4c or (2) 4 AU-4 or (3) 3 AU 4 & 3 AU-3 or (4) 2 AU-4 & 6 AU-3 or (5) 1 AU-4 & 9 AU-3 c. F2, B3 and other overhead bytes of the AU-3 and AU-4 containers shall transparent end-to-end and not be modify or regenerated by the vendor. d. The Optical Interfaces shall be in accordance with ITU-T Recommendation G.957 using short-haul distance up to 15Km. 1.5 Service delivery points: Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan Kabul New Compound, Kabul, Afghanistan Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar Kandahar Air Base, Kandahar, Afghanistan (no POC at this point) Wiesbaden , Germany Yokota Air Base, Japan Bahrain •1.6 International Point to Point Wiesbaden to Kabul with Bagram option Kabul to Al Udeid Bahrain to Bagram 2.0 Requested Information: •2.1 Written Response: Provide a written response in Microsoft Word (10 pt Times New Roman font) for the following specific questions for industry concerning how they would meet and implement DISA's requirement(s). Respondents are encouraged to provide information applicable to any or all of the routes as detailed in paragraph 1.0. For each of the three service point or route of interest (paragraph 1.1), is the TP capable of delivering E-3, DS-3, STM-1, STM-1 and/or STM 4 circuits? Can TP meet the SDH types of service identified in paragraph 1.4? How much time will be required for the TP to design, implement, test, and activate the required service? Does the TP have installation technician's on-staff capable of installing the service from demarcation to demarcation without assistance from DISA? Does the TP have technicians who are able to read, write, and speak English fluently? If not, what translation capabilities does the TP possess? Does the TP have its own managed network operations center that can respond to trouble calls on an immediate basis, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? Please provide the specific location of the network operations center. If the respondent does not possess a network center, what level of network operations support does the TP possess? Does the TP have a technical field support staff at its disposal that can respond to repair actions within a 2-hour period of the initial call out and a mean time to repair of 8 hours? If not, at what level of service does the responder project for the path and what are the major risks of degradation and outage and what mitigations are suggested or proposed? Can the TP ensure that circuit testing and acceptance will meet or exceed standards as defined in ITU Standard M.2101? Can the TP ensure that circuit operational parameters will meet or exceed standards as define in ITU Standard G.828? For each circuit or service, request TP provide projected round trip latency. Does the TP have the capability of performing a 72 hour performance test in accordance with ITU M.2101? Capability is defined as having the necessary test equipment on hand and the properly trained technicians on staff to perform testing. (1) Does the TP have the capability of performing the 72 hour test in an end-to-end configuration? Loopback testing is unacceptable. (2) Does the TP have the capability of capturing the 72 hour test results and providing them to the U.S. government in an electronic format? Can the TP provide circuit diagrams, or other engineering information, to the U.S. government in either Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Visio or AutoCAD formats? If not, what format is available? Service must avoid traversing geographic locations within Syria, Iran and China. Does the TP have this capability? Does the TP have the capability to translate English written documents into other languages, as necessary? Is protected service available that will provide for automatic restoration of service in the event of an outage involving the primary path? Is the protection on a diverse route, or in the same cable path? Is there additional cost for this service, if so, what is the cost? Can the TP provide a listing of countries that this service may traverse? What service level agreements with telecommunications providers are in-effect. Provide a listing said agreements. Can the TP offer other technologies, such as Internet Protocol, to satisfy long-haul telecommunications service? Does the TP have telecommunications experience in the countries where the services traverse? Does the TP have experience as a prime vendor and have the ability to coordinate with their sub-vendors on issues such as engineering, planning, installation, billing, troubleshooting, scheduling service interruptions and maintenance actions? Is the TP willing to use NALLA-accredited TPs for services terminating in NATO countries? 3.0 Responses 3.1 Proprietary information, if any, must be clearly marked. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. DISA intends to have the contractor support personnel listed below assist in review and evaluation of responses. If any respondent does not currently have a Proprietary Data Protection Agreement (PDPA) that would permit the Government supported contractors listed below to review and evaluate responses to this RFI, the respondent is requested to sign PDPAs with these Government support contractors for this purpose. SAIC, Inc Global Broadband Solutions, Inc CACI - Federal, International 3.2 The RFI response shall be comprised of two (2) sections. 3.2.1 Section 1 of the response shall provide administrative information, and shall include the following as a minimum (there is no page limitation for Section 1) 3.2.2 Name, mailing address, overnight delivery address (if different from mailing address), phone number, fax number, and e-mail of designated point of contact. 3.2.3 Please provide a statement that the respondent will allow or not allow the Government to release proprietary data to the Government support contractors identified above. If the respondent provides consent, please include a signed copy of the Proprietary Data Protection Agreement (PDPA) in place between the Government and the support contractors identified above. 3.3 Section 2 of the response shall provide the information requested in Section 2.1 of this RFI. Section 2 of the response is limited to twenty-five (25) pages including appendices, diagrams and examples . 3.4 Questions regarding this announcement shall be submitted in writing via e-mail to Stephen Krebs, [email protected] . Please limit your questions to the specific technical details of this RFI. Verbal questions will NOT be accepted. All questions will be answered via posting answers to the DITCO website https://www.ditco.disa.mil/dcop/public/asp/dcop.asp; accordingly, questions shall NOT contain trade secrets or classified information. The Government does not guarantee that questions received after 8 April 2009 , 1400GMT will be answered. 3.5 All responses to this RFI shall be submitted electronically via e-mail to Mr. Stephen Krebs, [email protected] not later than 27 April 2009, 1400GMT (07:00 Eastern Time). 4.0 Summary THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY to identify sources that can provide innovative solutions that support optimal Contract Strategy for DISA requirements. The information provided in the RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. DISA has not made a commitment to procure any of the items discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned