2019 - RFI MBTA Transport Network.pdf

MASSACHUSETTS BAY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY

MBTA Transport Network

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Commbuys Bid # 19-1206-40000-40000-43164

ISSUE DATE: 8/21/2019

Purchasing Department MBTA Procurement & Logistics Address 10 Park Plaza, Room 2810 City, State Zip Code Boston, MA 02116 Procurement Contact Person Jimmy Moynihan Telephone Number 617-222-1608 Fax Number E-Mail Address JMoynihan@MBTA.com RFI Name/Title MBTA Transport Network RFI Number 188-19 COMMBUYS Bid Number BD-19-1206-40000-40000-43164

1. Description or Purpose of Procurement

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) seeks to explore the marketplace for improvements to transform its existing network to a next generation transport network. The next generation network should be capable of converging the current infrastructure that consists of a number of diverse physical networks that support multiple MBTA business units onto a shared physical fabric. The network will support configuration and security segmentation of multiple virtual networks. The respondent should prepare their answers to create the most secure, convenient, scalable, sustainable, maintainable, and attractive option for the MBTA. The respondent is encouraged to identify additional questions and provide relevant information.

Please Note: This is a single document associated with a complete RFI (or Bid or Solicitation) that can be found on www.COMMBUYS.com. All Respondents are responsible for reviewing and adhering to all information, forms and requirements for the entire RFI, which are all incorporated into the RFI. Respondents may also contact the COMMBUYS Helpdesk at COMMBUYS@state.ma.us or the COMMBUYS Helpline at 1-888-MA-STATE. The Helpline is staffed from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday Eastern Standard or Daylight time, as applicable, except on federal, state and Suffolk county holidays.

http://www.commbuys.com/ mailto:COMMBUYS@state.ma.us

RFI #188-19 / COMMBUYS Bid # 19-1206-40000-40000-43164

Respondents are invited to share best practices and ideas for a converged ethernet solution that may assist the MBTA in a future procurement. Although this RFI is intended to explore certain initial questions, the respondent should prepare their answers to focus on providing information that will inform the MBTA as it undertakes the design and engineering of a high capacity data highway that will meet the data transport needs of the Authority for the next 10 years and beyond.

2. MBTA Background Information

The MBTA, created in 1964 by an Act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, operates one of the oldest most extensive mass transit systems in the country. The MBTA is the nation's 5th largest mass transit system and provides services to 175 cities and towns across Eastern Massachusetts encompassing over 5 million people over an area of 3,200 square miles. Service is provided to 275 stations throughout Boston and the greater metropolitan area, transporting 1.3 million passengers every day on a system of bus routes, rapid transit lines, commuter rail lines, ferry routes, trackless trolley lines, paratransit and a bus rapid transit system.

3. MBTA Transport Network Overview

The MBTA transport network connects 123 communication rooms and stations via a fiber optic network that spans 120 miles of fiber throughout Boston, MA. This network is responsible for ongoing operation of the MBTA business units and safety of MBTA ridership across the region. The day to day operation of the MBTA utilizes various applications and Internet of Thing (IoT) control traffic across the following networks:

1. Automated Fare Collection (AFC) system

2. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) communication

3. Public Announcement (PA) system

4. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Communication for fan control

5. Radio network communication

6. Operation Control System (OCS) for train signaling

7. Security Wide Area Network (SWAN) for video security

8. MBTA Corporate network traffic across a Sychronus Optical Network (SONET)

Most of these applications/systems are carried over different physical autonomous networks separated at the fiber optic layer in a ring topology. Communication protocols across these different topologies vary from a SONET ring to Ethernet ring which connects the transit stations and MBTA data centers.

Currently there are three different ring networks - the Corporate SONET ring, and 2 more recently deployed networks based on an Ethernet ring design. The Corporate SONET ring, which connects over 100 transit stations, consists of 10 core stations within a Core ring, and 9 subtending access rings connected to the Core rings. The Corporate SONET core ring is limited to 2.5Gbps, while the subtending rings are capped at 600Mbps of transport bandwidth. The network services across the SONET backbone consist of TDM circuit switching and Ethernet framing over SONET.

There are two data center sites connected to the Corporate SONET ring at 10 Park Plaza and 45 High Street. The 45 High Street location houses the MBTA’s Operations and Control Center that accounts for the majority of the network traffic to the train stations. The current Corporate SONET network also services various other applications including Public Announcement System, Digital Signage, Automatic

Fare Collection systems and a number of other systems that require data transport. The other Ethernet ring networks are used for the MBTA’s network of over 2,000 video surveillance cameras and the physical security access control system.

4. Vision for Future Network

The MBTA will need to upgrade the existing networks to support the implementation of new technologies around fare collections, trains and train data, security, and workforce management. The MBTA requires a secure, scalable and flexible network architecture based on a single common transport and next generation network infrastructure to support multiple business units and their diverse needs. The singular network will ease management of the MBTA’s network infrastructure by consolidating to one common physical network. The MBTA expects improvements from standardization will include network availability, security, visibility, monitoring, and management. In addition, the new network architecture would provide bandwidth to support converging MBTA’s five different siloed networks across one physical infrastructure. The core network bandwidth should be able to scale beyond 100Gbps and the access network/subtending rings should scale from 10Gbps to 40Gbps as shown in the below diagram.

The subtending rings should be dual-homed to the core ring through different core sites in order to provide redundancy for applications using those rings. There will be a total of 10 Core sites that will connect the subtending access rings.

The implementation of the physical and architectural improvements should include new VPN technologies that provide secure logical connections between endpoints across the shared core network.

The VPN implementation should also support both Layer 2 and Layer 3 services, as there are some applications currently requiring Layer 2 transport. Support for both IPv4 and IPv6 is required. The VPN solution should support traffic-engineering technology, which can steer application traffic based on the different performance metric requirements, without the need for path signaling protocol.

The selected VPN solution should allow traffic from different business units to be securely segmented and isolated from each other, creating greater security and introducing the ability for more control of data traffic behavior. Routing protocols must be scalable and extensible allowing for new network features and functionalities instead of an entire revision of the routing protocol via IETF standard team. This will allow the MBTA network to take advantage of any new core routing features and functionalities in short timeframes.

The selected VPN technology should avoid the L2VPN limitation of not allowing dual homing of access switches/CPE. Dual homing is necessary to provide redundancy for critical MBTA application traffic running over the core network. The VPN solution should support EVPN technology, EVPN provides the ability to do dual homing as well as supporting both Layer 2 and Layer 3 services over the same network.

This flexibility provides for enhanced support for data center interconnect, cloud and virtualization services. Network provisioning and management is simplified because only a single VPN technology would be used instead of separate technologies for Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic.

The access node of this enhanced network will need to provide circuit emulation over Ethernet e.g., T1 over packet switched networks. The circuit emulation feature must be supported in both Structure- Agnostic format (i.e., where TDM is framed or channelized based on RFC4553), and Structure-Aware format (i.e., where TDM is unframed based on RFC5086).

The new network should allow management and monitoring across the different layers (network overlay and underlay) using network automation, monitoring analytics, process orchestration and network assurance to have full visibility and insight across the new MBTA transport. The network management and monitoring should help the MBTA to identify and filter event noise as opposed to true network issues, helping the MBTA significantly reduce alert fatigue and operational expenses.

5. Required Functionalities

At a minimum, the MBTA next generation transport network must:

1) Securely segment the different MBTA business units across a shared physical network.

2) Provide resilient hardware components at each station to meet high availability requirements.

3) Scale to support bandwidth greater than 100 Gbps in the core ring network and greater than

10Gbps in the access network.

4) Provide VPN overlay technology to support Layer 2 and Layer 3 network services.

5) Provide differentiated services to give preference for application performance requirements.

6) Network traffic engineering based on segment routing which require no signaling protocol.

7) Provide support for both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing without any change in VPN technology.

8) Provide support for an underlay/IGP routing protocol that is easily extensible without any major changes to the protocol standard for new functionalities or enhancements.

9) Provide support for the current IGP routing protocol (i.e., EIGRP and OSPF).

10) Provide a multi-layer monitoring and management solution which is capable of single pane of view visibility across the transport network underlay and overlay fabric. The solution should be capable of conducting real time network traffic/topology analysis to provide performance metrics and feedback to the network management/control plane.

6. Response and Response Format

When preparing your response, please submit the following:

1) Brief company description

2) Your solution which meets the minimum requirements identified above, including:

i. A brief overview of each solution offered

ii. A description of the associated equipment and specifications

iii. A description of the associated multi-layer management and monitoring software/tools

iv. A list of representative clients presently using each system offered

3) Itemized pricing for the new MBTA transport solution (i.e., hardware, management/monitoring tool/software, etc.) provided below. Also include a 3-year TCO model with the anticipated MBTA deployment and post-deployment steady state resources.

Product/System Units Unit cost per system

Maintenance and support cost per system

Installation cost per system (if applicable)

Total

7. Applicable Procurement Law

Check Appropriate Box (“X”):

Type of Purchase Applicable Laws

Executive Branch Goods and Services

Goods and Services MGL c. 7, § 22; c. 30, § 51, § 52; 801

CMR 21.00

Human and Social Services MGL c. 7, § 22, § 22N; c. 30, § 51, § 52;

801 CMR 21.00; 808 CMR 1.00

Legal Services MGL c. 30, § 51, § 52 and § 65; c. 7, § 22;

and 801 CMR 21.01(2) (b)

Grants MGL c. 7A, § 7; St. 1986 c. 206, § 17; 815

CMR 2.00

8. Timeline

Activity Date Time

RFI posted 08/21/19 9:30 AM

Deadline for Submission of Questions through COMMBUYS “Bid Q&A”

09/04/19 5:00 PM

Official Answers for Q&A published 09/09 5:00 PM

Deadline for RFI Responses (“Bid Opening Date/Time” in COMMBUYS)

09/23 5:00 PM

Respondents are required to monitor COMMBUYS for changes to the timeline.

a. Online Questions (Bid Q&A)

Written Questions must be entered using the “Bid Q&A” tab in COMMBUYS. The issuing department reserves the right not to respond to questions submitted after this date. It is the Respondent’s responsibility to verify receipt of questions.

It is the responsibility of the respondent to maintain an active registration in COMMBUYS and to keep current the email address of the contact person(s) and to monitor for communications from the Purchasing Department, including requests for clarification. The Purchasing Department and the Commonwealth assume no responsibility if an email address is not current, or if technical problems, including those with computers, network or internet service provider (ISP) cause email communications to be lost or rejected by any means including email or spam filtering.

Written Responses to Questions will be released on or about the “Responses to Questions Posted Online” date indicated in the Timeline (above).

(Written questions and responses will be posted on the Bid Q&A Tab in COMMBUYS.)

b. Quotes (Bid Responses) Deadline (Bid Opening Date/Time)

See the Quotes (Bid Responses) Deadline (Bid Opening) Date and Time indicated in the Estimated Procurement Calendar (above).

The above attachments are available as part of the Bid record on COMMBUYS

(WWW.COMMBUYS.COM).

http://www.commbuys.com/

9. Additional Information

This process of soliciting information on network transformation solutions is a part of our larger strategic plan to streamline and optimize our IT environment. To this end we would appreciate if you provide any additional technical information on your capabilities and solutions in addition to what has been requested through the requirements stated in this document.

The results of this process would play a crucial role for us in choosing a long-term partner to provide network transformation services and in turn enable our IT team to address our business needs with greater agility and efficiency.

We appreciate your interest in this inquiry and look forward to further discussing network transformation solutions that would address our challenges.