B01- RFI Access Layer Refresh.pdf

Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought (SS) Notice

Title: Research Science Network (RSN) Access Layer Refresh

Notice Type: Request for Information (RFI)

Response Date: 15 June 2026, 11:00 AM Eastern Time

Requiring Activity Name: The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases

(USAMRIID)

Subject: This is a requirement to procure advanced switching platforms, including the Cisco Catalyst C9500-48Y4C for high-performance aggregation, and the Cisco Catalyst C9350- 48HUX, C9200CX-12P-2X2X, and C9200CX-8UXG-2X for versatile, high-speed access to be utilized by the U.S. Army Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) Research Science Network (RSN).

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201 -- Exchange with industry before receipt of proposals, this Sources Sought is for information and planning purposes only and at this time shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation or commitment on the part of the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. No evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents.

This Sources Sought Notice is a Market Research tool used to determine the availability and adequacy of potential sources, prior to determining the method of acquisition and issuance of a solicitation.

The NAICS code for this requirement is 334210 – Telephone Apparatus Manufacturing (Local Area Network (LAN) Communications Equipment)

DISCLAIMER: This Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought (SS) Notice is NOT a Request for Proposals (RFP) or a Request for Quotations (RFQ). This RFI is issued solely for market research information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation.

Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Neither unsolicited proposals nor any other kind of offers will be considered in response to this RFI. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No contract will be awarded from this announcement. No reimbursement will be made of any costs to provide information in response to this announcement or any follow-up information requests;

responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI.

Availability of any formal solicitation will be announced under a separate announcement.

All information received in response to this RFI will be treated as confidential business information. Submitters should properly mark their responses if the information is confidential.

All information received in response to this RFI that is marked Proprietary, will be handled accordingly.

At this time, questions concerning the composition and requirements for future solicitation will not be entertained.

Background: The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) is looking to ensure their personnel have reliable and high-speed access to critical network resources. This acquisition will modernize their end-user network connections. The current infrastructure is outdated, leading to potential security vulnerabilities and network instability.

They will be deploying a suite of advanced switching platforms, specifically the Cisco Catalyst C9500-48Y4C, Cisco Catalyst C9350-48HUX, Cisco Catalyst C9200CX-12P-2X2X, and Cisco Catalyst C9200CX-8UXG-2X, to modernize and enhance the performance, security, and scalability of the network server farm and access layers.

Instructions to Responders: Responses from capable and qualified Small Business sources are encouraged to respond to this request.

Review the Performance Work Statement (PWS) listed below. Respondents should address how they best can fulfil the requirements set forth in the PWS in their capabilities statement.

Capability Statements or any other proprietary information related to this RFI should adhere to the following formatting and outline instructions:

1. All submissions shall be made electronically and be in one of the following formats:

Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF and shall not exceed 10 pages (Cover page excluded from page count).

2. Cover Page

• Title

• Organization

• Responders technical and administrative points of contact (names, addresses, phone, fax number and email addresses)

• Topic area(s) addressed

• Respondents shall be registered in www.sam.gov under the NAICS code of 334111

• List all ordering vehicles held by respondents and associated contracting numbers (e.g.

OMNIBUS IV, CHESS, GSA, etc.)

3. Response shall address whether the respondent is offering similar or like supplies/services in the commercial market to the general public.

http://www.sam.gov/

4. Please note that the response shall provide sufficient technical data to determine how you fully meet the requirements as specified in PWS.

The requested information shall be submitted by the date and time specified above, via email, to Kirstin Quinn, Contract Specialist, at Kirstin.L.Quinn.civ@health.mil and Emily O’Hara, Contracting Officer, at Emily.K.Ohara.civ@health.mil . Only electronic responses will be accepted. No evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents. Currently no solicitation exists; therefore, please do not request a copy of the solicitation. NO PHONE

CALLS PLEASE.

Minimum Essential Characteristics (MECs)

The Contractor shall provide Cisco Network Equipment (switches) and supporting equipment including:

• 20x Cisco C9350 48-port 10G-mGig with 90W UPOE+ (C9350-48HX) o 20x Cisco C9350 1600W AC 80+ Titanium Port-Inlet Config 2 Power Supply

(PWR-C2-1600WAC-I/2)

o 20x Cisco C9350 8 x 25G/10G/1G or 4x 50G SFP56 network module (C9350-

NM-8Y)

o 20x Cisco C9350 50CM Type 1 Stacking Cable (STACK-T1A-50CM) o 20x Cisco C9350 Stack Power Cable 35 CM (CAB-SPWR-35CM) o 20x Cisco C9350 Switching Essentials Tier 1, Large - License (LIC-CS-AC1-L-E)

• 2x Cisco Catalyst 9500 48-port x 1/10/25G + 4-port 40/100G, 1Y Essential (C9500-

48Y4C-1E) o 2x Cisco Catalyst 9500 650W AC Config 4 Power Supply front to back cooling

(C9K-PWR-650WAC-R/2)

o 2x Cisco Catalyst 9500 - High Density 1-Year License Service Duration: 12

Months (C9500-DNA-E-1Y) o 2x Cisco Catalyst C9500 Network Stack, Essentials (C9500-NW-1E)

• 2x Cisco Catalyst 9000 Compact Switch 12-Port PoE+, 240W, Essentials (C9200CX-

12P-2X2G-E)

• 1x Cisco Catalyst 9000 Compact Switch 8-Port UPoE with 4xmGig, 240W, Essentials

(C9200CX-8UXG-2X-E)

o 3x Cisco C9200CX DNA Essentials, 3Y Term License, 12PService Duration: 36 Months (C9200CX-DNAE12-3Y) o 3x Cisco C9200CX 19 in Rackmount for 9200CX switches (RACKMNT-19-

CMPACT)

o Minimum Essential Characteristics:

mailto:Kirstin.L.Quinn.civ@health.mil mailto:Emily.K.Ohara.civ@health.mil

1. The switches shall be enterprise-class, fully managed Layer 2 and Layer 3 switches suitable for deployment in access, aggregation, distribution, or compact edge environments within an enterprise or federal network architecture.

2. The switches shall be new, unused, and sourced through the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) or an OEM-authorized reseller and shall be eligible for full OEM warranty, software updates, and technical support.

3. The switches shall provide non-blocking switching architecture with sufficient switching capacity and forwarding performance to support full line-rate traffic on all ports simultaneously without degradation of performance.

4. The switches shall provide fixed and/or modular uplink interfaces, as supported by the platform, capable of supporting high-speed Ethernet connectivity at 10 Gigabit, 25 Gigabit, 40 Gigabit, or 100 Gigabit speeds to ensure scalable aggregation, distribution, or core network integration without requiring additional external conversion devices.

5. The switches shall support IEEE 802.3af, 802.3at, and/or 802.3bt Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, where applicable, sufficient to power IP phones, wireless access points, cameras, and other powered devices.

6. The switches shall support IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack operation and shall provide Layer 3 routing functionality including static routing and dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF and BGP, where supported by the model.

7. The switches shall support stacking, virtual switching, or equivalent technology, where applicable, enabling multiple physical switches to operate as a single logical device for simplified management and enhanced resiliency.

8. The switches shall support virtual LAN (VLAN) segmentation, private VLANs, and inter- VLAN routing to support logical network separation and secure traffic control.

9. The switches shall support access control lists (ACLs) for traffic filtering based on Layer 2, Layer 3, and Layer 4 criteria.

10. The switches shall support advanced Layer 2 security features including DHCP snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, IP Source Guard, port security, and broadcast or multicast storm control.

11. The switches shall support MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) link-layer encryption on supported interfaces to protect sensitive data in transit where required.

12. The switches shall support Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities including traffic classification, marking, policing, shaping, and queuing to prioritize mission-critical traffic.

13. The switches shall support NetFlow, Flexible NetFlow, or equivalent traffic monitoring and telemetry capabilities to provide visibility into network flows and support integration with monitoring and analytics platforms.

14. The switches shall support secure management protocols including SSHv2 and HTTPS using TLS 1.2 or higher and shall disable insecure management protocols by default or permit their administrative disablement.

15. The switches shall support SNMPv3 for secure network monitoring and shall permit integration with centralized network management systems.

16. The switches shall support role-based access control (RBAC) and authentication integration with enterprise identity services via TACACS+ and/or RADIUS and shall support IEEE 802.1X port-based network access control. The switches shall also support MAC Authentication Bypass (MAB) and/or dynamic VLAN assignment capabilities, as applicable to the platform and enterprise security architecture, to enforce authenticated device and user access and to enable automated network segmentation.

17. The switches shall support configuration archiving, secure backup and restore functionality, and export of logs to external systems using secure Syslog or equivalent mechanisms.

18. The switches shall support secure boot, digitally signed software images, and firmware integrity validation to protect against unauthorized or malicious software modification.

19. The switches shall support redundant and/or hot-swappable power supplies and cooling components, where supported by the platform, to enhance availability and maintainability.

20. The switches shall support software upgrade and patch management capabilities that allow secure, controlled, and minimally disruptive operating systems or firmware updates, including support for image rollback or recovery mechanisms to maintain operational continuity.

21. The switches shall provide operational monitoring visibility through standards-based telemetry or streaming analytics interfaces to support centralized network performance management, troubleshooting, and capacity planning without requiring proprietary management-only hardware components.

22. The switches shall support operation in environments requiring FIPS-validated cryptographic modules when operating in FIPS mode and shall be capable of STIG-aligned configuration and audit logging sufficient to support federal cybersecurity and continuous monitoring requirements where applicable.

All software licensing, warranty, and services associated with the equipment shall be in accordance with Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) terms and conditions.

Delivery Requirements:

Items shall be shipped to:

United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) 1425 Porter Street Fort Detrick, MD 21702

Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought (SS) Notice