Att.1_20160516_Tier_1_ISP_SOW_NIHLM2016864.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

National Library of Medicine High Speed Internet Connectivity

5/03/2016

1. Background Information:

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the world's largest biomedical library and the developer of electronic information services that deliver trillions of bytes of data to millions of users every day. Scientists, health professionals, and the public in the US and around the globe search the Library's online information resources more than one billion times each year. Large data sets are also frequently exchanged among NLM and its research partners domestically and internationally.

The Office of Computer and Communications Systems (OCCS) of the National Library of Medicine provides efficient, cost-effective computing and networking services, application development, technical advice, and collaboration in informational sciences in support of the research and management programs offered through the NLM.

OCCS develops, operates, and maintains the backbone computer network and facilities, and supports, guides, and assists other NLM components in local area networking. The Division provides professional programming services and computational and data processing facilities to meet NLM program needs; operates and maintains the NLM Network Operations and Computing Facility; designs and develops software; and provides extensive customer support, training courses and seminars, and documentation for computer and network users.

OCCS helps to coordinate, integrate, and standardize the vast array of computer services available throughout all of the organizations comprising NLM. The Division also serves as a technological resource for other parts of the NLM and for other Federal organizations with biomedical, statistical, and administrative computing needs. The Division promotes the application of High Performance Computing and Communication to biomedical problems, including image processing and information security.

2. Objectives

The purpose of this contract is to provide high speed Internet connectivity to the National Library of Medicine’s network which is located in Bethesda, Maryland. This will provide commodity Internet access to the public as well as the research and medical communities around the world. This connectivity needs to be provided via a Global Tier 1 Internet Service Provider (ISP). It must also include protected circuit connections from the ISP Point of Presence (POP) to NLM. These connections must be physically diverse from the HHS Trusted Internet connections located at the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD, since the NLM uses the HHS Trusted Internet connections as a backup. This connectivity must provide 3 Gbps bandwidth. The provider must have the capability to upgrade the connections up to 10 Gbps bandwidth.

3. Scope of Work

The scope of this procurement is the acquisition of Internet services and related communications circuits that will provide commodity Internet connection for the NLM at the Bethesda, Maryland location.

4. Description of Work

a. High Speed Internet Service

The contractor shall provide High Speed Internet Service for NLM, which meets the following requirements:

The routing protocol between the government and the provider’s network shall be BGP-4. Full internet routing tables will be provided to NLM’s edge router.

The contractor shall support IPv4 and native IPv6 for the transfer of data to/from NLM from/to the Internet. The method of IPv6 service currently supported should be clearly defined in the proposal.

NLM shall continue to use its current assigned IPv4 network address space of 130.14.0.0/16. NLM will also use its assigned IPv6 address space of 2607:f220:41e::/48 and 2607:f220:41f::/48.

As part of NLM’s high-availability requirements, NLM will need to maintain continued multi-homing support for the 130.14.0.0/16, 2607:f220:41e::/48 and 2607:f220:41f::/48 networks. This will allow for proper rerouting of traffic should the Contractor’s link fail, necessitating the failover of Internet traffic to the existing NLM backup ISP connection via CIT/NIH.

The contractor shall maintain a Network Operations Center (NOC) and shall continually monitor, diagnose, and troubleshoot problems with all Government/Internet connections and interfaces as well as the contractor’s network. The NOC shall be staffed with highly qualified technical personnel and be available seven (7) days a week, twenty-four (24) hours per day, and three hundred sixty-five (365) days per year.

The contractor shall promptly notify specified NLM personnel of network problems, status, and resolutions which can affect the flow of information to and from the government connections.

Upon request by the NLM staff, the contractor shall provide end-to end diagnostic assistance for any requested internet related issues.

The contractor shall provide NLM staff a minimum of 2 working days’ notice of any scheduled outages. The contractor will ensure that a schedule outage is performed between 7:00pm and 6:00am, wherever possible.

The contractor shall take security precautions to prevent unauthorized access to information while it is transiting the contractor’s portion of the network.

b. Leased Circuits

The contractor shall provide, manage, maintain, and control required equipment, software, and other supplies to enable NLM to establish and maintain Internet connectivity. NLM will provide and maintain the edge router that is connected to the providers’ network circuit.

The contractor shall provide Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with a bandwidth of 3 Gigabits per second. The contractor shall install the capability to expand bandwidth as future NLM requirements deem it necessary. The contractor should include in the proposal what configuration will be used to provide the connection to the NLM edge router along with pricing options for optional increases of bandwidth up to 10 Gbps.

To support high availability through diversity and redundancy, there must be at least two diverse paths to/from the Contractor’s Period of Performance (POP) and the rest of the contractor’s backbone network.

Additionally, NLM’s Internet connections must be physically diverse from NIH/CIT’s Internet connections. The connection(s) from the contractor’s POP to NLM must be over protected circuits.

5. Government Furnished Equipment

The Government will provide adequate conduit into the building and confirm access facilities to the building are available for fiber provisioning. The Government will also locate private utilities on the premises if construction is required.

The Government will ensure the demarcation point is accessible and in an environmentally controlled location.

The Government will provide space in a 19” wide data rack for the required hardware.

Government will provide a dedicated power outlet and common ground.

The Government will complete inside wiring before the arrival of the installation technicians and extend the wiring from the demarcation point to the location where the NLM edge router is located. The Government will confirm Ethernet Service hand-off requirements and confirm that its Local Area Network (“LAN”) has an appropriate Ethernet Service port available to provide the desired network functionality and is within the distance required by Ethernet Service specifications.

The Government will program the Ethernet Service port for appropriate speed and full duplex setting and provide fiber connections to the Internet Service-enabling equipment.

6. Place of Performance

Point of Presence is located at:

Building 38A Room B2N29 8600 Rockville Pike Bethesda, MD 20894

7. Period of Performance

The period of performance shall be for a one year base period with four (4) one-year option periods.

8. Deliverables/Delivery Schedule

9. Transition of Work

Transition of Support to Follow-on Contractor

At the end of this contract, it is anticipated this requirement will be re-competed. In the event that the incumbent is not awarded the follow-on contract, the Contractor shall agree to work with the follow-on contractor in order to transition support responsibilities to the new contractor. Incumbent will need to provide a transition plan 60 days before the POP ends. Details should include necessary steps to remove incumbent owned equipment, cabling and ensure a smooth cutover between the incumbent and follow-on contractor.