preproposal_minutes_20130318.pdf

March 18, 2013

U.S Embassy Lusaka

Minutes From Pre-Proposal Conference of February 28, 2013

Introduction

The Contracting Officer welcomed all attendees and excused himself from the meeting. The

A/GSO took over and introduced the IT Personnel and the procurement staff present at the meeting. He then asked the interested offerors to introduce themselves.

Discussion of the Solicitation Package

The following sections of the solicitation were highlighted:

The A/GSO went through the SF 1449. He then handed over to the IMO to discuss the SOW and what was expected from the technical team. Thereafter, the AGSO went through all the sections, highlighting issues that affected the solicitation, while putting emphasis on the evaluation criteria and the need for vendors to be truthful with their dealings with prohibited parties around the world. He reiterated the need to be familiar with the solicitation document and the marked clauses.

He also stated that questions should be sent to Lusaka-GSO-Contracts@state.gov .

All the vendors were then taken to the De-mark point as they had requested to view the site.

Questions and Answers:

The attached questions were asked during the conference or prior to the conference:

1. What parameters are used to arrive at stated criteria for packet loss and latency? (e.g.

specific sites/IP destination in the US?)

ANS. The OpenNet packet loss and latency shall be measured between the Embassy in Lusaka and the Enterprise Network Management Operations Center (ENMOC) located in Beltsville, Maryland, USA. ENMOC uses SmokePing and other technologies to measure performance throughout the enterprise. Of course, we cannot share private IP addresses; however, we can provide readouts to the provider. It will be up to the provider to devise suitable alternate testing that will ensure performance within set parameters.

2. Can the US Embassy specify the relevant IP addresses and destinations for (1) above?

ANS: See Above.

3. What are the ISP Round Trip Time parameters?

ANS: RTT shall be less than 7ms to the IXP

4. For Service 1 (OpenNet VPN), is the connection point upstream or point-to-point?

ANS: The connection ratio for all services shall be 1:1 (downstream/upstream).

mailto:Lusaka-GSO-Contracts@state.gov

5. What is meant by OpenNet?

ANS: OpenNet is the Department of State Local Area Network (LAN). Lusaka connects to the LAN via a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

6. How is the Mbps increase going to be effected?

ANS: We do not completely understand the question. Increases or decreases in

Mbps will be handled through the Embassy procurement office.

7. Does the US Embassy do BGP or IP addresses/MPLS i.e. over IP Transit over MPLS?

ANS: From the Embassy’s perspective, everything up to the demarcation point is a

Black Box. Our VPNs are protocol indifferent.

8. What are the US Embassy’s preferences for equipment?

ANS: No preferences are stated in the document.

9. Does the US Embassy (Department of State/USAID) require or already have a Private

Network Licence to deal with a Carrier of Carriers such as CEC Liquid

Telecommunication?

ANS: The contractor will negotiate licences required to provide services as specified in this contract.

10. We note that Section 2 (Contract Clauses) of the RFP document provides details of applicable terms and conditions. However, please can the US Embassy provide us with a copy of the actual contract to be signed between the US Embassy and the successful

Offeror for our review?

ANS: The actual contract will be sent to the vendor who will be awarded the contract. The contract will only be ready once the evaluation has been done and the award is made. The contract will contain the completed SF1449; Section 1, The

Schedule with the prices completed; Continuation to SF-1449; Section 2, Contract

Clauses; and Addendum to Contract Clauses, as issued in the solicitation.

11. Will your system simply establish a secure tunnel through the provider's IP Network?

Do you require this to be overlaid on a Tag Switching/MPLS Architecture?

ANS: Yes, we provide our own tunnel through the provider’s network. From the

Embassy’s perspective, we are protocol indifferent.

12. Are the dedicated internet channel speeds that you have requested for only to be guaranteed up to the provider's peer point with 'nearest' Tier 1 provider or to your VPN end point in the USA?

ANS: Dedicated internet channel speeds shall be dedicated to the end point in the

Unites States.

13. Latency requirement of < 200ms applies to the VPN-end point or the provider's closest

Tier 1 peer point?

ANS: This is up to the end-point, in the USA. We have adjusted the requirement to

< 300ms.

14. Please clarify on the whether you hold any sort of license with ZICTA such as a 'Private

Network License”. Please refer to http://www.zicta.zm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=62 for the list of the available licenses.

ANS: No, we hold no such license. The negotiation of required licenses it the responsibility of the contractor.

15. We understand that the last-mile fiber link that the provider will install will terminate at the Zamtel Woodlands substation. Confirm that you have permission from Zamtel to allow a third party to bring in fiber into their premises and into your cabinet rack.

ANS: The fiber between Woodlands and the Embassy was installed during the construction of the Embassy. The Embassy owns the fiber between Woodlands and the Embassy. Gaining access to ZAMTEL premises shall be the responsibility of the contractor.

16. Clarify on the type of interface/equipment you will provide at Zamtel Woodlands to interface with your (Zamtel) fiber line to the Embassy Premises.

ANS: The interface connections at Woodlands shall be the responsibility of the contractor. From the Embassy’s perspective, everything up to the demarcation point is a Black Box. The contractor shall provide all equipment.

17. If the provider needs to install gear at Zamtel Woodlands, how much rack space will be allocated?

ANS: Gaining access to Woodlands is the contractor’s responsibility.

18. Will the utility power there be 'secure' and have sufficient backup?

ANS: The Embassy utility power is provided by the public utility company. The

Embassy does maintain a generator back up system for the Embassy compound only. The Embassy does maintain UPS equipment at the demarcation point.

19. You have requested for three services - OpenNet VPN, DIN-Embassy and USAID DIC.

From the Zamtel Woodlands Substation to your premises, will you allocate one pair on your fiber line to carry all three services?

ANS: If needed, one pair for each service shall be allocated.

20. One of your requirements states that ISP shall provide a network topology map between the ISP's hub and the target hub in the USA. Which is this 'target hub'?

ANS: Target hub is in the USA.

http://www.zicta.zm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=62

21. What is level of the online data traffic analysis that you will require? Just an online graph showing total usage for each of the requested three services?

ANS: The graph should show latency, packet loss, and up time.

22. There seems to be two separate conflicting references to required latency for internet services. One asks for it to be less than 100ms and the other less than 200ms. Please clarify.

ANS: Looking at comparable African Embassies we have decided to adjust the latency requirement to < 300 milliseconds (ms) for OpenNet LAN Service. Round

Trip Time (RTT) reports the total time in milliseconds (ms) to send a small data packet, or ping, and obtain a reply. The packet loss and latency shall be measured between the Embassy in Lusaka and the Enterprise Network Management

Operations Center (ENMOC) located in Beltsville, Maryland, USA. ENMOC uses

SmokePing and other proprietary technologies to measure performance throughout the enterprise. Of course, we cannot share private IP addresses; however, we can provide readouts to the provider. It will be up to the provider to devise suitable alternate testing that will ensure performance within set parameters. For local internet service, the RTT shall be less than 100ms.

23. Will the provider have 24 x 7 Access to the equipment rack at Zamtel Woodlands for troubleshooting purposes?

ANS: It is the provider’s responsibility to arrange access to ZAMTEL. The

Embassy can only provide access to the demarcation point on the Embassy premises.

24. Do you require additional public IP subnets for the following two services - DIN

Embassy and USAID?

ANS: No

25. BERT Analysis - Do you expect the provider to supply the necessary gear to perform these tests upon delivery of solution?

ANS: Yes

26. We understand that the current fiber connection between Zamtel Woodlands and

Embassy premises is based on a 24-core cable. There appears to be no redundancy as all the cables follow the same path. Will you consider the possibility of the provider running an additional cable directly to your premises?

ANS: This is not in the scope of the solicitation.

27. "Round Trip Time (RTT) for local data services should be less than 7ms" : We can only guarantee this up to the Internet Exchange Point (IXP) with the other local service providers, because for example there could be congestion or network issues on the other provider's network which we have no control over. Is this acceptable? This also assumes that the relevant subnets owned by the other local providers are being advertised at the

IXP.

ANS: Yes, this is acceptable.

28. We understand a Fast Ethernet (FE) port will need to be allocated on our end for each of the three requested services. Please clarify whether these can be Ethernet switch ports or do you need them to be Layer 3 IP ports. Also, clarify on what routing protocol is supported by the devices that these FE ports will be connected to.

Black Box. The contractor shall provide suitable equipment.

29. Will your system simply establish a secure tunnel through the provider's IP Network?

Do you require this to be overlaid on a Tag Switching/MPLS Architecture?

ANS: We establish a Virtual Private Network (VPN) through the providers network. As long as our stated specifications are met, we are not concerned about the provider’s protocols or architectures.

30. Are the dedicated internet channel speeds that you have requested for only to be guaranteed up to the provider's peer point with 'nearest' Tier 1 provider or to your VPN end point in the USA?

ANS: To the USA.

31. Latency requirement of < 200ms applies to the VPN-end point or the provider's closest

Tier 1 peer point?

ANS: To the USA.

32. Page 5, 1(a) – The description of service is not very clear. Please elaborate in a bit more detail on this. In fact, please clarify the whole table.

ANS: What is needed is the monthly charge per Mbps multiplied by the number of months.

33. Page 12, Second last bullet point under Internet Services Quality: ‘Latency shall be <200 milliseconds (ms); packet loss shall be <.1%; availability shall be => 99.5%. Not specific which circuit the latency is expected.

34. ANS: Same answer as number 22.

35. Page 13, last bullet point: This can only be to the IXP as there is no control over the other

ISP’s hosted content

ANS: RTT shall be less than 7ms to the IXP

36. Page 14, bullet point no. 3 under heading Service Support and contingencies – There are no Tier 1 providers in Zambia. What provision is there for these local ISP’s?

ANS: The provider shall provide redundant fiber services. For instance, if the East

Africa Submarine Cable Systems (EASSY) were to fail, the provider would be able to switch seamlessly to another high-speed fiber optic route such as Seacom.

37. Would a redundancy fibre and wireless radio link be allowed?

ANS: That is beyond the scope of the current contract.

38. Will there be any corresponding equipment that is already in place on the other end of the connection at the Embassy Premises?

Black Box. The contractor will provide all equipment.

39. What redundancy is available on the last mile between Woodlands and the Embassy?

ANS: None

Conclusion

The conference concluded and attendees were thanked for their presence and expression of interest in serving the U.S. Government. The meeting was adjourned.

Sincerely, Paul Stenseth

Contracting Officer

Enclosure: Questions and Answers