RFP: BACKUP INTERNET SERVICES FOR US EMBASSY LUSAKA Overview of Technical Criteria Pre-bid Meeting Wednesday May 16 th , 2019
Objective • Our objective is to obtain high quality Internet Connectivity with a high level of service and support for the lowest price possible . • These services will be used primarily as a backup to our primary internet connection, provided by Liquid Telecom. • Only vendors who can provide service along routes separate from those used by Liquid Telecom are eligible for consideration. • Your response must clearly demonstrate the independence of those routes, and that sufficient capacity is available.
Objective - Continued • It is acceptable for your organization to receive services from Liquid Telecom, so long as you also maintain sufficient additional capacity on other routes to support this circuit at normal operating levels even in the event that Liquid Telecom suffers an outage. (D1.7) • In the event you change the design of your network, your upstream providers, or make other changes that increase your reliance on services provided by Liquid Telecom, you will immediately inform the U.S. Embassy of these changes, and demonstrate how you plan to maintain sufficient additional capacity on other routes to support this circuit at normal operating levels even in the event that Liquid Telecom suffers an outage. If it is longer possible for your network to offer that level of independence, the U.S. Embassy may elect to terminate the service. (D1.8)
Intended Use While the circuit is initially intended primarily as a backup route, the U.S. Embassy may choose to operate with this link as our primary or only connection to the Internet for extended periods of time, to load balance data across this link and other links, or to use the link for a variety of other purposes. Vendor should assume that the circuit will pass traffic at all times, and not only during outages of our primary circuit. (D1.6)
About the RFP • This is a complex RFP, and we understand preparing a response for it will be a significant effort. • We encourage you to carefully read the RFP. If there are questions, you should ask them to ensure you can submit a conforming proposal. • The criteria listed in this RFP become the eventual components of the statement of work in the final contract.
Technical Evaluation Criteria • The evaluation criteria in this RFP are very detailed – we need the information to evaluate your ability to deliver the services requested. • We have listed and described each of the evaluation criteria in the text of the RFP. An example is below: D1.9 Data Transfer Limits The circuits provided under this category must operate without any data volume transfer limits, caps, or quotas. The only limitation on circuit throughput should be the quoted bandwidth of the circuit. • It is critical that your response address each criteria clearly. For the example above, your response must clearly and explicitly indicate there are no data volume transfer limits on the circuit type being discussed. • Proposals that fail to address any of the evaluation criteria may be disqualified.
Additional Highlights • D1.2 Latency to the US The circuits in this category must provide an average Round Trip Time (RTT) latency of 300ms or less to ASN 6966 as tested from the customer handoff to IP address 169.252.4.21 over a total of 1000 packets on an unloaded circuit. • D1.4 Packet Loss The circuits in this category must provide for a packet loss of 0.01% (no more than 10 packets lost out of 1000) to ASN 6966 as tested from the customer handoff to IP address 169.252.4.21 over a total of 1000 packets on an unloaded circuit.
Additional Highlights • D2.5 Routing It is desired that the circuit provider have a direct interconnection (on either a Peering or Transit basis) with a major Internet Service Provider in the United States (Eg: AT&T, CenturyLink/Level3, Verizon, GTT, Sprint, HE). If such a relationship is not in place, you will need to demonstrate convincingly your ability to provide sufficient throughput to US providers, and manage those issues with your upstream providers.
Additional Highlights • D3.1 Overland Connectivity This circuit must be supported by a minimum of two (2) diverse fiber optic connections from Zambia to regional undersea cables. Provide a detailed map of these connections in your proposal, along with a table indicating (a) Owner/Operator of the physical cable (list all, if multiple segments) (b) circuit speed (c) current average circuit utilization (d) primary, load balanced, or backup route. At least one of these routes must be completely independent from routes used or operated by Liquid Telecom in Zambia. We are asking this to ensure we have sufficient, actual redundancy on these circuits and others we procure separate from this contract. • This data will not be shared - it is “Procurement Sensitive” and will be closely protected among only a limited number of staff in the Embassy.
Additional Highlights Example Response to D3.1 Start Point End Point Owner / Speed Utilization Use Notes Operator Lusaka, ZM Kazungula, ZM FiberCom 10GB DWDM 40% Primary Route Leased DWDM Kasane, BW Francistown, BW BoFiNet STM-64 45% Primary Route Leased SDH Francistown, BW Gaborone, BW BoFiNet STM-64 45% Primary Route Leased SDH Mafikeng, SA Joburg, SA Infraco 10GB DWDM 40% Primary Route Leased DWDM Mtunzini , SA Joburg, SA DFA 10GB DWDM 40% Primary Route Leased DWDM Note: This table is for example purposes only – these providers may or may not actually exist or provide connectivity along these routes.
Category A Circuits – Additional Highlights • D3.2 Undersea Connectivity The circuits in this category must be supported by a minimum of two (2) fully diverse undersea fiber optic cables with geographically diverse routing and landing points. Please list the undersea cables in your proposals, and if you have an ownership stake or direct contract the cable consortium or if you contract with a third party (please identify them in your proposal) for access to the undersea cable. Please also list the amount of bandwidth you have access to on the circuit.
Additional Highlights Example Response to A3.2 Cable Landing Point Contracted Capacity Relationship Notes Seacom Mtunzini , SA STM-16 Leased access WACS Walvis Bay, NA STM-64 Ownership Stake Express Lane ACE Melkbosstrand, SA STM-64 Ownership Stake Note: This table is for example purposes only – these providers may or may not actually exist or provide connectivity along these routes.
Additional Highlights • D4.1 Fiber Optic Primary Connection to the Service Location The primary delivery path for the circuit must be fiber optic cable from the provider’s hub in Lusaka to the U.S. Embassy. Please provide in your response a map of the route these cables will take from your Lusaka hub to the service location, including details on any intermediate points of presence. The path many not be delivered over infrastructure owned or operated by Liquid Telecom. • D4.2 Ownership & Installation of Primary Fiber Optic Cable Please provide details on who will own and do the physical install the Fiber Optic Cable discussed in your response to D4.1 – either your organization, or a subcontractor (please identify the subcontractor).
Additional Highlights • D5.1 Uptime Monitoring & Alerting The service provider will continuously monitor the condition and performance of the circuits provided to the US Embassy, and collect, log and make this data accessible in real time to the U.S. Embassy through a web based portal. • D5.2 Alerting & Notification for Unplanned Degradation or Failure The service provider will provide notification within 5 minutes of any degradation or failure of the circuit via email, SMS or voice call to identified points of contact on 24x7x365 basis. This includes notifications due to degradation or failure of either last mile, regional or international link, including notices of loss of redundancy and restoration of service. • D5.3 Service Advisories for Planned Events The service provider will provide notification to identified points of contact in advance during business hours via email of any planned network maintenance, repairs or upgrades that would impact the circuit or decrease its redundancy.
Additional Highlights • D6.2 Support & Technical Personnel The vendor must have adequate and competent technical support, field support and engineering resources within Lusaka to configure, maintain and repair the circuits under this agreement. Detail your capabilities and experience in this area and identify any subcontractors used (for example, for fiber optic repairs) or if resources are managed in house.
Additional Highlights • D7.1 Circuit Availability The circuit must have an overall availability, in conformance with the Service Quality indicators detailed in D1, of 99.5% when calculated on the basis of a calendar month. This translates to no more than 3h 45m hours of downtime or performance degradation in any given month. Describe your plans to meet this part of the SLA. A7.2 Technical Support & Repair Availability – Business Hours 10 minutes via telephone or email, and within 120 minutes for onsite response A7.3 Technical Support & Repair Availability – Off Hours 30 minutes via telephone or email, and within 180 minutes for onsite response
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