North Central Texas Council of Governments Addendum RFP # NCT Issued April 09, 2010

Transcription

1 North Central Texas Council of Governments Addendum RFP # NCT Issued April 09, 2010

2 Section #1 to RFP: # NCT Addendum RFP NCT # Questions & Answers 1. The following is assumed; please advise if any of this information is incorrect and you would like a recommendation from Terra Telecom. a. NCTCOG is seeking a MPLS network with bandwidth requirements of 2-3M at each remote with pricing to upgrade to 5M and a minimum of 30M at the NCTCOG Administration Building Answer: This is correct. b. NCTCOG is seeking two Internet options; 100M Dedicated Internet Access at the NCTCOG Administration Building or internets access though the MPLS network Answer: NCTCOG is seeking a quote for 45M of Internet service that is scalable to 100M if the need arises. We are also looking at the cost of separate Internet Service (3M-5M) for each of the remote Workforce Centers via the MPLS connection to each individual site. c. NCTCOG will provide, install, and support all required Customer Premise Equipment as per the existing Cisco VOIP system and Cisco 28XX Routers Answer: The NCTCOG will be responsible for procurement, installation and support of any additional premise based equipment necessary to support the WAN, Internet Service and SIP Trunking. 2. Please, provide all details of the existing equipment per location that will be used for the network proposed by the RFP: Answer: The NCTCOG will provide the necessary network diagrams and related information to the selected vendor(s). Selected vendors will be required to sign a NCTCOG Non-Disclosure Agreement. Provided below is some summary information. a. Routers: Cisco 28xx routers model, los, Local, and WAN Interfaces Cisco 2811 (Qnty 14), IOS v 12.3(8r)T7, v 12.3(13R)T, v 12.4(18B) Cisco 2851 (Qnty 2), IOS v 12.4(13r)T and v 12.4(25a) Cisco 3825 (Qnty 2),IOS v v12.4(3b) b. Cisco VolP System: IP PBX and SIP Gateway Model and as, phones, Voic , Fax Cisco Call Manager, v Cisco Unity v5.0 Build 5.0(1)

3 Cisco IPCC v7.0(1)sr05_build504 Cisco Phones: 7905G, 7906G, 7911G, 7941G, 7941GE, 7961G, 7961GE, 7937 No Fax Service through VoIP c. Firewall: Make, Model, OS and Interfaces. CheckPoint UTM-1 3. It is assumed that all data traffic is TCP/IP. Please, provide the following Data Application Details: a. Application Server(s) per Location b. Protocol and Transaction Size c. Traffic Flow Answer: Most of the Workforce Centers have an Application Server. These servers serve two purposes, one is access to an assessment tool used by job seekers at that particular location and secondly, it serves as a Distribution Point for our SCCM environment. There is no traffic across the WAN associated with the assessment tool. There is minimal traffic on WAN circuit associated with the distribution of software applications and Windows/Office/Virus updates. The bulk of this traffic is sent after hours when the center is closed. Please keep in mind that there are three primary categories of traffic on the WAN circuits: Citrix ICA traffic, VoIP Voice traffic for station to station calling and OCS traffic for Video/Audio conferencing. The ICA traffic will use up the most bandwidth, but varies based on the computing activities of the end users at a particular location. VoIP traffic is minimal, but does receive priority in QOS. The OCS traffic utilizes approximately 300K-400K of bandwidth, when in use. 4. What will the Internet Access be used for? Approximately how many Firewall Rules will you require inbound and outbound on the network-based Firewall within the MPLS network? Answer: Internet Access will be used for Internet Browsing, , FTP File Transfers, Web Hosting. Firewalls at points of ingress and egress will be supplied and managed by NCTCOG. However, NCTCOG will expect the provider to manage and secure traffic as it flows from endpoint to endpoint through the MPLS cloud. 5. Please provide the following voice traffic attributes: a. Total monthly local and long distance minutes per location Answer: Local calling on-net will be handled through the WAN connection

4 from each center. Please provide the amount of LD minutes included with each SIP trunk and a bulk per minute rate for any overflow. The NCTCOG has a very low cost option through our existing LD provider that may be more economical. We will analyze this as part of the RFP review process. b. Simultaneous call flows per location to PSTN (local and long distance), to other locations (on-net), to the host (on-net) Answer: Simultaneous call flows will be identical to the data in exhibit 5 for off-net traffic. All on-net traffic will traverse the WAN connection. c. Do you require dedicated or switched toll-free services? If so, at what location? Answer: Yes at the Denton location and at the Weatherford location. d. Can you provide all existing TNs you wish to port over to the new SIP trunking over MPLS solution? In, addition, can you provide the number of additional TNs you may need per site? Answer: The main phone number for each site is listed in Exhibit 2, page 46 of the RFP. Exhibit 5, page 50 of the RFP lists the requested SIP Trunks and POTS lines (columns 1 & 2) for each location. If your company cannot provide SIP Trunking for one or more of the listed Workforce Centers, then you will provide the cost for the number of POTS lines listed in column Page 2, bullet 2-the bullet notes provide connectivity from Workforce Development facilities to the neighboring NCTCOG public safety answering point (PSAP) facilities whereas the conceptual exhibit 2 shows connections to the PSAPs with a secondary connection to the Workforce locations. Is the preference to have connectivity to Workforce with secondary connection to the PSAP or connectivity to the PSAP with secondary connectivity to Workforce? Answer: Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2 are examples of possible connectivity for the Workforce locations. They are only possibilities. Exhibit 1 is a standalone MPLS network. Exhibit 2 allows for the possibility of leveraging an existing PSAP MPLS network. In Exhibit 2 you would only provide connectivity from the workforce location to the PSAP. The PSAP MPLS NETWORK IS NOT PART OF THIS RFP. Exhibit 2 is an example of thinking outside of the box to provide connectivity by leveraging existing NCTCOG resources. Again we want to stress theses are only possibility s. If you decided that you can provide a microware or radio network that fits the criteria please propose it.

5 7. Page 2, bullet 3- the bullet notes, A combination of both. What is the intent for this item? Answer: NCTCOG is willing to consider alternate technologies and connectivity options. A combination of both would allow for integration of point to point T1 s between locations, network cloud technologies like MPLS and microware or radio network connectivity. 8. Page 6- present configuration diagram: includes current DSL/Frame connection. Is there and intent to use that or alternate location as a secondary Disaster Recovery Internet (DRS) connection? Answer: Currently, the DSL connection at each Workforce Center is used for an Internet based kiosk system and for speakers/instructors/employers visiting the centers to use when internet access is necessary. We do not allow non-nctcog users to connect to the NCTCOG network. This internet connection could be used in the future for DRS. If for full use/ DRS, is the desire to use a Premise-based or network based connection? Answer: If the DSL connections were to be used as a DRS connection NCTCOG would be using premise based equipment for setup and switching of routes for the redundancy. Would that request be off the Workforce or PSAP location in Ennis? Answer: See Question 6. For Exhibit 2 the Ennis and Denton facilities did not have a PSAP location within a 5 mile radius of the workforce location. These locations would have to be backhauled to another facility since only the current PSAP MPLS provide would be able to provide connectivity into their MPLS cloud. If proposal includes an MPLS cloud Ennis should be included in the pricing. 9. Is there intent for the successful bidder to provide a Network Based Firewall service for a 2 nd internet port being provisioned in the MPLS Network? Or, is the intent to direct traffic through a Firewall at the main location before going to the internet? Answer: Currently, all Workforce Centers access their applications via the NCTCOG Citrix environment. As such, all internet traffic traverses the internet connection located at the NCTCOG in Arlington. During normal operations, all Internet traffic will be routed through a firewall at the main location. However, the flexibility to route traffic directly to the Internet from any given Workforce

6 Center through the cloud would be advantageous in a Disaster Recovery scenario. In the DR scenario, the use of a network-based firewall should be proposed as an option. 10. Is the preference for Premise-based firewall or cloud based firewall? Answer: Premise-Based Firewall. 11. Where is (are) the Cisco Call Manager(s) physically located today? Answer: The Cisco Call Managers (Publisher and Subscriber) are located in the NCTCOG Computer Room in Arlington. 12. Are all incoming and outgoing (including long distance) calls at FXO sites routed through the Call Manager today or are any calls routed locally through the gateway? Answer: Today, all calls are routed through the local gateway at each Workforce Center location. Our future design proposes that we have a reduced number of SIP Channels coming in locally at each Workforce Center gateway and route any overflow inbound/outbound calls across the MPLS network and out through the SIP channels in Arlington. 13. Does each location have to have a connection to the MPLS cloud for voice? Answer: Yes, with the exception of Ennis. Currently, all station to station calls are routed across the MPLS network. All inbound/outbound PSTN calls are routed through the local gateway in each Workforce Center. 14. Does the data backbone at each site support voice now? Answer: Yes, all station to station calls traverse the MPLS network. 15. Is there WAN connectivity for each site that is currently used for the transport of data between the locations? Answer: Yes, all Workforce Centers are connected to the MPLS Network with the exception of the Ennis Workforce Center. 16. What version of Call Manager is currently running? Answer: See Question 2b. 17. Do the NCT have CUBE software installed on each of their routers that will interface with the MPLS SIP trunking? If not should we propose that with the router? Answer: Currently, we do not have CUBE running on any of the routers in our network. If your solution requires CUBE, please specify any CUBE requirements in your response.