North Georgia Network Cooperative, Inc.

Request for Proposal DWDM Based Optical Networking Equipment Fiber Optic Characterization

RFP-NGN-T100 December 22, 2010

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NORTH GEORGIA NETWORK REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) Issue Date:

December 22, 2010

RFP #:

RFP-NGN-T100

Title:

DWDM Equipment and Fiber Optic Characterization

Issued: By:

North Georgia Network Cooperative, Inc.

Proposal packages will be received until 5:00 p.m. EST on January 18, 2011. Inquiries Concerning Proposal Submission Requirements, Terms and Conditions or Other Administrative concerns Should Be Directed to: Name:

NGN Procurement Officer

Email:

[email protected]

Proposals Delivered Via USPS:

NGN, PO Box 25, Clarkesville, GA 30523

Proposals Delivered Via UPS/FEDEX:

NGN, 6135 State Highway 115W Clarkesville, GA 30523

In compliance with this request for proposal, the undersigned offers and agrees to furnish the equipment, materials and/or services in accordance with the attached proposal or as mutually agreed upon by subsequent negations. Firm Name: Firm Address:

Date: BY (Print Name): Signature:

CERTIFICATION PAGE – RETURN THIS PAGE WITH PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

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1.1

INTRODUCTION

1.2

SCOPE OF PROPOSAL

1.3

PURPOSE

North Georgia Network Cooperative, Inc. (“NGN”) is soliciting proposals from qualified vendors to provide Fiber characterization and DWDM based optical networking equipment.

North Georgia Network Cooperative, Inc. is building a transport ring using DWDM base equipment. This ring will be approximately 250 miles. The ring will consist of IRU fiber and new fiber build. The winner of the RFP will need to perform fiber characterizations on IRU fiber and new build to determine necessary equipment. This proposal is for 10 wavelengths with 10 Gb per wavelength. Total throughput will be 100 Gb. Some areas will contain folded ring (please refer to network diagram 3.1).

This document defines a set of generic system requirements for reconfigurable DWDM transport systems intended to support multi-wavelength services in metro core, regional, long-haul and extended long-haul network applications. These requirements seek to define the key functional requirements of an optical service platform that supports the following key network attributes: A. Support flexible transparent service delivery of managed broadband services including SONET/SDH (155/622M/2.5G310/40G) Ethernet (GbE and 10GbE) with a migration path to support emerging high speed services. B. Maximize nodal configurability for simple, efficient in-service add/drop, grooming and switching of services. C. Simplify network operations from deployment, service activation, channel growth, grooming and reconfiguration, and maintenance. D. Maximize network robustness through network performance monitoring, SLA management and robust service protection and/or restoration. E. Minimize operational costs associated with space, power, sparing, training, engineering and administration. F. Raman Amplification is not desired.

1.4

RIGHT OF REJECTION

NGN reserves the right to reject any or all proposals received as a result of this request. NGN will not pay for any information contained in the proposals obtained from participating firms. NGN is not liable for costs incurred by firms prior to issuance of a contract. NGN also may negotiate separately with any source in any manner necessary to serve the best interest of NGN. Selection (if made) will be based on the criteria set forth in Section 1.6 of this RFP.

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1.5

HOW TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS

1.6

METHOD OF SELECTION

In order for proposals to be examined and evaluated, NGN requires four (4) copies of the proposal. Proposals must be received by mail no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on January 18, 2011. Proposals must be submitted according to the instructions listed on the cover page of this RFP. Once submitted, all proposal and related documents become the property of NGN.

NGN will evaluate proposals based on the following criteria: • • • •

•

Understanding and comprehensiveness of RFP requirements Past work of a similar nature Availability of product and first possible installation dates Ability to comply with applicable regulations, industry standards and best practices. No oral interviews are planned, however NGN reserves the right to interview and/or communicate with any proposer at any time Estimated Cost

1.7

SCHEDULE

1.8

GENERAL CONDITIONS

Time is of the essence for this project. NGN expects to select a winning proposal by the end of January, 2011. Respondents should estimate in their proposals the timeframes that will be required to perform the services requested in this RFP.

The solicitation will be financed using federal assistance authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Any contract resulting from this solicitation will require that the contractor and any subcontract comply with all provisions of the ARRA. Proposers must certify, by submission of this proposal, that neither it nor its principals is presently debarred, suspended, proposed for debarment, declared ineligible, or voluntarily excluded from participation in this transaction by any federal department or agency. Proposers are required to comply with requirements under 15 CFR Part 26, “Government wide Debarment and Suspension (Nonprocurement)” and 15 CFR Part 28, “New Restrictions on Lobbying.” NGN is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE). Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status. NGN seeks to maximize participation form locally owned, minority-owned, female-owned and disabledowned small businesses where possible and feasible. NGN may use the services and assistance or the Small Business Administration and the Minority Business Development Agency of the Department of

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Commerce to identify and evaluate these firms. Proposers are encouraged to use these same criteria in selection of their suppliers and subcontractors whenever possible. Proposers should indicate in their proposal whether and to what extent their proposal includes such participation. NGN does business without favoritism. Personal interests or relationships of a director, employee, consultant or designated agent of NGN shall not influence any transaction with a proposer.

1.9

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Proposers are encouraged to review the following material prior to submitting their responses. • • •

Executive summary of NGN’s federal grant application: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/applications/summaries/506.pdf NGN Fact Sheet: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/applications/factsheets/506FS.pdf BTOP Recipient Handbook: http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/files/BTOP_Recipient_Handbook.pdf

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The following sections must be addressed in the proposal submitted 2.0 2.1

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

RECONFIGURABLE ADD/DROP

A. Does your system support dropping and inserting “sub-wavelengths”, or fractional wavelengths? If so, please explain the operation of this feature. Does it require the use of multiplexing cards? Explain. B. Does your system impose limits to the number of add drop sites between service ingress & egress points. That is, are there engineering rules or issues related to noise, jitter or chromatic dispersion accumulation that might constrain the number of nodes in an add/drop chain? If yes, please explain these rules. C. Do the optical adding and dropping operations of the system depend on any type of “banded” architecture? That is, does the system drop groups of channels rather than individual channels? If yes, please explain and include any channel maps and how they relate to the standard ITU grid lasers. How many channels are typically supported in a “band”? D. Please describe the process for converting a circuit from pass-thru to add and drop. E. Does this procedure affect other circuits passing through the node? Is this procedure done on-site or can it be done remotely? F. Does your system support adding and dropping any wavelength at any node with preplanning requirements and no protection when adding or deleting wavelengths? G. In a ring configuration, does your system support full 100% add/drop capacity at every node? Is there any configuration change dependent on what percentage of drop is actually used? For example, does a node with 20% dropped have different type of chassis or common equipment compared to a node with 100% drop? H. Does the capability to achieve this in any way depend on the number of nodes, span losses, fiber distance, traffic rate, protocol, or ability to meet any other request in this document? I. Does the ROADM support directionless operation (i.e., can transponder or muxponder cards be used for services in any direction in a dynamic manner?) J. Does the ROADM support colorless operation (i.e., can the transponder or muxponder cards be used for service on any available line side wavelength or are they connected to a fixed wavelength port of the local mux/demux?) K. Describe any configuration rules or limitations with respect to the following: a. Line to tributary drop. Can any wavelength on the line be dropped to any port on the tributary (client) side? b. Arbitrary line-line mapping. Can traffic incoming to the node on a given wavelength be mapped to any other wavelength exiting the node? c. Tributary to tributary mapping. Can traffic be arbitrary mapped from any client port to any other client port? (Does the system support full hair-pinning?)

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L. Does switching capacity exist to aggregate traffic spread over different ports onto a single wavelength?

2.2

CLIENT SERVICES

A. Please indicate if the system supports the following client interface types: a. Fully transparent mapping of client signal (SONET/SDH or Ethernet) for transparent “wave” services. Please specify any deviations from 100% transparent mapping. b. GbE c. 10GbE LAN PHY and WAN PHY d. OC-3/STM-1 e. OC-12/STM-4 f. OC-12/STM-4 g. OC-47/STM-16 h. OC-192/STM-64 i. OC-768/STM-256 j. 2.488 GB/s unframed clear-channel k. 9.95328 GB/s unframed clear-channel B. State the number of different circuit pack types required to support all the service interfaces defined above. C. Are service interfaces on the system de-coupled from the DWDM line-side optics to reduce sparing of circuit packs? D. Does the system use Industry-standard pluggable optics: SFP for 1G/2.5G and XFP for 10G? E. Please describe the density of the system in terms of # of services per 7’ bay in the following configurations: a. Fully configured with GbE interfaces. b. Fully configured with 2.5G interfaces. c. Fully configured with 10G interfaces. F. Please describe the average power consumption of an 800 Gb/s terminal configuration with (a) 10Gb/s services (transponders), and (b) 2.5G services (muxponders).

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2.3 CIRCUIT PROVISIONING

Please describe the system support for end-to-end provisioning.

Does the system support provisioning through a graphical interface by specifying the end-points of the circuit? A. Describe how the system would be connected to an external provisioning system to support “flow-through” provisioning. B. The GMPLS control plane supports signaling, management and provisioning of subwavelength circuits (i.e.: 2.5Gb/s) within a 10Gb/s wavelength. (Compliant/NonCompliant) C. The GMPLS control plane can support provisioning of 1 GbE, 10GbE (LAN & WAN Phy), OC-48/STM-16, OC-192/STM-64 and OC-768/STM-256 rates. (Compliant/ NonCompliant) D. The GMPLS control plane supports provisioning of Ethernet, SONET, SDH and Clear channel protocols. (Compliant/Non-Compliant) E. The GMPLS implementation supports dynamically signaled permanent virtual circuits that persist across disruptions to the GMPLS control plane of system’s overall control and management plane, such as control plane communication failures, software upgrades, or nodal control module failures. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) F. A GMPLS provisioned circuit shall support appropriate states to allow users to administratively lock and unlocked circuits, without deleting the circuit endpoint.

2.4

PROTECTION

A. For the protection schemes supported by the system, please describe the types of events/ degradations that cause a protection switch to be initiated. Are these based on simple loss of light (LOL) or from BER measurements? If they are based on BER, can the BER threshold be adjusted? Is the BER switching based on a G. 709 wrapper or the SONET bytes? B. Does the system support the use of both dedicated protection capacity as well as shared protection capacity? That is, does the system allow spatial-reuse of the protection bandwidth? C. Can sub-wavelengths within a wavelength be allocated differently in terms of protection? In other words, can some sub-wavelengths be unprotected, some protected with dedicated capacity, and others shared? D. Please describe the system support for a UNI-based protection initiation.

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E. Does the system supports user-configurable dynamic end-to-end circuit restoration upon detection circuit failure? If yes, please describe. Is the scheme based on loss or light or on a measure BER/ threshold crossing? F. Describe how the required optical parameters are validated and optical performance ensured for a dynamically restored service? Are the paths pre-computed or are they on the fly? Describe if additional transponders/ muxponders have to be pre-provisioned for dynamic restoration to take place? G. Provide details on restoration times by using example scenarios (i) 5 circuits, 5hops (ii) 10 circuits, 10hops. H. Is the dynamic restoration revertive (i.e. will the service revert to the original working path upon the repair/re-establishment of the original path?) I. Is a common GMPLS control plane can be used for provisioning of both primary and backup circuits as well as dynamic restoration? Does the GMPLS control plane have topology knowledge so that Shared Risk Groups (SRGs) can be avoided when provisioning secondary paths? J. Can the system support protection against multiple failure scenarios by combining 1+1 protection with dynamic shared restoration?

2.5

PMs/DIAGNOSTICS

2.6

OPTICAL LINE SYSTEM

A. Please describe any built-in testing capabilities supported by the system. For example, does the system support PRBS pattern injection to pre-test nonprovisioned wavelengths? B. Please describe the performance monitoring information supplied by the system. Is this available at all Add/Drop nodes on all wavelengths? C. Please describe any loop-back capability (for troubleshooting and sectionalizing faults) that is supported by the system? D. Describe diagnostic tools available for trouble-shooting circuits in an end-to-end manner? Does this diagnostic tool support current and historical alarms, current and historical PMs and can the loopbacks be initiated from this tool?

A. How many wavelengths are supported by the line system? What is the spacing? B. If there is a modular expansion path from a smaller initial capacity to the maximum capacity of wavelengths, is the expansion service-disruptive or is in-service? C. Does the line system support in-service upgrade from 10G to 40G line side wavelengths? Can the 10G and 40G wavelengths be arbitrarily mixed or is there is need for 10G and 40G “sub-bands”? D. What is the maximum supported capacity of the optical line system proposed (# channels x line rate per channel)?

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E. Does the line system support high-loss, single-span applications (festoon applications) with span loss of 50dB? Describe the amplification method used for these festoon applications? F. Are the elements of the optical line system (amplifiers, spectral equalizers etc.) autodiscovered through topology discovery? G. Does a single DCM cover the entire C-band or does dispersion management require subband specific DCM? H. Are DCM engineering rules and banding rules distance specific? If yes, please state all detailed engineering rules. I. Does your system require pump or amplifier upgrades to migrate from initial to maximum wavelength capacity? J. Please describe the steps involved in adding additional channels on the line side of the system. Does the system incorporate automatic power balancing? If yes, please describe.

2.7

INTELLIGENT NETWORK CONTROL PLANE

A. The system implements GMPLS control and signaling plane. (Compliant / NonCompliant) B. The GMPLS control plane supports physical network topology auto-discovery, including optical line amplifier sites. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) C. The GMPLS control plane supports automated routing topology updates. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) D. Network operators or technicians can view the network topology from any particular network element through a craft interface, without requiring access to an Element Management System or Network Management System. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) E. Describe control plane implementation for network topology auto-discovery. F. The system’s GMPLS control plane supports a robust signaling protocol with crankback capabilities. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) G. Does the GMPLS control plane rely on in-band or out-of-band communications? H. The system’s GMPLS routing protocol supports traffic engineering at the fiber, optical channel, and sub-wavelength levels. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) I. With traffic engineering, provisioners can designate inclusion or exclusion lists of nodes and/or links. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) J. The GMPLS control plane supports user-configurable administrative weights or link costs on each GMPLS link. K. The GMPLS control plane supports automatic circuit routing, assignment and provisioning, including automated wavelength assignment and interchange. (Compliant / Non-Compliant) L. Describe control plane implementation for circuit provisioning, including provisioning of sub-wavelength circuits and provisioning of end-end circuits through intermediate passthrough sites. M. GMPLS-provisioned cross-connects can co-exist with remote manual provisioning of static cross-connects on the same system and are distinguishable by operators. (Compliant / Non-Compliant)

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N. The GMPLS signaling protocol supports automated clean-up of residual crossconnects stranded in the network. (Compliant / Non-Compliant)

3.0

NETWORK CONFIGURATION

The following explanations apply to diagram below (3.1); A. B. C. D. E. F.

G. H.

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Initial DWDM requirements are for ten (10) – 10 Gbps circuits (Wavelengths). There are 15 DWDM nodes at 9 locations in North Georgia. The 9 locations will contain DWDM and Aggregation Routers. Each DWDM node will link to aggregation routers via dual 10 Gbps Ethernet fiber up links. The two Mid-Span Amplification sites are locations where DWDM equipment can be installed to amplify or regenerate the DWDM signals between Forsyth location and 56 Marietta locations, if required. Note there is a SMF-LEAF splice point located between Towns with White locations. NGN wishes to have a fusion splice at this point between the SMF-28 fiber to the west and the LEAF fiber to the east. NGN can install a climate controlled cabinet if required at this point if the DWDM equipment being proposed cannot bridge this splice point between equipment located at Towns and White. Approximate link distance of Towns to White is 65 miles. In clockwise rotation first 6 miles will be SMF. The remaining 59 miles will consist of corning leaf. The Design should avoid using regeneration. For the design purposes of this RFP, please assume the following; a. SMF-28: 0.25 dB/km, 18ps/nm·km b. LEAF: 0.22 dB/km, 4 ps/nm·km c. Each link should include a 3 dB margin(Connectors and Patch Panels @ Node) d. DWDM XFP into the Aggregation Router has the following characteristics: i. TX: -1 dBm (EOL) ii. RX: -24 dBm (EOL) iii. Path Penalty @ 1600 ps/nm: 2.5 dB

3.1

NETWORK DIAGRAM

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4.0

WARRANTY

The warranty of the DWDM equipment must be a minimum of 5 years. The warranty must contain next day replacement or a spares service. All software and firmware upgrades must be included in warranty.

4.1.1 SOFTWARE A.

Initial Software - The Respondent must provide equipment with production-ready operating system loaded before the time of deployment. If the operating system is not production-ready, the Respondent must provide upgrade services at the time of integration before system deployment. a. Indicate how many major and minor software releases are done per year. b. Indicate if your Software upgrade are service affecting. NGN requires that all software upgrades on all modules be non-service impacting. Please document any and all exceptions.

4.2

MONITORING

IP connectivity will be provided by NGN at all equipment location sites. A. The Respondent must explain how the DWDM system will actively monitor optical signal characteristics, and report these measurements to a network management system. B. The Respondent must also explain how the system will provide integrated taps that allow for external testing equipment to be connected to the system for detailed analysis and debugging.

4.3

ROBUSTNESS

A. The proposed solution must be in use in similar situation, and three (3) references to actual deployments should be provided. B. The proposed solution should offer a very high level of reliability and serviceability. Please discuss how the equipment operates to prevent single points of failure in the network. C. Please describe the robustness of the equipment, including Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of the equipment and other ratings indicating that the equipment if “carrier class”.

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4.4

NETWORK MANAGEMENT

4.5

PRICE

A. Provide an overview of your Craft User Interface Software and its capabilities. B. Describe the supported operating systems and computer requirement for the Craft User Interface Software C. Describe the licensing model of the Craft User Interface. D. Provide an overview of your network management software and its capabilities. E. Indicate if describe the supported operating systems and computing requirement for the Network Management software. F. If your network management software requires a server, indicate the cost of the server. G. Describe the licensing mode of the Network Management software. H. Indicate the maximum number of node supported with your Network Management software. I. Indicate if your system can be integrated in a third party OSS and list the applicable OSS. J. Indicate which Management protocol are supported. K. Indicate if your management software support Backup and Restore.

A. Vendor must provide detailed Bill of Material for DWDM equipment by site with the capability to provision: B. Ten (10) – 10 Gbps signals that will add and drop at each Node Site. C. Indicate the incremental costs required to implement one additional. D. The Bill of Material should include component identifier, description, quantity, and price. The respondent should only provide prices that include the features and capabilities described in the design section. E. Provide the Cost for recommended training for customer staff. Please indicate if on onsite or locally offered class can be conducted and associated costs per attendee. F. Provide the list and pricing of Recommended Spares – broken out per module, SFP, etc. G. Provide the cost for your 24x7x365 telephone technical support. H. Describe your Standard terms for Repair and Return of failed modules. I. Describe your terms for Advanced Replacement of failed modules. J. Provide the installation cost of the equipment included in the proposed solution. Installation pricing should be provided with the consideration that the vendor’s installation personnel will be accompanied and assisted by a technician from NGN. K. Indicate if you offer fiber characterization and include the Cost for fiber characterization.

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