E-Rate Wired Network Upgrade RFP

The Lebanon Community School District #9 would like to announce that we are requesting proposals for the design, equipment, and installation to upgrade our wired network infrastructure. The project will fall under USAC’s (Universal Service Administrative Company) E-Rate program and filed under the FCC form 470.

Qualifications, procedures, and directions for reviewing the Lebanon Community School District #9 Form 470 #: 160000629 can be found at the following USAC website: 

http://www.universalservice.org/sl/service-providers/default.aspx

Direct search of FCC Form 470 can be found at the following USAC website: 

http://www.universalservice.org/sl/tools/default.aspx

***IMPORTANT: The bidding window has closed as of Monday, January 15, 2016.  The District will privately open bids on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - 7:30 AM.

Request for Proposal (RFP): 

    RFP - Additional Technical Documents: 

    RFP - Forms and Other Documentation

Schedule:

Addendum:

"Any additional documentation that is added during this RFP process will be added here."

-Buiilding/Wiring Diagrams (Google Drive Folder)

-Fiber Paths (Google Drive Folder)

Questions and Answers/Clarifications:

"Any questions and answers  and/or clarifications that are posed during this RFP process will be added here"

(Updated 12/18/2015)

1.)

Question:  Upon reviewing the RFP, I am having an issue understanding if the School District is just looking for new gear or also for some connectivity to buildings?

Answer: To clarify, the Lebanon School District is NOT looking to replace any dark/lit fiber between schools/locations in this RFP.  It is only looking to replace the equipment (switches or routers) connecting our dark/lit fiber between schools/locations.  The ONLY fiber replacement requested in this RFP is internal building fiber (replace 62.5 multi-mode with single-mode).

2.)

Question: Can you please forward the addresses for the following:

Answer: 

LHS Stadium - This is on the same property as the Lebanon High School - 1700 S. 5th St.

LHS Brickhouse - This is a small building (Special Ed) across the street from the High School - 1675 S 5TH St

LDO Warehouse - This is on the same property as the Lebanon District Office - 485 S. 5th St.

3.) 

Question:  Is there a technology contact that I would pose a few technical questions to — regarding the current configuration, hub site, etc?

Answer: 

Technical Contact:

Peter Klingler

485 S. 5th St.

Lebanon, OR 97355

peter.klingler@lebanon.k12.or.us

541-259-8934

4.)

Question: Are you expanding on your current switches/routers or performing a rip and replace?

Answer: We are looking at ripping and replacing our current switches and routers.

5.)

Question: In terms of post-service support, what distance or time frame would you want a vendor to be able to respond on-site?

Answer: Vendor has support personnel within 100 miles/The vendor has the ability to be onsite within 2 hours.

6.)

Question:  What fiber links is the district looking to replace?

Answer: The district is looking to replace all 62.5 multi-mode fiber between building core closets and outlaying (edge) closets with 12-strand 50 micron single-mode fiber.  The district is not looking at replacing any WAN fiber in this RFP (only the equipment connecting to the WAN fiber).

7.)

Question:  Do the links from the core to outlying closets need to be redundant?

Answer:  If the switches in outlying closets are stacked, then redundant links are required.  If the switches are individually linked back to the core, then redundant links are not required.

8.) 

Question: How does the district want us to account for "unknown obstacles" (infrastructure barriers, Asbestos, etc.) in replacing current fiber runs?

Answer: Put in some type of "change order" clause to cover these "unknown obstacles".

9.)

Question: What are the POE power output requirements in the closets?

Answer: Most current POE devices (IP Phones, security cameras, access points) require 802.3af.  For future growth, we will want to support 802.3at as well.

10.)

Question: What type of wireless devices is the district currently running?

Answer: 

    Lebanon High School: Ruckus Wireless (R700 x 50, R710 x 5 (802.3AT)

    All other District Locations: Cisco (1142N x 92, 10 x 3502i)

11.)

Question:  Do patch cables out to end-user devices need to be part of the proposal?

Answer: The district is requesting that bidders use existing patch cables out to end-user devices (including ip phones, security cameras, and access points).  The district will provide replacement cables as needed.

12.)

Question: Is the hand-off layer-2 from Peak (for WAN links to Land Lab, Hamilton-Creek, and Lacomb)?

Answer: The hand-off is layer-2.  Further clarification on the Peak connections.  Peak provides 100Mb fiber (Land Lab and Hamilton-Creek) and 50Mb licensed point-to-point wireless (Lacomb).  These 3 connections aggregate within Peak's infrastructure and link back to the city's Justice Center via a single 100 Mb fiber connection.  Peak hands off this 100Mb link to the district via a copper connection (terminated in the district's switch hosted at the Justice Center.  LS Networks also hands off our 400 Mb internet connection via copper into this switch as well).  This district switch is linked back to the district core switch at the high school via a pair of fiber strands.  Hamilton-Creek, Lacomb, and Land Lab WAN connections are on a single vlan/subnet.  There is a router at each of these schools that provides layer-3 routing.

13.)

Question: Are most of the racks in schools 2-post racks?

Answer: Most of the racks are 2-post (except for the High School MDF and Pioneer MDF).  Some of the closets have small racks/railing mounted within the closet.  Some of the closets currently have no racks (switches lie on closet shelves).

14.)

Question: Are you keeping existing fiber enclosures?

Answer:  As long as the fiber enclosures will fit the new single-mode "LC" adapters, it is fine to re-use the enclosures. Except for "Frame 4" at the High School, all current enclosures have "ST" adapters.  If replacing with single-mode fiber, the district would like to replace with "LC" adapters.

15.)

Question:  Where would you like UPS equipment?

Answer: We would like UPS equipment in the main closet/MDF at each location.  We would like surge protection in all the closets.

16.)

Question: Where would you like to replace multi-mode with single-mode fiber?

Answer: We would like quoted replacing all internal multi-mode with single-mode fiber.  Possible exceptions would be closets/locations that service a very small user base and would be cost-prohibitive (ie. High School Brick House).

17.)

Question: Do you want the wireless links to the stadium/baseball fields replaced as part of this RFP?

Answer: No, we will not be replacing these links.  Replacement switches can be quoted.

18.)

Question: Do bidders need to provide UPS battery recycling for current UPS units?

Answer: No.

19.) 

Question: Do any of the locations currently provide 208V power?

Answer: No

20.)

Question: What are the bandwidth requirements of you IP security cameras?

Answer: The High School (highest number of IP cameras - 50+) uses less than 100Mb.

21.) 

Question: Do you want bidders to match current port counts?

Answer: Some of the closets have extra ports due to adding Gb switches for wireless.  The district needs enough ports to cover existing "in use" ports with a healthy percentage (like 20%) of extra ports.  We want to cover our wired network devices, but also account that more and more of our devices are moving to wireless.

22.)

Question: Do bidders need to quote "Plenum" rated Single-Mode fiber?

Answer: 

Here is a list of current internal fiber at school/locations and closets needing internal multi-mode fiber replaced with single-mode fiber.

    Seven Oak::

        Frame 2: OFNR - 62.5/125 (IInnerduct)

        Frame 3: OFNP - 62.5/125 (No Innerduct)

        Frame 4: OFNR  - 62.5/125 (No Innerduct)

    Riverview:

       Frame 2: OFNP - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)

    Green Acres:

        Frame 1 (IDF): OFNP  - 62.5/125 (No Innerduct)

    Lebanon High School:

        Frame 2 - OFNP - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)

        Frame 3 - OFNP - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)

        Frame 4 - OFNR  - Single-Mode (Innerduct) (Does not need replaced)

        Frame 5 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)   

        Frame 6 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)   

        Frame 7 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)   

        Frame 8 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)   

        Frame 9 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)   

        Frame 10 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)   

        Frame 11 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (No Innerduct)

        Brick House - ONFR - Single-Mode (Does not need replaced)

    Lacomb:

        Frame 2 - OFNR  - 62.5/125 (Innerduct)   

        Gym - This would be a new run (could run part-way in innerduct with fiber to frame 2)

    District Office:

        Flag Closet: OFNR - 62.5/125 (No Innerduct)

        Warehouse - OFNR - 62.5/125 (No Innerduct)

23.)

Question:  How does the Seven Oak single-mode fiber WAN connection terminate back to the MDF?

Answer: The single-mode fiber WAN connection enters the building in Seven Oak Frame 2.  The connection is then directly patched ("ST" to "ST" connection) back to the MDF.

24.) 

Question: Do you have the distances from the MDF’s to the IDF’s available?  I thought I heard a discussion that you had a vendor measure all of these?

Answer: These distances are given in the attached document "EquipmentbySchool-VendorCopy.xlsx"

25.) 

Question: If we are removing switches and re-patching all Ethernet patch cords, do you want to add any cable management to clean up the cabling in the front of the racks.

If you provide shorter patch cables we can properly route with cable management (if space is available) for a very clean looking install.

Also we can use standard color codes for the patch cables so that it is easier for you to troubleshoot.  E.G.: phones get blue, WAP’s get yellow, cameras get green, servers get orange, computers get green, etc… Or any colors you pick.

Answer: Including cable management would be very desirable.  Using color codes for cables would be great.  The district would work with winning bidder on this.

26.)

Question: Does the district have any low-voltage wiring vendors that they have worked with in the past?

Answer: 

    Heins Communications, Inc - Albany, OR

    JimCo Electrical Contracting - Lebanon, OR

    National Network Services of Oregon - Springfield, OR (Original installers in 2002)

27.)

Question: Do you have building blueprint/diagrams?  Do you have current fiber wiring diagrams outlying current internal fiber runs?

Answer: Diagrams/Wiring diagrams will be posted in the following Google Folders:  

-Buiilding/Wiring Diagrams (Google Drive Folder)

And subfolder

-Fiber Paths (Google Drive Folder)

28.)

Question: Will you be using the existing innerduct for the upgraded fiber or are you requiring a completely new install?

Answer: As long as the existing innerduct is in good shape, it can be re-used.  Any innerduct that is damaged, should be repaired or replaced as needed.

29.)

Question: For the top-of-rack switch(es) to support servers/storage at the core, could you help confirm the number of ports you would like us to size it for?  Reading through the list of currently terminated equipment at the HS MDF, I see up to 53 total ports.  Is this the correct quantity and will you want the new switch to be sized for this as well?

16 for virtual hosts

10 for physical servers

14 for lights out cards

2 for camera servers

6 for NetApp

5 for Synology

Answer:  We would like port counts to cover existing server/storage requirements, plus some extra.  If providing a top-of-rack solution, we would like a multi-switch (minimium 2) setup to provide redundancy (for critical servers and storage).  We would also like some 10 Gb connections (for future 10 Gb server/storage connections).

30.) 

Question: As for the MM fiber. To clarify, the current fiber is 62.5 micron fiber. Your requirement is 10Gbps OR replace with single mode? 

Answer: Due to the fact that little of the fiber is short enough to continue to use multi-mode fiber and provide 10Gb, the District has decided to replace multi-mode fiber with single-mode.

31.) 

Question: Questions about UPS requirements.

How much runtime are you looking to have?

Do you want tower or rack-mount units?  If rack-mount, will you mount into a 2 post or 4 post rack?

Do you want a network card added for remote monitoring/alerting?  If so, do you want the temperature/humidity probe as well?

Do you have a brand preference?

Do you want a good UPS (line-interactive technology) or a better UPS (on-line technology)?

Answer:

    *Runtime requirements: 15-20 minutes (enough to cover short power outages).

    *Tower or Rackmount: Rackmount is nice, but towers will work as well.

    *Network Card: Yes

    *Temperature/Humidity Probe: This would be a "nice-to-have"

    *Do you have a brand preference: We can not give a brand-preference, but our current UPS and UPS management                 software for the UPS at the High School is Eaton.

    *Line-Interactive or On-Line: Both types can be quoted and we will determine after looking at overall costs.

32.) 

Question: Do you want your E-rate response "By Site" or the total project in one response?

Answer: The response can have a summary of the project as a whole, but we need a line-item breakdown by site.

33.)

Question: It was my understanding that ALL existing multimode fiber runs are going to be replaced with Single mode. Is that still correct?

Did you add any additional runs?

Answer: One additional run was added that was not in the original request (a new fiber run).  It is for a fiber run to the gym at Lacomb.  In mapping out the existing path to the Lacomb IDF, we discovered that it would be fairly simple to add an additional fiber run along the same path to the gym switch.  Details are under the "Lacomb" folder in the "Fiber Runs" documentation.  If it is too late to add to your proposals, this item can be added as an addendum in our final signed contract.

34.)

Question: How long are the SMF runs between schools? 

Answer: 

    -District Office: 1589 M / 1.59 Km

    -Green Acres: 2293 M / 2.29 Km

    -Pioneer: 2909 M / 2.91 Km

    -Riverview: 4475 M / 4.48 Km

    -Seven Oak: 5526 M / 5.53 Km

    -Cascades: 1316 M / 1.32 Km

***SPECIAL NOTE: Please see that updated details on current fiber runs/paths have been posted in the following following Google folder:

-Fiber Paths (Google Drive Folder)