70 -- Nortel Hardware

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) intends to procure Nortel hardware, specifically the Nortel 5500-series switches, to support its Enterprise Trusted User Firewall (ETU-FW) infrastructure. The 5530 switch model is selected due to its provision of multiple 1-gigabit and 10-gigabit connections, which offers necessary flexibility for future expansion and increased throughput. Additionally, it supports IPv6 compliance at the layer 2 level, aligning with the needs of the ETU design. The USPTO’s existing network infrastructure already includes a significant investment in 220 Nortel Passport switches, making it operationally and economically advantageous to maintain consistency by continuing with Nortel equipment. Introducing switches from other vendors would require extensive additional testing, updates to development documentation, new maintenance contracts, staff training, and could complicate network troubleshooting, potentially causing longer outages. This procurement will be conducted using the Simplified Acquisition procedures under Part 13 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and will leverage the test program authorized in FAR subpart 13.5, along with the Patent and Trademark Acquisition Guidelines (PTAG) among the current USPTO IT ID/IQ contractors. No formal written solicitation will be issued. The contract is identified under solicitation number 297P0750372(b) and falls under NAICS code 423430. The Department of Commerce’s USPTO office in Alexandria, Virginia, oversees the acquisition, with Connie A. Lum serving as the primary contract specialist and point of contact for further information.