This is a notice of intent to issue a sole-source contract to MAGPI, Suite 221A, 3401 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. The period of performance for this effort will be five years, with a one-year base period and four one-year options. The Government intends to award this contract on March 24, 2008. This procurement is being conducted under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1) only one responsible source, which applies when the services required by the agency are only available from one responsible source and no other type of service will satisfy agency needs. BACKGROUND In order to support the various missions of the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), NOAA has a requirement for Internet, Internet2 and other research network connectivity. This connectivity provides a bidirectional path for information to the American Public, other U.S Government organizations, Universities, and the world research community. GFDL continuously moves large quantities of data in and out of the laboratory over existing network connections. GFDL is one of the providers of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) data. Although the general public has access to many of the IPCC data sets, the primary users of this information are research partners. These research partners are generally affiliated with universities and are located worldwide. In order to provide connectivity to GFDL customers, connections to both the commercial Internet and other research networks are required. The commercial Internet is the network that is most commonly used by government, corporations, small companies, and individuals. When people use the term *Internet* they generally mean the commercial Internet. The Internet2 and National Lambda Rail (NLR) are next generation networks that have been built on an advanced backbone that interconnects regional network aggregation points called GigaPOPs. The Internet2 (I2) project is being led by a consortium of 205 universities called the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Design (UCAID). NOAA, as an organization, is a member of UCAID. UCAID is working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies. A connection to I2 or NLR can only be acquired through one of the regional GigaPOPs and requires membership in UCAID. An organization connected to I2 or NLR is only allowed to use the network for research related traffic. All other network traffic must traverse the commercial Internet. Organizations connecting to I2 or NLR are required to be connected to at least one commercial Internet provider. Most of the network traffic in and out of GFDL is research related and flows to and from UCAID organizations. The regional GigaPOP that provides I2 and NLR connectivity in the Princeton area is MAGPI. MAGPI is a consortium of local Universities, research organizations and government agencies that cooperate to form an aggregation point in order to share Wide Area Networking (WAN) services including commercial Internet, Internet2, NLR and local peering. (Local peering is the virtually free network connectivity among MAGPI partners that occurs because of the aggregation point.) MAGPI is the regional GigaPOP responsible for access to these national research networks and commercial Internet connectivity in the Philadelphia area. As described above, the only way to access these research networks is through regional GigaPOPs. MAGPI is the regional source for GigaPOP and I2 in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware Area to which Princeton, NJ belongs. Commercial companies do not provide GigaPOP services. REQUIREMENTS The Contractor shall provide a single managed solution for access to national and international research networks including, but not limited to, Internet2 (I2) and National Lambda Rail (NLR). The Contractor shall have the capacity to provide access to research networks at speeds of 10Gbs or higher. The Contractor shall provide fiber from Princeton University Site B Sayre Hall, 300 Forrestal Rd Princeton New Jersey to 401 Broad St Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The Contractor shall provide a fiber planet solution that is robust and cost effective. The Contractor shall provide hardware to support each end of the connection. The Contractor shall size chassis hardware to allow for additional independent services, with scalability to at least 200 % growth. The Contractor shall initially size hardware for a 10Gbs DWDM circuit. The Contractor shall manage hardware support to include routine maintenance, upgrades, and repairs. The Contractor shall provide and manage any required cross connects. The Contractor shall provide all management and oversight of potential subcontractors. The Contractor shall provide 24x7 monitoring of solution health. The Contractor shall have the capability to provide NOAA/GFDL with access to OSI model layers 1, 2, and 3 across these research networks. REPORTS, DATA, DELIVERABLES The Contractor shall provide: End-to-end Optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) results; End-to-end Optical loss measurement; Access to circuit utilization reports and graphs providing at least the 5 minute average; A detailed path map (street level); The mean time to repair in the event of a cut; Report of root cause for all unplanned outages; Notification to GFDL Operations of outages within 1 hour of initial outage and provide status updates every 2 hours till corrected; Notification to the GFDL POC of all planned outages. RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE Offerors who believe they can meet this requirement are required to submit in writing an affirmative response demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the requirements set forth. All written responses must include a written narrative statement of capability, including detailed technical information demonstrating their ability to meet the above requirements. The response must be sufficient to permit the agency analysis to establish a bona fide capability to meet the requirements. Failure to submit such documentation will result in the Government proceeding as stated above. A determination by the Government not to open the requirement to competition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Affirmative written responses must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. local time, March 12, 2008. All responses to this synopsis may be submitted via e-mail to Brendon Johnson, Contracting Officer, at
contact@example.gov, with a hard copy to the U. S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Eastern Region Acquisition Division, 200 Granby Street, Suite 815, Norfolk, VA 23510.
