IMPORTANT: There are clarificiations to the RFP 8 transport; please click here to view

Question:

What was the term of the pricing you wanted?  This RFP#8 still indicates 60mth pricing.

Answer:

36 month would be fine.  No need to list 60 month unless you want to.

Question:

1. Is the attached OHN NWAX Peering Requirements.doc on OHN Web Site current?

Answer:
Yes

Question:

2. Is it the required way for peering at the NWAX to be established for new vendors?

Answer:

Yes, however if you have any NWAX membership questions please contact Don Westlight directly.  The key here is that once this has been accomplished all traffic to other OHN member sites should prefer a route to NWAX over all other routes.  The exception would be if you have 2 OHN sites that are local to one another and can connect faster utilizing your internal network.  Provision is made for this special circumstance in the RFP.  This does not excuse all vendors from peering at NWAX as listed here.

Question:

3. All OHN vendors are required to set up full BGP peering at NWAX with all other OHN participating vendors and any sites directly connected at NWAX under their own autonomous system number (ASN).  A current list of directly connected vendors and sites can be found on the NWAX website at: http://www.nwax.net/member_information_list.asp
 
Would you please clarifty the bottom section of the peering requirements document that says:  If you utilize an upstream provider for your connectivity back to NWAX, then that provider will need to be peered as listed and not yourself.

In order to facilitate the peering relationships for the above vendors it is important to understand that not all vendors will peer directly at NWAX.  Some vendors will peer through an upstream provider.  Currently only the following participating vendors have a direct presence at NWAX and will require direct BGP peering:

•        Charter Business
•        Douglas Fastnet
•        Integra Telecom
•        LS Networks
•        Quantum Communications

At this time there are no large systems with a direct presence at NWAX that require a BGP peering relationship.  OHN will update all participating members via email of any new members.
 
Answer:

You will be responsible for maintaining the quality standards listed in the RFP and will bear full responsibility if they are not met due to an outage or other problem with your upstream provider. 

Example:  If Century Link provides the local loop for an awarded member site but Quest is the upstream provider that carries all Century Link traffic back to NWAX, Century Link will be responsible for seeing that that traffic gets to NWAX as stated in the RFP and that the quality is met, however Century Link will not need to be a member of NWAX nor will they be subject to the peering requirements listed.  Quest however will be.    Please keep in mind that these types of configurations result in a small reduction of points during RFP judging.

Q:
That would be a 10 mbps OHN circuit PLUS an ADDITIONAL 10 Mbps of DIA.  Both will (can) utilize layer 3 transport however the OHN transport will be to the NWAX meet-me room and all other OHN sites and the DIA will function as normal

Q:

1.     Are the separate services?  Can the "direct internet connectivity" service be provided via an Ethernet access service from the end user site to an IP port without touching the 10Mbps Network access connection? 

A:

1. No.

2. We are asking for 10Mbps of transport to NWAX.  Most provide a layer3 connection that conforms to our SLA standards listed under the RFP Transport specs however you are free to bid out any solution you feel makes sense.  If you would like to provision a 20Mbps connection in the above case and send 10Mbps of the bandwidth back to NWAX via VLAN that would be fine as well.  There are many ways to accomplish this and we look to your expertise to provide the best solution for the lowest cost that still maintains the specified quality.