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EXTENDED MARKET SURVEY AND BIDDERS LIST DEVELOPMENT – SOURCES SOUGHT REQUEST FOR THE SENATE’S WIRELESS NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTION. The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice (SSN or Notice) is to ... EXTENDED MARKET SURVEY AND BIDDERS LIST DEVELOPMENT – SOURCES SOUGHT REQUEST FOR THE SENATE’S WIRELESS NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTION. The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice (SSN or Notice) is to gather information about qualified vendors for enterprise-level wireless network infrastructure equipment, support, and services. The U.S. Senate, Office of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA), is responsible for all wireless network infrastructure hardware, software and services used at Senate facilities, support office buildings, and state offices throughout the United States. The SAA is seeking information from the vendor community on a solution to substantially replace its enterprise wireless network infrastructure deployed to its facilities and hosted in its data centers. Respondents must be the OEM provider/vendor. Responses submitted by resellers or third-party integrators will not be evaluated by the SAA. REQUIREMENTS: All requirements listed in A.1 through A.3 below are mandatory unless otherwise noted. Each item in the following sections requires a response in any response to this Notice. All proposed solutions must meet the requirements below. Architecture SAA supports offices at several sites in the Washington DC Capitol complex campus as well as offices in every state throughout the country. SAA maintains multiple data centers for primary, secondary, and tertiary support for centralized equipment and management. SAA seeks to provide a solution to its users to ensure their wireless network needs are supported now and in the future. Based on infrastructure and architecture requirements below, respondents shall describe and demonstrate their approaches, provide relevant network diagrams, and include a detailed description of their methodology. Respondents must identify any equipment, software, licensing, and application or user interface (UI) differences between the solutions. All wireless network devices must be installed in Senate controlled facilities. Support for centralized, on premises management and backup functionality using wireless controller(s) or equivalent. Support for a minimum of one thousand five hundred (1,500) indoor wireless access points (APs). Access points must support 802.11ax and WiFi-6 using 802.3at (POE+) power. The SAA understands that the 802.11ax standard has not yet been ratified, however, draft devices are being manufactured. Please identify any specific features or limitations of in the proposed solution’s implementation. Centralized management for supporting simultaneously at least one hundred four (104) Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) and ten thousand (10,000) individual client devices. Individual APs must broadcast a minimum of four (4) wireless network service set identifiers (SSIDs) and support clients on each simultaneously. Support for Layer 2 redundancy with a minimum of two (2) controllers or equivalent (high availability). Support for Layer 3 failover for controller(s) or equivalent located at a minimum of two (2) data centers (business continuity). Support for on-campus AP installations where there is access to the wired distribution network. Support for state office AP installations where the access to the wired distribution network is via Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network (DMVPN). Support for state office AP installations where autonomous or semi-autonomous operation permits sustained operation if the DMVPN is unavailable. Describe any alteration or degradation of functionality that may occur in this situation. Support for different antenna configurations: Internal. External: Indoor Omnidirectional (Rubber Ducky or equivalent). Minimum gain 4dBi. External: Indoor Downtilt/Ceiling Mount Omnidirectional (Panel or equivalent). Minimum gain 4dBi. External: Indoor 90x90 degree Directional (Yagi or equivalent). Minimum gain 4dBi. Antenna connector compatibility requires industry-standard RP-SMA. Adapters/Connectors are acceptable provided there is no loss of functionality. Security Solutions that rely on any cloud-based requirements will not be considered. Full compatibility and integration with the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) for authentication, authorization, and auditing (AAA) using the RADIUS protocol. Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 Level 3 Compliant Crypto. No retention of user data. Vendor must be based in the continental United States (CONUS). Other factors In order to ensure vendor stability with regard to long-term product availability, service, and support, the respondent must be an established industry provider with a minimum of ten (10) years in the enterprise wireless networking industry. The respondent must provide 24x7 Technical Assistance Center (TAC) support. The solution must have the ability to install operating system upgrades, software upgrades, security patches, and similar changes “live” without disrupting users or network operations. The user interface for all devices must be easy to understand and operate the solution. such that additional training is not required. The user interfaces for all devices have a graphical user interface (GUI) that is intuitive with a reasonable user learning curve. The user interfaces for all devices have a command line interface (CLI) that is intuitive with a reasonable user learning curve. All devices must have a programmable interface supporting automation by custom software applications. This interface must use one or both of these industry standards: Secure Shell (SSH) and/or Representational State Transfer (RESTful) application programming interface (API). During the transition to the new infrastructure, new or replacement equipment must coexist, interact, and interoperate with existing Cisco controllers and access points, as well as being able to communicate with Cisco equipment and accept Cisco data. The solution must provide a central management application capable of configuration, backup, and restoration for all devices as well as geolocation services including location visibility, user tracking, and coverage maps. The solution must provide extensive alert and notification services using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) email. The solution must provide Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) communications to industry standard network products for monitoring, troubleshooting, diagnostics, visibility, intrusion prevention, and intrusion detection. Identify components that are integrated within the solution and are compatible with 3rd party products. The solution must include reporting of the wireless network infrastructure that is robust, configurable, reproducible (stored report template for reuse), and supports downloading of reports and/or emailing of reports. The licensing model for hardware, software, services, and support must be clearly defined and available for purchase in units of one (1) and five (5) years. Other units are optional. No products in the response to this Notice shall be scheduled for limitations or end-of-life within five (5) years. B – GUIDELINES: Companies responding must be enterprise-level wireless network infrastructure equipment, support, and services providers or their products; or the solution (Enterprise Wireless) must qualify under the following guidelines: Respondents must be Enterprise Wireless providers with their own Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) product or solution. The SAA will not evaluate responses submitted by Value Added Resellers or third-party integrators. Respondents must base responses on their own COTS Enterprise Wireless products or solution’s native capabilities. The SAA will not evaluate or consider custom or uniquely customized products or solutions, nor will they consider solutions designed on top of another cloud service provider. Respondents must be compliant to Section 208 of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2020, located within the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (P.L. 116-94) which prohibits the acquisition of certain telecommunications equipment as well as high-impact or moderate-impact information system, as defined for security categorization in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 199, “Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems.” Respondents must provide Certification or a Statement of Compliance that the equipment or services provided do not fall within the prohibition as stated under the law. Certification or statement provided by a non-U.S. company is not acceptable. The SAA will not evaluate or consider planned or future Enterprise Wireless product enhancements when reviewing responses. The SAA will evaluate the SSN responses to qualify vendors for the next round of procurement consideration, if any. NOTE: Enterprise Wireless providers whose SSN responses are not selected for the next round of procurement consideration, if any, will not be debriefed nor provided information on the evaluation of their response. Enterprise Wireless providers whose SSN responses are deemed qualified by the Senate will be invited to the next round of procurement consideration, if any, in a format deemed appropriate by the Senate. The SAA will notify these Enterprise Wireless Providers directly wherein the format for this next round of procurement will be announced. If there is a product demonstration or proof of concept test conducted at a Senate facility on a proposed Enterprise Wireless solution, not all Enterprise Wireless providers who qualified under 5. or 6. above will be invited. C - INSTRUCTIONS: All qualified Enterprise Wireless providers responding to this Notice shall submit an information package in accordance with the following instructions: a) Provide a narrative identifying the proposed Enterprise Wireless solution, with a brief and concise description of the scope of services offered and method of implementing the proposed solution. b) For each mandatory requirement listed under Section A – REQUIREMENTS above, the qualified Enterprise Wireless providers must state “Yes” if they meet that mandatory requirement, or “No” if not; and provide a concise explanation for meeting the requirement or not. c) For each requirement under Section B - GUIDELINES, the Enterprise Wireless providers must provide specific information for meeting each requirement. c) Provide business information including the following – Company Name; Division or Department (if applicable); Submitter’s Name; Company/Division/Department Address, Telephone and Fax Numbers; Point of Contact (if different from Submitter), Title or Position, Mobile Number and Email Address; Company SAM Registration, CAGE, or DUNS and Tax Identification numbers The response shall not exceed twenty-five (25) pages. Unnecessarily elaborate submissions are discouraged. Pages over the page limitation may be discarded. SAA access to information in any files attached to the response is the submitting party’s responsibility. Neither the SAA nor the Senate is responsible for any failure to access vendor's information. The due date for responses to this Sources Sought Notice to the SAA is extended to August 19, 2020, and shall be submitted electronically, via email, to the attention of Cora R. Carag at acquisitions@saa.senate.gov. The subject line of the email message shall be: “SSN 2021-S-002 entitled "Enterprise Wireless Network Infrastructure.” No other method of transmittal will be accepted. The information contained in this Notice is the most current and the only information provided by the SAA during this phase of the Sources Sought process. It is the responsibility of respondents to monitor this site for additional information, if any, pertaining to this Notice. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. THIS NOTICE CONSTITUTES THE ENTIRE SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE AND IS THE ONLY INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE SAA OR SENATE. ANY QUESTIONS OR REQUESTS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL NOT BE HONORED OR ACCEPTED.