E-Rate #270000068

Allegheny County Library Consortium Seeks Dedicated Leased-Lit Fiber WAN for 75+ Sites

Allegheny County's Electronic Information Network (eiNetwork), a public library consortium, is seeking proposals for a dedicated leased-lit fiber or equivalent managed transport Wide Area Network (WAN) solution to connect over 75 public library and administrative sites to two core data centers in Pittsburgh, PA. - Government Buyer: - Electronic Information Network (eiNetwork), representing the Allegheny County Library Association and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - OEMs and Vendors: - No specific OEMs are mandated for the WAN solution - Aruba is noted as the current OEM for network edge and wireless equipment (Aruba 6200, Aruba 5420 switches; Aruba 635/634 access points) - Products/Services Requested: - Dedicated leased-lit fiber or equivalent managed transport WAN service for 75+ library and administrative sites - Bandwidth per site: scalable from 1 Gbps up to 10 Gbps, with non-disruptive, on-demand upgrades - Each site must have dedicated fiber delivery (no shared-strand topologies) - Logical independence and fault isolation required for each location - Resilient network design (ring or mesh topology preferred) - All fiber must terminate at standard equipment rack demarcation points at each facility - Service must deliver up to the optical handoff to customer premise equipment - Installation and initial configuration at each site - Unique/Notable Requirements: - Strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs): - 99.99% uptime - <5ms latency - <0.05% packet loss - <1ms jitter - Outage credits for SLA violations - Multi-year agreements (3-7 years), with a preference for 5 years and optional annual renewals - Contracts must allow for site additions, removals, and relocations without rebidding - Compliance with FCC E-rate Category One rules; price of E-rate eligible services is the primary evaluation metric - Bidders must submit routing maps (KMZ format), contract templates, and valid Service Provider Identification Numbers (SPIN) - Current network edge equipment is Aruba; no specific OEM required for WAN solution - Detailed requirements and site lists are provided in the RFP

Description

The Electronic Information Network (eiNetwork), a public library consortium in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is soliciting proposals for a high-performance, resilient, dedicated leased-lit fiber or equivalent managed transport Wide Area Network (WAN) solution. The network will connect approximately 75 or more public library locations and bookmobile administrative centers to two central consortium core service data centers in Pittsburgh, PA. Requirements include scalable bandwidth from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps per site with on-demand upgrades, dedicated fiber delivery avoiding shared topologies, multi-year agreements (3 to 7 years, preferably 5), and strict SLAs for latency and packet loss. Proposals must comply with FCC E-rate Category One rules, and the price of E-rate eligible services is the primary evaluation metric. Submission deadline is September 1, 2026, 12:00 PM EST.

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