The Quilt Releases National RFP for OpenFlow Enabled Network Switches

Overview

The Quilt, Inc. (The Quilt) is a collaboration of advanced regional network organizations. It is a dynamic forum where leaders from throughout the advanced research and education network community build on the intellectual capital and best practices of network service providers worldwide. Based on the participants’ combined experiences in operations and development of leading edge technologies, The Quilt aims to influence the national agenda on information technology infrastructure, with particular emphasis on networking. Through this coalition, The Quilt promotes delivery of networking services at lower cost, higher performance, greater reliability, and heightened security. The Quilt derives support and primary funding from its participants. For a full listing and description of each of the current Quilt participants, please see http://www.thequilt.net/index.php/about-us/the-quilt-participants.

There is a well-defined track record of success for companies who have created meaningful partnerships with this leading-edge networking community. Quilt organizations and the institutions they connect are consistently early adopters of new technologies, including but not limited to network technologies and ways of implementing them. The Quilt also leads the curve in finding new ways to organize networks to multi-organizational benefit. Our unsurpassed level of expertise in the customer community has been a valuable resource to our industry partners.

2012 OpenFlow Switch RFP Documents Open Flow Switch RFP

Goals of the OpenFlow Switch RFP

One of the missions of the research and education community is to engage with its many partners, including industry, to design, develop and support experimental, leading edge technologies in order to drive advancements in academic networking and research. The goals of this RFP effort are to:

• define a preferred set of configurations for OpenFlow enabled equipment for the research and education community
• provide a sensible set of switch options for Regional and campus networks to purchase OpenFlow enabled equipment
• promote and enable software -defined networking capabilities to scale to more regional and campus networks by leveraging our community’s collective experience and interest in software-defined networking
• identify and partner with equipment providers who are creating a new development platform around the ideas of OpenFlow

The Quilt's 2012 OpenFlow Switch RFP Information

Preparing and Submitting a Response

All interested providers must submit a non-binding Letter of Intent to respond to the RFP no later than Monday, May 21, 2012. RFP questions and responses will only be accepted from providers that have submitted a Letter of Intent. The Letter of Intent should be sent electronically and addressed to Jen Leasure at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and include the following information:

• A statement that your company is planning to submit a response to the RFP

• The lead person’s name, title and contact information along with signature

Responses must contain all information that the Responder wishes to be taken into account in evaluating their submission. The information must be responsive to all requested criteria listed in this RFP. The text of the RFP response must be provided electronically in PDF format and delivered electronically (email) to:

Jen Leasure, President
The Quilt
2442 NW Market Street #68
Seattle, Washington 98107
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

No later than 5:00 PM eastern daylight time on Friday, June 8, 2012. Responses received after that will not be considered.