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 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 Revised Schedule
| Event | Date |
| RFP Release | May 11, 2012 |
| Non-Binding Letter of Intent to Respond Due |
May 21, 2012 |
|
Due Date for OpenFlow RFP Submission to The Quilt (11:59 pm EST) |
June 22, 2012 |
|
Providers Selected to be OpenFlow Switch Authorized Quilt Provider (AQP) |
August 13, 2012 |
|
OpenFlow Switch Master Services Agreement Signed |
Week of September 24, 2012 |
|
OpenFlow Switch AQP Now Authorized to Sell Under Quilt Pricing Agreement |
Week of September 24, 2012 |
Summary of The Quilt’s OpenFlow RFP Question and Answers:
- Q: Can The Quilt share the names of the companies who have submitted a letter of intent to bid on this RFP?
A: The Quilt will not release names of companies who have submitted letters of intent to bid on the RFP. - Q: Will questions and answers related to the content of the RFP be shared with other vendors?
A: Yes, questions and answers will be shared with other vendors. These will be updated on the RFP page of our Quilt website: https://www.thequilt.net/quilt-news/quilt-releases-2012-openflow-switch-rfp/. - Q: What is the duration of the contract, and options for renewals?
A: Duration of the initial contract will be 12 months with option for renewal by mutual agreement by both parties. - Q: What is the projected volume of purchases during the length of the contract?
A: The RFP is a purchasing vehicle for those organizations and institutions included on the Authorized Quilt Buyers list included in the RFP. There is no requirement by these institutions to purchase so there is no guarantee of a specific volume of sales based on the contract. - Q: Can you please provide us with a copy of your Master Service Agreement?
A: A sample copy of the Master Service Agreement can be found here. - Q: Considering the time frame involved, would The Quilt consider granting a 2 week extension?
A: Yes, a two week extension has been provided for the response due date. Please see updated RFP schedule for new dates. - Q: Referencing the list of Authorized Quilt Buyers included in the back of the RFP document, please describe how the list is managed. For example, how do institutions get added to the list?
A: There are 29 Quilt members included on the list. Each Quilt member manages the list of institutions that come in under them on the list. When Quilt members wish to add additional institutions, they notify Quilt staff of these changes and then Quilt staff updates the list and distributes and updated list out to authorized vendors. If there is an institution that is not on the list but interested in purchasing, the vendor should contact The Quilt who will who will then contact the Quilt Member to inquire about the institution in question. - Q: Pertaining to item 3c of the RFP – “Should support OFP_LOCAL rules to allow traffic to be received by the local device” – please provide examples of use cases that are the motivation for support for OFP_LOCAL and the primary protocols that are of interest.
A: This RFP aims to cover a wide range of different deployment scenarios for switch use by campus networks, regional networks and participation in GENI. This RFP is the opportunity to provide potential buyers the ability to look at the different responses to be able to review the switch features to determine whether or not it the switch has a particular functionality. OPF_LOCAL is used to manipulate in-band local OpenFlow controlWe anticipate that there will be switch models that will be a hybrid node on the network for both OpenFlow and non-OpenFlow traffic and then dedicated nodes on the network for just OpenFlow traffic. Additional details will be provided around specific use cases for this question. - Q: Pertaining to item 3d of the RFP – “Should Support NORMAL action to forward packets” – If hybrid port mode is supported, is NORMAL action still required?
A: There are many good use cases for NORMAL action. In a hybrid port mode, NORMAL action allows you to take traffic that shows up on the OpenFlow port and move that to processing by the non-OpenFlow part of the switch. You have the ability to inject rules to, i.e. block traffic without affecting how the other packets that aren’t being blocked are processed by the switch. NORMAL allows the switch to do OpenFlow processing on only a subset of the traffic. Another use case for NORMAL is for those networks running dual stack IPv4/IPv6 traffic. IPv6 traffic gets routed NORMAL and then OpenFlow picks up the IPv4 traffic. - Q: What is the mechanism for adding relevant OpenFlow-enabled products that are introduced at a later time to the approved products list of the MSA?
A: Initial terms of the MSA will be 12 months. Within that timeframe, if there are different technologies or new releases that would benefit our Authorized Buyers, these will be added to the MSA through an amendment process. We would expect our authorized vendors to keep The Quilt informed of such releases so we can appropriately time execution of any further amendments. - Q: Will the contract automatically terminate at the end of 12-months?
A: No. The contract will not automatically terminate at the end of 12-months. There will be information regarding the extension of the contract as well as language that addresses termination of the contract by either party with a certain timeframe for notice. - Q: Upon award, what is the process to communicate to Authorized Buyers about the providers selected through the RFP process?
A: The Quilt will create a webpage for each individual vendor and their products that will reside on the password protected portion of our website for members. The Quilt would also like to host a vendor webinar and invite in representatives from regionals and the institutions they serve to information participants on OpenFlow and the features of selected vendor switches. In general, The Quilt doesn’t support large scale marketing efforts to members but instead prefers informal, opt-in forums where information is exchanged among members and providers. - Q: The marketplace is moving quickly in this space, how do we manage pricing refreshes to adjust to the market?
A: We would expect this situation would be handled through an amendment process. The vendor and The Quilt would discuss these marketplace changes during a regularly scheduled call. - Q: Are any of the products included in an RFP response going to be tested?
A: Testing is one option that can be exercised if during its response review, the RFP review team deems it valuable to conduct a hands-on demonstration. - Q: When will the results of the RFP be announced to Authorized Quilt Buyers?
A: Once a vendor is notified of selection, the AQBs will also be notified of the results. Will there be a single awardee of the RFP?
A: The RFP was intentionally written to address a broad spectrum of campus and regional network requirements for network switches that are OpenFlow enabled. There is a strong possibility that we will need to incorporate several vendor switches to fulfill all of the requirements.
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 jen@thequilt.netand 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
jen@thequilt.net
No later than 11:59 PM eastern daylight time on Friday, June 22, 2012. Responses received after that will not be considered.