TECHNICAL PROPOSAL PACKET SP-21-0038

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL PACKET SP-21-0038

Technical Proposal Packet Solicitation No. SP-21-0038

PROPOSAL SIGNATURE PAGE

Type or Print the following information. PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTOR’S INFORMATION

Company: AT&T Corp.

Address: One AT&T Way

City: Bedminster State: NJ Zip Code: 07921-0752

Business Designation:

☐ Individual ☐ Sole Proprietorship ☐ Public Service Corp ☐ Partnership ☒ Corporation ☐ Nonprofit

Minority and Women-Owned Designation*:

☒ Not Applicable ☐ American Indian ☐ Service Disabled Veteran ☐ African American ☐ Hispanic American ☐ Women-Owned

☐ Asian American ☐ Pacific Islander American

AR Certification #: n/a * See Minority and Women-Owned Business Policy

PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTOR CONTACT INFORMATION Provide contact information to be used for RFP solicitation related matters and Project Lead for Interview.

Contact Person: Justin Vaughn Title: Application Sales Executive

Phone: 816-808-7264 Alternate Phone: 816-808-7264

Email: [email protected]

CONFIRMATION OF REDACTED COPY

☒ YES, a redacted copy of submission documents is enclosed. ☐ NO, a redacted copy of submission documents is not enclosed. I understand a full copy of non-redacted

submission documents will be released if requested. Note: If a redacted copy of the submission documents is not provided with Prospective Contractor’s response

packet, and neither box is checked, a copy of the non-redacted documents, with the exception of financial data (other than pricing), will be released in response to any request made under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). See RFP Solicitation for additional information.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONFIRMATION

By signing and submitting a response to this RFP Solicitation, Prospective Contractor agrees and certifies that they do not employ or contract with illegal immigrants and shall not employ or contract with illegal immigrants during the term of a contract awarded as a result of this RFP.

ISRAEL BOYCOTT RESTRICTION CONFIRMATION

By checking the box below, Prospective Contractor agrees and certifies that they do not boycott Israel and shall not boycott Israel during the term of a contract awarded as a result of this RFP.

☒ Prospective Contractor does not and shall not boycott Israel.

An official authorized to bind the Prospective Contractor to a resultant contract shall sign below. The signature below signifies agreement that any exception that conflicts with a Requirement of this RFP Solicitation may cause the Prospective Contractor’s proposal to be rejected. Authorized Signature: Title: VP-Global Public Sector

Printed/Typed Name: Stacy Schwartz Date: April 12, 2021

tel:+18162759840

tel:+18168087264

mailto:[email protected]


SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS CHECKLIST

Per the solicitation, the following items must be submitted with the Prospective Contractor’s proposal:

Proposal Signature Page

Proposed Subcontractors Form

Information for Evaluation

o Experience (2 pages or less)

o Solution (15 pages or less)

o Risk (2 pages or less)

o Recommended Options (2 pages or less)

Exceptions Form, if applicable

Official Solicitation Price Sheet

It is strongly recommended that the following items are also included with the Prospective Contractor’s proposal:

EO 98-04: Contract and Grant Disclosure Form

Copy of Prospective Contractor’s Equal Opportunity Policy

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), if applicable

Signed addenda, if applicable


PROPOSED SUBCONTRACTORS FORM • Do not include additional information relating to subcontractors on this form or as an attachment to this

form.

o Prospective Contractor shall complete and submit the Proposed Subcontractors Form included in the Technical Proposal Packet.

o Additional subcontractor information may be required or requested in following sections of this RFP

Solicitation or in the Information for Evaluation section provided in the Technical Proposal Packet. Do not attach any additional information to the Proposed Subcontractors Form.

o The utilization of any proposed subcontractor is subject to approval by the State agency.

PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTOR PROPOSES TO USE THE FOLLOWING SUBCONTRACTOR(S) TO PROVIDE SERVICES. Type or Print the following information

Subcontractor’s Company Name Street Address City, State, ZIP

Intrado Life & Safety, Inc. 1601 Dry Creek Drive Longmont, CO 80503

☐ PROSPECTIVE CONTRACTOR DOES NOT PROPOSE TO USE SUBCONTRACTORS TO PERFORM SERVICES.


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INFORMATION FOR EVALUATION – EXPERIENCE Level of Experience: We are the Industry Leader in providing ESInet/NGCS solutions.

Documented Performance:

• Multiple similar size/scope deployments Nationwide. • Current ESInet Contracted Deployments Covering:

• Back to Back (2019,2020) winner of the Frost and Sullivan “Public Safety Solutions Company of the Year”, and “Market Leadership Award for Next Generation 911”.

Level of Experience: Our ESInet/NGCS has the highest level of reliability.


• As of February 2021, our ESInet/NGCS solution has: o Processed over 9-1-1 Calls for Service. o Processed of Live 9-1-1 Calls. o Maintained Nationwide since the service began.

Level of Experience: Our ESInet/NGCS solution is the most resilient, geographically diverse, and fully redundant in the Nation.


• We provide geographically diverse Core Sites which are in fully redundant facilities to increase resiliency and survivability in natural and man-made disaster scenarios.

• Our Nationwide ESInet/NGCS solution is currently built to support more than twice the 9-1-1 busy hour calls for the entire United States.

• We have documented business continuity and restoration plans, including complex disaster and evacuation contingencies.

• The 24x7x365 Operations Center employs an Incident Handling process modeled on FEMA’s Incident Command System.

Level of Experience: We can provide the highest level of Implementation, Network Connectivity, Maintenance, and Support in Arkansas.


• Our proposal includes • We currently have that live and work in the State of Arkansas. • We currently have more than

across the State of Arkansas.

Level of Experience: We have a proven commitment to the State of Arkansas and its Residents.


• As of September 30, 2020, we have: o 1,600 Employees living in the State of Arkansas. o 3,645 Retirees living in the State of Arkansas. o In 2019, we donated more than 5,400 hours of personal time to Arkansas

Community Outreach Activities. o In 2019, we generated more than $160 Million in local and State taxes.

Level of Experience: Extensive experience integrating our ESInet/NGCS with multiple Call Handling Vendors.


• Our ESInet/NGCS solution is NENA i3 Compliant. Any NENA i3 Compliant Call Handling Vendor will not have an issue connecting with our ESInet/NGCS solution.

• Three (3) of the market leading Call Handling manufacturers’ solutions are Certified and Approved for Use by our Labs organization to connect to our ESInet.

• These three providers’ solutions currently service a population of over 57 million. • We allow all Call Handling Vendors the ability to test their systems through our Call

Handling Interoperability Lab.


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Level of Experience: Industry leading experience in converting existing legacy networks to NG9-1-1 core functionality without interruption.

Documented Performance: • of our ESInet/NGCS implementations have been completed without interruption to live traffic while converting Legacy Networks to NG9-1-1 core functionality.

Level of Experience: Our Teams have extensive experience with a wide portfolio of communication products and services related to public safety.

Documented Performance: • The direct members of your Arkansas account team have a combined experience in public

safety of over 120 years in designing, implementing and supporting NG9-1-1 and ESInet/NGCS implementations.

Level of Experience: We ensure the highest level of Security within our ESInet/NGCS solution.


• We adhere to all relevant industry security frameworks/specifications including, but not limited to:

o NENA (NG-SEC) o NIST Cybersecurity Framework o FCC Communications Security o CSRIC – Reliability and Interoperability Council “Best Practices”

Level of Experience: We ensure NENA compliant GIS match rate within project schedule and budget.


We provided road centerlines, address point, and polygon validations as well as ALI to road centerline compares for the counties below. Through training and assisting the customer with error correction, their GIS data was NENA compliant at within:

Level of Experience: Highest level of experience with production i3 GIS data elements within an ESInet.


In our current Core Site GIS Database, there are:

Level of Experience: We are a leading US provider of NG9-1-1 GIS software, products, and services


• We have successfully deployed our NG9-1-1GIS software, products and services in , including:


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INFORMATION FOR EVALUATION – SOLUTION Executive Overview We have thoroughly reviewed the State of Arkansas’ Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Next Generation 9-1-1, Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet) and Next Generation Core Services (NGCS). The requirements listed within the RFP need an experienced solution provider that can address many complex functions that go beyond just providing an IP Selective Router. The provider must have deep technical knowledge and staff to migrate legacy 9-1-1 traffic to the NG9-1-1 platform. They must also know how to operationalize this infrastructure, coordinate with other service providers and have the ability to provide day two support once that solution has been implemented. We can perform these functions and we have a long-established track record in the Public Safety segment as an established 9-1-1 Service Provider.

To meet the State’s RFP requirements, we propose our flagship Next-Generation Emergency Services IP Network (ESInet). Our ESInet solution will facilitate an efficient transition from legacy 9-1-1 networks to networks capable of supporting the growing demands of a mobile society. With our ESInet, the State can take advantage of our investment in a pre-built, cloud-based solution that delivers next-generation functionality, and with zero downtime since the service began. That is more than hours of continual service to our public safety customers.

Currently, the Arkansas 9-1-1 Board receives a monthly bill for Wireless 9-1-1 Trunks for all PSAP’s in the State, as well as ALI circuit connectivity for all “Wireless Only” PSAP’s. Our proposed ESInet solution includes all PSAP connectivity, resulting in the elimination of the Wireless Trunk and legacy ALI charges currently being billed to the Board. Our solution will provide a substantial monthly savings to the Arkansas 9-1-1 Board. Since our ESInet is already built out, the State will incur little to no upfront charges as opposed to other solutions that may require large upfront capital investments.

The table below details how our solution meets the State’s objectives.

Goal Our ESInet Solution Meets or exceeds industry standards

Our ESInet solution provides an i3 architecture built from the ground up. Our commitment to NENA i3 is based on years of contributions to NENA standards committees and understanding the evolving needs and requirements of the public safety community.

PSAP and Originating Service Provider Connections

Our national ESInet, Next Gen Core Services, Network and Security Operations Centers are pre-built to help accelerate timely rollout of a statewide NG9-1-1 Network to comply with AR State law. Use of the pre-built infrastructure helps reduce implementation cycle times for OSP migration and PSAP implementation and cutover.

Next-generation features and functions

Our ESInet solution is a combination of our world-class IP network and Next Gen Core Services (NGCS) components including the first i3 PSAP deployments in the Nation. ESInet comes complete with a full suite of advanced features, including industry leading SLAs, management services and tools to help ensure we provide the best possible service to you and the citizens that you support.

Security Operations Center Our defense-in-depth security is built into the ESInet architecture. Our Global IP network is monitored by located across the world. We use our security portfolio capabilities to protect our data centers and networks that carry more than of data traffic on an average business day. As the world’s largest IP company, we have experience and success in delivering cybersecurity that is unmatched by any other respondents.

Next Gen Core Services (NGCS) ESInet Buildout

Our ESInet provides geographically diverse and fully redundant facilities to increase resiliency and survivability in natural and man-made disaster scenarios, with capacity capable of supporting more than twice the 9-1-1 busy hour call volume for the entire United States. We have

Population

Served

Hours of

Operation

PSAPs

Processed 9-1-1 Calls


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Goal Our ESInet Solution documented business continuity and restoration plans, including complex disaster and evacuation contingencies. The 24x7 operations center employs an Incident Handling process modeled on FEMA’s Incident Command System, with notifications built into this process.

Network Operations Center Our ESInet is monitored 24x7x365 from NOCs with tier 2 and tier 3 technical resources dedicated to our ESInet. Our 9-1-1 Resolution Center is a 24x7x365, dedicated public safety resource and has a proven track record for ESInet deployments and our call handling installed base .

Geospatial Routing and GIS Data

Our ESInet provides a flexible routing platform that supports both ESN (tabular) and GIS (spatial) routing on the same Emergency Call Routing Function (ECRF). Our ESInet also offers a robust toolset for managing on-going updates to GIS data.

Project Management Our project management resources will use proven methodologies that were successful in other statewide ESInet deployments to implement the State’s new system. Your Project Manager is responsible for all aspects of the implementation.

Purpose-built for the Next Generation Our solution supports key NENA i3 capabilities today, while forming the basis of a true Next Generation 9-1-1 platform that will support multimedia emergency services as standards are solidified in the industry. Our ESInet solution integrates our world-class IP network and Next Gen 9-1-1 NENA i3 functional elements. Our ESInet proposal, delivered as a service, comes complete with a full suite of advanced features, management services, and tools to help ensure we provide the best possible service to your Public Safety Access Points (PSAPs) and 9-1-1 agencies—and ultimately the citizens that you support.

Our ESInet solution provides the public safety community with an i3 architecture purpose-built to meet emerging standards. Our commitment to NENA i3 is based on years of contributions to NENA standards committees and understanding the evolving needs and requirements of the public safety community. Our solution is not simply “i3 like,” or “i3 aligned.” As elements of the i3 standard continue to evolve, we will continue our commitment to i3. Our ESInet services will provide the State with everything it needs to deliver the critical foundational components of an industry-standard i3 solution delivered over an advanced IP network.

Advanced Features Our ESInet solution offers the following advanced features:

• End-to-end management and monitoring with full lifecycle management of the application including Service Management along with a team of experts for implementation.

• Nationally distributed, geographically diverse, and redundant service architecture with core sites providing a high availability design provides initial call processing capacity more than twice the current U.S. E9-1-1 volume. IPv6 capable global MPLS network for connectivity.

• Pre-deployed NENA i3 compliant ESInet Call Processing Centers in our data centers across the U.S. with expandable capacity. Aggregation centers in our Central Offices across the U.S. to easily augment growth capacity.

• Supported by our business continuity/disaster recovery organization. • Other features include interoperability with legacy PSAP gateways at neighboring PSAPs, redundant location database,

robust reporting suite and Text to 9-1-1 .

Security and Resiliency Our proposal includes

The proposed solution includes data centers (Core Sites) located at our secure facilities throughout the country connected via Switched Ethernet and a secure MPLS VPN network with no single point of failure. Our ESInet provides the core backbone for a robust emergency services IP network that helps assure call delivery. Our solution helps enable call delivery into a legacy PSAP environment, IP-enabled 9-1-1 PSAP, or peer ESInets. This environment will provide the State with the flexibility to grow its own IP-enabled NG9-1-1 solution and to share it with other systems nationally. We have in-depth security and support provisions in place. Our offer includes 24/7/365 security Resolution Center, world-class project management and service delivery organizations.

Qualifications We are uniquely qualified to meet the requirements in this RFP. We are a recognized leader in National Public Safety solutions named Frost and Sullivan’s 2019 Public Safety Solutions Company of the Year and the 2020 Market Leadership Award for Next Generation 911. We have a robust Public Safety Solutions practice that serves Public Safety Agencies nationwide with legacy and


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Next Generation 9-1-1 call routing (ESInet), Call Handling, Location Services, Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), GIS, Records Management, Jail Management, AVL, Security, Cloud solutions, IP Networks, Wireless solutions, Internet of Things (IoT), Unified Communications, and applications and services.

We were one of the first carriers to implement the original 9-1-1 service, enhanced 9-1-1, and now Next Generation 9-1-1, so have an unparalleled historical knowledge of 9-1-1 operations and platforms. We have over 50 years’ experience in 9-1-1 call routing as well as installing, maintaining, and hosting 9-1-1 call handling solutions. We continue to drive the convergence and integration of communication technologies for the public safety sector to manage emergency response quickly and effectively.

Since 2011, we have delivered NextGen 9-1-1 ESInet solutions and currently have contracted with over PSAPs covering over lives. Arkansas’ border states, Tennessee and Texas are currently using our ESInet services today. Since February 2021, we have successfully migrated over PSAPs to our ESInet service. Each migration had its own unique requirements and dependencies. We will use best practices developed from these migrations to collaborate with stakeholders to plan and execute migrations to minimize impact to the PSAP and existing 9-1-1 services.

Support from our Experienced Public Safety Solutions Team Your Public Safety Solutions Team has extensive experience with a wide portfolio of communication products and services related to public safety, making us experts at designing and supporting your statewide deployment of our NG9-1-1 ESInet. Our Service Management, Field Services and Account Teams will continue to provide world class customer service to the State and to the PSAPs within the State of Arkansas.

We understand the importance of this significant project and how it will positively impact Public Safety for the residents of Arkansas and its visitors. We have the resources to help the State achieve the milestones listed in the RFP. Our ESInet offer with pre-deployed infrastructure will allow the most efficient path to achieving the implementation timeline required within the RFP.

We are fully committed to the Public Safety segment and First Responders in Arkansas. Our vision is based on the idea of Call to Car to Crisis response, where we provide a full continuum of public safety solutions that allow us to accept an emergency call, deliver it quickly to a 9-1-1 PSAP with accurate location data and then connect to the first responders in the field. We recognize that we must continually earn the privilege to provide innovative solutions to our Public Safety customers and we strive towards continued improvement every day. We look forward to expanding our relationship with the State as we execute this high visibility, high priority project. Thank you for considering our proposal.

Technical Solution Overview Our NG9-1-1 ESInet implements a design of redundancy upon redundancy. Individual processing elements are redundant at each core site and core sites are redundant to each other. Our cores are geographically distributed across the United States and a regional disaster will not remove the ability for our ESInet to process 9-1-1 calls, assuming telecommunication transport services for the impacted region are operable. The failure of any given component at a core site will not impact the ability for the ESInet to continue processing 9-1-1 calls. If a dual failure does occur at a core site, or a core site somehow becomes unavailable, calls are processed at an alternate geographically diverse core site giving the solution multiple levels of redundancy allowing any core site to process any 9-1-1 call in the network. The end result is an infrastructure that is public safety grade with respect to capacity, reliability, scalability, and redundancy.

Our geographically distributed solution ensures high availability in the event of regional service impacting events or disasters. The solution consists of the following high availability components:

Since February 2021

Our ESInet/NGCS has• Processed over 9-1-1

Service Calls• More than Hours of

Live Call Processing• Maintained Nationwide

reliability


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The core site architecture is more than capable of processing all the 9-1-1 calls in the United States, including Arkansas; therefore, there is no need for capacity supplementation as PSAPs on-board to our ESInet service.

Our ESInet solution, is an existing nationwide next generation emergency network designed to meet industry standards and is specifically built for emergency services communications. Our ESInet emergency call routing platform and next generation core functional elements are deployed on a highly redundant IP transport infrastructure. The solution proposed is designed with redundant, resilient, and physically diverse networks into each of the core call processing facilities that will support the State’s requirements. Theses primary and redundant links do not share common routes or trenches.

We support seamless interworking between local, regional, state, federal, and

national networks and ESInets.

The service is built with significantly more capacity than necessary to allow for component failures and/or maintenance that will not impact customer call processing. According to NENA 9-1-1 Statistics approximately 240 million 9-1-1 calls occur annually in the United States

Our ESInet can successfully process all of the State of Arkansas’ 9-1-1 calls even under severe loads that may occur during unusual events such as natural or man-made disasters. This hardened, mature solution can withstand the failure of individual components or the failure of core call processing sites and continue to successfully complete 9-1-1 calls 24x7x365.

We support interconnection using standards based legacy tandem to tandem interfaces and next generation SIP interfaces to enable originating traffic, handoffs, and transfers within the ESInet and legacy networks.

We will work with the individual PSAPs and local network providers to identify last mile options for redundancy and if not feasible, design the most robust alternate route scenarios possible.

Figure 1: ESInet with NGCS

Our NG9-1-1 solutions are highly fault tolerant with automated failover capabilities to minimize down time and the need for user intervention in the event of a catastrophic failure. All vital system components are protected using redundant modules to eliminate any single point of failure.

There are many contributing factors, both physical and logical, that lead to a public safety grade, reliable 9-1-1 infrastructure. The main components include, but are not limited to:

• Geographic diversity of the Core and local PSAP equipment and applications • Diverse and redundant network architecture • Secure facilities and protected infrastructure • Active adherence to, and participation in, industry standards


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• Extensive lab integration and ongoing testing/validation

Our ESInet solution achieves service availability 24x7x365 for call processing and has no single point of failure that will disrupt the ability to provide on-going call processing. All i3 functions necessary for call processing are deployed in a highly available configuration. Each i3 element has multiple instances within a single core to provide redundancy for that core. The same redundant configuration is replicated at each of the geo-diverse core sites. The use the same design approach of redundancy within each individual site mirrored at the other sites. Transactions or call traffic divert to available components on failure or degradation of service of a given functional component or a loss of a physical site. IP transport paths for critical service components are redundant and designed for multipath IP packet delivery so the failure of a given IP transport mechanism does not affect overall service availability. Our ESInet components are designed and configured for continuous operation. ESInet availability is calculated from the time the outage begins that impacts call processing ability, until such time that the call processing ability is restored. This includes all ESInet downtime for the end-to-end service.

To maintain reliability in a public safety grade network, maintenance of our ESInet solution is done with no scheduled downtime. We schedule planned events for routine maintenance in ways that 9-1-1 operations are not impacted. A notification of the upcoming event will be sent to the customer as applicable. Planned events are fully staffed and managed with a trained event management team, facilitating the change implementation, monitoring, and communication through the length of the event.

All redundancy mechanisms for core applications and network elements that support delivery of emergency 9-1-1 calls across our ESInet solution (Routing LNG, ESRP, and ESInet components, LIS, ECRF, ADR, and ALI) employ “failover” procedures which are automatic and do not require human intervention. We leverage the use of on all network backbone links for fast failover purposes. are deployed to each PSAP for redundancy and failover. All supporting network routing infrastructure connected to the is designed and deployed in an .

All aspects of our ESInet architecture are designed to be resilient and redundant, allowing call traffic to continue in case of a hardware, software or network infrastructure failure. This allows repair to take place without further impacting PSAPs or call delivery. Disaster recovery plans have been created for each aspect of the ESInet infrastructure, with on-call available resources and replacement hardware to quickly restore impacted systems. We evaluate the resiliency options including route diversity and diverse entrance facilities of not only the network to be provided to an end user but also the facilities and infrastructure behind the network.

Our ESInet solution is backed by our business continuity/disaster recovery organization. We have established business and service continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency procedures that address potential risk situations to our facilities or systems, including:

• Pandemic • Building emergency procedures (e.g. bomb threat, earthquake, power failure, tornado, and flood) • Data center risks (e.g. water, flood, power, electrical, and fire • Security Risks (e.g. information and network security, physical security)

We have established defined and reasonable business continuity and restoration plans including complex disaster and evacuation contingencies and conducts annual reviews to confirm adequacy of the plans. Adequate hardware spares are on hand to enable attainment of reliability and mean time between failure objectives. Geographically diverse engineering and redundancy provide ability to survive disaster scenarios. Power infrastructure and environmental systems are deployed so that a commercial power failure does not result in an interruption of service.

We provide life-critical services supporting 9-1-1 and public safety and are strongly committed to continuous, sustained readiness of our applications, systems, networks, and processes 24x7x365. Our business and service continuity plans, geographically diverse and redundant systems, and incident management processes and plans provide confidence that continuous operations will be sustained through planned or unplanned events.

In the event of an outage we apply immediate and sustained effort, 7x24x365, until a final resolution is in place. We use all reasonable efforts to provide a temporary workaround within an agreed upon time frame of the issue being detected. If a temporary workaround solution is provided, we provide an action plan to be mutually agreed upon for the final resolution. We continue resolution activity until full service is restored. The primary objective of an incident is to mitigate impact. The Incident Commander and Incident Administrator can call upon whatever resources are required to identify and restore functionality.

Some of the steps we have taken to prevent or circumvent outages in the ESInet systems and services include the following: • The ESInet design supports the ability to automatically reroute traffic to alternate routes to bypass network outages and

system failures.


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• Essential processes, systems, and networks supporting 9-1-1 traffic are designed and deployed with diversity to accommodate possible disruptions and disasters to any given element or data center and support 24x7x365 continuous operation.

• Core sites are geographically distributed to prevent a geographic disaster from causing a service outage.

• Dynamic ALI updates retrieved from selective routers and Mobile Positioning

Center (MPC)/ VoIP Positioning Center (VPC) systems are shared between ALI systems to help prevent network and system outages.

We use multiple tools to track performance and fault management activities. All tools are used to collect KPIs for their respective systems/servers which in turn are forwarded to , which is used to present a single pane of glass to the 9-1-1 NOC. Visual alerts are available 24x7x365 to the 9-1-1 NOC.

The proposed ESInet is a ; voice, data, and multi-media. The solution uses . in our ESInet network is performed through

In some cases, the voice equipment manages its own marking, and the router/switch . In others, the router/switch will override the .

The audio stream Real Time Protocol (RTP) , so that it is treated like . This is typically mapped to a . Signaling packets (SIP or Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) are placed .

Our ESInet solution is designed with diverse entrances into each core call processing facility and each aggregation site (e.g., data centers). We use MPLS networking between sites and avoid commonality of physical or virtual networks utilizing in all designs.

PSAP connections are delivered via where possible connecting to the our global MPLS Network.

Next Generation Core Services (NGCS) Following are the fundamental pieces that comprise the NGCS.

Legacy Network Gateway (LNG) The ESInet solution uses Legacy Network Gateways (LNG) at the interconnection point between the ESInet and a legacy network provider.


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The LNG will be a standard component of the ESInet service if legacy origination networks are deployed and require TDM access.

Legacy Selective Router Gateways (LSRG) The Legacy Selective Router Gateway (LSRG) is a signaling and media interconnection point between callers in the legacy originating networks and the ESInet. The LSRG converts calls from SIP to TDM signaling for egress from the ESInet to the Legacy Selective Routers.

The LSRG provides an interface between a 9-1-1 selective router and the ESInet, enabling calls to be routed and/or transferred

Legacy PSAP Gateway (LPG) The Legacy PSAP Gateway (LPG) is deployed to support existing PSAPs that are operating with legacy 9-1-1 services to connect to and use ESInet services. In the ESInet solution, the Legacy PSAP Gateway (LPG) is used at the interconnection point between the ESInet and a PSAP that is not yet capable of i3 call handling.

Border Control Function (BCF)

Emergency Services Routing Proxy (ESRP) The ESInet’s Emergency Service Routing Proxy (ESRP)


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Policy Routing Function (PRF)

The following types of routing policies are supported:

Policies have attributes such as as examples.

All policies loaded by the customer are .

Emergency Call Routing Function (ECRF) The ECRF supports the following:


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Location Validation Function (LVF) The LVF is a NENA-compliant LoST protocol server, compliant with RFC 5222.

Spatial Interface (SI) The ESInet solution provides the NENA Spatial Interface (SI),

Location Database (LDB) The LDB retains all of the current information, functionality, and interfaces of today’s ALI, but also can support the new protocols required in an NG9-1-1 deployment.

PSAP Integration Recognizing the imperative for PSAP operations to continue uninterrupted during the implementation process, our coordination methodology approach prescribes the communications and activities necessary to ensure a safe and timely migration of services while paying special attention to identifying and implementing the network arrangements necessary to support all aspects of ongoing PSAP interoperations with the legacy 9-1-1 service provider.


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The ESInet and NGCS solution supports both i3 SIP as identified in NENA standards, RFAI SIP as ATIS-compliant, and conversion to CAMA at the PSAP’s location for PSAPs with CPE that is not yet SIP-compliant.

We have developed full test plans and has designed and implemented a fully functional lab environment We will provide this prior to any new i3

PSAP deployment. The ESInet solution is CPE-agnostic and works to implement a PSAP onto the ESInet regardless of CPE vendor.

We are confident that there will be no issues with interoperability with Terminating ESRP platforms, assuming that the CPE vendor is following the i3 specifications. We provide several interface specifications to PSAPs, CHE vendors, OSPs, and other NGCS providers. We follow i3 standards and these specification documents enhance the i3 standards by providing external parties connectivity considerations, protocol overview, protocol specific requests and responses, and examples of transactions.

Our Lab has worked to validate that our ESInet is CPE-agnostic. We have completed ESInet interoperability testing with multiple vendors. We also offer an interoperability lab-to-lab test program for i3 (T-ESRP) vendors. Ongoing discussions are occurring with Call Handling vendors to encourage testing in the Our Lab environment for i3 protocol verification.

We offer for each PSAP, described below.

Originating Service Providers (OSP) and Interconnection Agreements We have established standard Interconnection and Trunking contract templates and have successfully negotiated agreements with nationwide carriers and regional ESInet providers. Our Carrier Negotiations organization will escalate to the State as appropriate regarding any OSP stragglers.

The Interconnection agreements include the roles and responsibilities of the Parties related to the exchange of 9-1-1 traffic including but not limited to,

The ESInet accepts 9-1-1 calls from OSPs to the appropriate PSAP. For each individual OSP End Office (EO) we recommend

o the ESInet. If is not used, the OSP is adding additional risk by reducing availability with a configuration having a single point of failure. The OSP may choose to

We expect that the OSP will size the trunks appropriately to support a for all traffic. If the OSP encounters routing problems over these facilities, the call can be alternately routed by the OSP on another facility via a different POI into the ESInet. The

transport to the Core sites for call processing.


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Our ESInet provides interconnection to a variety of networks and physical locations. These include, as required, any/all data centers serving 9-1-1 traffic, any bordering legacy networks, or any bordering ESInet using IP interconnection, assuming the ESInet follows NENA i3 standards. We will manage the migration of existing legacy 9-1-1 services already in place at the PSAP(s) onto the ESInet. We will manage the implementation of NG9-1-1 services between the 9-1-1 call originating networks and the ESInet so that 9-1-1 call delivery meets the quality and reliability required for emergency call networks. We will cooperate with all impacted network operators to ensure a successful transition to our ESInet NG9-1-1 call delivery solution.

Our ESInet supports interconnection with regional intrastate and/or interstate ESInet providers and/or IP selective routers solutions and either CAMA or IP connection to the PSAP. We will work with the State to develop a joint communication to each PSAP, government organization, and appropriate OSPs outlining the scope of services to be implemented, a high-level implementation schedule, and key contact information for each entity. We can distribute this communication on behalf of the State. We establish expectations with each OSP and manage communication to the OSP for items related to our ESInet service on behalf of the State.

Our ESInet provides multiple 9-1-1 call traffic destined for your PSAPs. In the interest of redundancy and diversity, we require the

OSPs to .

Security


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Text to 9-1-1 Our ESInet supports TCC interfaces to deliver Text to 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 to Text services to Arkansas PSAPs. The three industry‐defined methods of SMS text delivery to PSAPs are supported: TTY and MSRP. Existing PSAP Text Control Center (TCC) services can co‐exist with our ESInet implementation and can transition to utilize the ESInet IP transport and/or NGCS services as individual PSAPs are deployed on the ESInet. As a PSAP’s CPE provides support, PSAPs can have their “Text to 9-1-1” SIP signali

At that time, any ancillary transport provided to PSAP CPE demarcation sites just for the purpose of

“Text to 9-1-1” service delivery can be retired in lieu of utilizing ESInet transport.

The service includes the following elements:

Geographic Information System (GIS) Data ProvisioningThe NG9-1-1 solution provides to enable Arkansas to

. These services are included in the standard ESInet offering and are in use by multiple PSAPs today. Our solution is deployed using i3 call delivery with geospatial routing for PSAPs using Intrado VIPER, Motorola VESTA, and Solacom Guardian. The solution uses a transitional approach and can begin geospatial routing calls even though OSPs have not transitioned to i3 on their side.


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Figure 2: NG9-1-1 ESInet


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Project Management The Project Management Methodology uses

Upon contract award, the assigned Project Manager (PM) will engage team members throughout the organization to help ensure their commitment and understanding of the project requirements. The PM will schedule a kickoff meeting with the relevant 9-1-1 jurisdiction(s) and other required internal organizations and establish roles and responsibilities with the jurisdiction on strategic objectives, plan of approach, priorities, and timelines. The PM and the customer will create a mutually agreed upon implementation roadmap. Throughout the project, we will focus on project planning and execution to help ensure a successful migration with minimal (if any) disruption to the customer’s current service.

The PM will be responsible for multiple implementation tasks from conception through implementation, including:

Our Project Manager will oversee and manage all aspects of the project that enable a PSAP to transition to our ESInet platform. This will include many of the following activities

Our Project Manager will dedicate as much time as is needed for a successful PSAP migration onto our ESInet. Our OSP Project Manager will serve as a single point of contact for Originating Service Providers to place orders and test and turn up their network for 9-1-1 call delivery to our ESInet.

We provide comprehensive training to support the rollout of the NG9-1-1 system including ESInet Routing, ALI Management, metrics tools, and database management service support tool training to the customer and their designated users. The training will allow the PSAPs to understand the operational characteristics of the service and the tools available for overall system management. Training will also include Network Status Reports, Help Desk, Trouble Ticketing, Escalation and Root Cause Analysis/Review.

Optionally, we can coordinate training upon request to the State to educate their administrative personnel on the operational characteristics of the system and the tools available for overall system management.

We also provide appropriate training to telephone service providers to supplement TSP support information available online.


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9‐1‐1 Service Management Our 9-1-1 Service Management team will be responsible for Customer Day Two Support for the service. NG9-1-1 Service Management will collaborate with all parties to manage the customer relationship and basic routing changes as part of ongoing lifecycle management. The Service Manager is the single point of contact for escalation requests and performs the following tasks on a regular basis.

Technical Planning & Engineering Our Technology Planning and Engineering (TP&E) will participate in

Local Field Technicians We have Field Technicians that are geographically located throughout the State to assist with this project. Our Field Technicians will

Labs Our Labs is responsible for testing our ESInet and interfaces within the public safety ecosystem. In addition to ongoing software upgrades and release testing, our Labs also supports forward looking initiatives such as new standards development. Test engineers will collaborate with all relevant parties in the creation, review, and execution of test cases as part of the implementation process.

9‐1‐1 Resolution Center The ESInet managed service includes a 9-1-1 Resolution Center and Network Operations Centers (NOC) dedicated solely to monitoring and managing 9‐1‐1 processes and system elements. The ESInet service provides customers with the ability to submit incident and trouble tickets by phone, or directly using a web portal-based user interface to access the system. The 9-1-1 Resolution Center is responsible for accepting incoming trouble reports. The 9-1-1 Resolution Center provides support 24x7x365 and is the first line of support for PSAPs and OSPs. The 9-1-1 Resolution Center Responsibilities for ESInet includes the following:


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INFORMATION FOR EVALUATION – RISK

Risk Description: Delays to the Implementation and Deployment of the ESInet/NGCS solution.

Solution: Our nationwide ESInet/NGCS solution is already operational and processing live calls today.


• With our nationwide ESInet/NGCS solution we have:

o Achieved over hours of live call processing.

o Processed live 9-1-1 calls.

o Deployed in 2020. (Even amidst the Pandemic)

Risk Description: Single point of failure from ESInet/NGCS core to PSAP/Hosted CPE location.

Solution: Our proposal includes


• Past experience in deploying over on our ESInet platform has allowed us to .

• Achieved over hours of live call processing.

• Processed live 9-1-1 calls.

Risk Description: Lack of project experience with complex, statewide, ESInet/NGCS deployments.

Solution:

We mitigate this risk by providing a dedicated Program Manager that understands all aspects of implementing an ESInet/NGCS solution. Our Program Managers have a deep understanding of the processes and next steps that need to take place with our customers, OSPs, and internal resources to ensure a successful implementation plan is developed and executed.


Our Program Managers follow the experience we have gained by successfully onboarding

Risk Description: Lack of Resilience/Reliability of the ESInet/NGCS Solution.

Solution: We mitigate this risk by providing industry leading SLA's. Our ESInet has a pre-established Service Level Agreement in place as part of our standard ESInet offer.


• Our ESInet SLA’s come with predefined metrics that are measured monthly.

• Achieved over hours of live call processing.

• Processed live 9-1-1 calls.

• Maintained availability.

Risk Description: Live 9-1-1 call routing interruption during ESInet/NGCS implementation.

Solution: Significant Operational Readiness Testing (ORT) is completed with test traffic prior to any traffic being moved. Once successful, we coordinate with the PSAP, ILEC, and OSPs to schedule the cutover of live 9-1-1 traffic. Cutover is completed with no interruption to live 9-1-1 traffic.


Our cutover plans follow the experience we have gained by onboarding hundreds of PSAPs . ORT and Cutover test plans are customized for PSAPs and utilize lessons learned from past deployments.

Risk Description: Lack of experience transitioning PSAPs to i3 with geospatial routing.

Solution: We mitigate the risk involved with this transition by providing PSAPs with a user-friendly Spatial Interface with extensive user guides and GIS resources to assist. In addition, Operational Readiness Testing (ORT) is


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Risk Description: Understanding, complying with, and implementing evolving NG9-1-1 Standards.

Solution: We continue to play a key role in developing emerging technologies and defining new standards in support of public safety Nationwide.


• We have extensive partnerships with NENA, NENA Industry Collaboration Events (ICE), NextGeneration Partner Program (NGPP), APCO, ATIS, and FCC CSRIC working groups.

• We have more than 20 individuals that are active participants on over 30 national StandardsCommittees.

Risk Description: Inability to support multiple CPE types/configurations.

Solution:

All three (3) of the market leading Call Handling Solutions are Certified and Approved for Use with our Labs for use with our ESInet/NGCS solution for both RFAI and i3 Voice as well as for pass-through and policy-based Text to 9-1-1. All other CPE vendors participate in i3 compatibility testing. Two examples of the multiple interface specifications that we provide to PSAPs and their CPE Vendors are:


• We have successfully integrated Call Handling Solutions to our ESInetsolution and are processing live 9-1-1 calls today.

• The three (3) market leading Call Handling Solutions service a population of over 57M.• We provide all other Call Handling Vendors the ability to test/certify through our Call Handling

Interoperability Lab.

Risk Description: Migration of OSPs away from Legacy Selective Routers to ESInet/NGCS

Solution: Local, existing, in-LATA Points of Interconnect (POI) reduce costs for OSPs to migrate traffic to ESInet/NGCS. Since these POIs are in existence today, we are able to begin working with OSPs very early during the implementation of the project.


We have

Risk Description: Lack of experience with OSP Migration/Connectivity

Solution: We establish expectations through published Service Guides with each OSP and manage communication to the OSP for items related to our ESInet/NGCS services on behalf of the State.


• We have multiple, standard interconnection and trunking contract templates and have successfullynegotiated agreements with nationwide carriers and regional ESInet providers.

• We have successfully completed OSP migrations

completed as part of the migration for PSAPs. We utilize standard test plans and customize them per PSAP.


We have successfully migrated to geospatial routing to date and have another in queue.


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INFORMATION FOR EVALUATION – RECOMMENDED OPTIONS Item Claim: Customer Management Portal (CMP) (Included at no additional charge)

How will this add value? The CMP provides participating PSAPs and approved State personnel 24x7x365 call detail records, PSAP operational state, and the ability to enable abandonment routing through a secure, web-based portal.

Documented Performance: Offered to all PSAPs on ESInet/NGCS solution and increases visibility to critical data.

Cost Impact (%): $0.00 (0%) Schedule Impact (%): N/A

Item Claim: Standard Reporting Suite (Included at no additional charge)

How will this add value?

The reporting suite is included at no additional charge to participating PSAPs and approved State personnel to view the following reports via a secure web-based portal:

Documented Performance: This reporting suite is offered to all PSAPs across our platform and provides PSAPs with the ability to pull reports at any time.

Cost Impact (%): $0.00 (0%) Schedule Impact (%): N/A

Item Claim: ESInet Enhanced Web Dashboard


The Network Dashboard provides PSAPs and/or State personnel role-based access to a web-based dashboard which displays

Documented Performance: Requested by multiple Statewide RFPs to provide more detailed network data.

Cost Impact (%):

Schedule Impact (%): N/A

Item Claim: Transitional Data Management Service (TDMS)

How will this add value? TDMS provides customers with the services and software needed to facilitate the synchronization of legacy ALI with Geospatial datasets.

Documented Performance: TDMS is being provided to on our ESInet/NGCS Solution.

Cost Impact (%): Schedule Impact (%): N/A

Item Claim: NG9-1-1 GIS Onboarding


NG9-1-1 GIS onboarding includes Spatial Interface setup and the following services:


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Documented Performance: Reduces time spent by GIS resources on error correction and setup of Spatial Interface configurations

Cost Impact (%):


Item Claim: ESInet i3 Logger Reporting


i3 Logging reports are designed to utilize

Documented Performance: Requested by multiple Statewide RFPs to provide more robust, end-to-end reporting data.

Cost Impact (%):



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EXCEPTIONS FORM Prospective Contractor shall document all exceptions related to requirements in the RFP Solicitation and terms in the “Standard Services Contract” and “Solicitation Terms and Conditions” located on the OSP website. See Section 1.9 and 1.10 of the RFP Solicitation.

ITEM #

REFERENCE (SECTION,

PAGE, PARAGRAPH)

DESCRIPTION PROPOSED LANGUAGE

1. No exceptions noted in this RFP

2.

3.

Documents

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL PACKET SP-21-0038