Wide area network services

Tender description

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Authority (CDDFRA) wish to engage with an ICT network provider to deliver and manage a resilient Wide Area Network (WAN), Centralised Firewall and Internet Provision to support all the Authority's business needs. The Authority has 19 sites, which need to be interconnected via a resilient core network. County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Authority (CDDFRA) wish to engage with an ICT network provider to deliver and manage a resilient Wide Area Network (WAN), Centralised Firewall and Internet Provision to support all the Authority's business needs. The Authority has 19 sites, which need to be interconnected via a resilient core network. There are, however two fire stations that have separate accommodation blocks (included in the existing provision) which are serviced via independent ADSL links direct to the internet which do not transverse the WAN. The types of data carried by the WAN varies, but includes but is not limited to: Voice, Video, Mobilisation and Citrix. End users and third party suppliers access the WAN via a VPN solution provided by the existing Managed Service. CDDFRA utilise the existing WAN to deliver mobilisation messages (GD92) to the remote fire stations, although this traffic is small in size it is mission critical and must be prioritised over all other types of traffic, therefore the WAN needs to be highly available. Some other types of traffic that transverse the WAN are: Data, Citrix, Voice, Video, and Mapping Updates. CDDFRA also use the WAN for the telephony system and Quality of Service (QoS) is applied to all voice traffic to ensure audible speech.