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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRESPONSE - RFP - P929 RADIO COMMUNICATION STUDY FOR UTILITIES (5)RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 Proposed Radio Communications Systems Study Electrical Distribution System Data Acquisition For Fort Collins Utilities, Fort Collins, Colorado March 26, 2004 Presented to The City of Fort Collins Utility Department As a joint venture between Pericle Communications, Company And KNS Communications Consultants Company: Pericle Communications Company FEIN: 84-1207933 Address: 1910 Vindicator Drive – Suite 100 Colorado Springs, CO 80919 Phone: (720) 344-9556 Fax: (303) 346-8794 Email: mieszala@pericle.com Name M. Daniel Mieszala Authorized Signature: Vice President Company: KNS Communications Consultants FEIN: 84-1330931 Address: 1466 South Wadsworth Blvd. Denver CO 80232-5441 Phone: (800) 847-5670 ● (303) 989-1038 Fax: (303) 989-1038 Email: suethomas@knsdenver.org Name: L. Sue Scott-Thomas Comment: Woman-owned Small Business Authorized Signature: President RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 Section 1.0: Executive Summary Pericle Communications Company and KNS Communications Consultants are presenting a response to this RFP as a joint venture. Pericle Communications in a consulting engineering firm with expertise in RF engineering. KNS Communications Consultants provides expertise in SCADA system design and implementation. KNS Communications represents both MDS and Proxim equipment. Both companies are immediately available to begin this project. Estimated completion for the preliminary feasibility study would be approximately 6 to 8 weeks. Implementation of the pilot project, based upon equipment availability would be approximately 4 weeks for installation and 4 weeks for testing. The final report would be available within 4 weeks after the completion of the testing. The entire project timeline is estimated to be 5 to 6 months. Qualifications and Experience. Fort Collins Utilities has request proposals from qualified radio consultants to evaluate the feasibility of using a license free radio frequency to perform data acquisition for the City of Fort Collins electrical distribution system. The RF network will be used to query status and other telemetry from various field components on the distribution system via radio master hubs located at the seven electric substations within the city. The radio master hubs would then be connected to an Ethernet network backbone already in use by the department. The potential number of remote radios in the Fort Collins service area is approximately 100 units. Additional uses of the network might include Automated Meter Reading (AMR) and mobile communications – as determined by the initial study. Pericle Communications Company is a consulting engineering firm specializing in wireless communications. The company is named after Pericle Rock, a rock formation on Pikes Peak popular with climbers. We have five employees, four are electrical engineers. Founded in 1992, Pericle is a privately held corporation with headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The company provides consulting engineering services to local governments and to the cellular, PCS, broadcast, aviation, and utility industries. Our skills include the following: • Specifying performance standards and preparing requests for proposal (RFP) • Analyzing radio coverage using state-of-the-art computer modeling • Collecting radio signal measurements using drive-test equipment • Specifying, designing and managing indoor wireless projects, including IEEE 802.11 • Solving co-site radio frequency interference issues • Predicting and measuring radio frequency power densities to prevent personnel hazards • Designing point-to-point microwave links • Design and fabrication of specialized measurement systems RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 Pericle owns a suite of software tools and test equipment to help perform these tasks. Test equipment includes an HP 8594E Spectrum Analyzer, HP 8920A Service Monitor, HP 8656A Signal Generator, Wandel & Goltermann EMR 300 Broadband Exposure Meter, and several Grayson Wireless Measurement Systems with 800 MHz SMR, Cellular and PCS receivers. In addition to our proprietary measurement software, we also own the following engineering software: EDX Shdmap, PathLoss, MININEC Broadcast Professional, ComsitePlus, ScanStar, Matlab, AutoCAD, and HP Bench Link. Pericle has extensive experience in solving 800 MHz interference problems involving Nextel and A Band cellular operators, and is, with the City of Denver, implementing a plan that may serve as a model for the rest of the country. The principals of Pericle Communications are Jay M Jacobsmeyer, P.E. (President), David L. McGinley (Director of Systems Engineering), Dan Mieszala (Vice President), and Dr. Mark A Wickert, Ph.D. (Director of Wireless R&D). Brief Resumes for Pericle Engineering Employees Following are brief resumes for the four electrical engineers who are employees of the company. Full resumes for Jacobsmeyer and Mieszala, the two engineers projected to work on this project, are found in Appendix A to this proposal. Jay M. Jacobsmeyer, P.E. (President) holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech and Cornell University, respectively. He has over twenty years experience as a field engineer and researcher. Before co-founding Pericle Communications Company in 1992, Mr. Jacobsmeyer served for nine years with the United States Air Force and three years with ENSCO, Inc. As chief technical officer, he directs all engineering work of the company. His expertise includes indoor wireless design, co-site interference analysis, radio frequency hazard measurements, new facility design, radio propagation prediction and measurement, ground system design, and broadcast master antenna design. In addition to performing field work, he has served as the principal investigator on four mobile radio research projects, one for the U.S. Navy and three for the National Science Foundation. His technical papers have appeared in IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, and in ten IEEE conference proceedings. David L. McGinley (Director of Systems Engineering) holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He has over 12 years experience as a radio engineer and 8 years additional experience as a radio technician. He recently retired from the United States Air Force after 20 years of distinguished service. As an Air Force officer, he designed numerous microwave and high frequency (HF) radio links for the Department of Defense and other NATO military forces. At Offutt Air Force Base, he was responsible for integrating software and hardware modifications into the $ 50 million Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). As director of systems engineering at Pericle Communications RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 Company, his duties involve planning and conducting wireless communications consulting projects. Dan Mieszala (Vice President) has over fifteen years experience in system design and radio frequency engineering. Prior to joining Pericle, Mr. Mieszala was the Director of System Performance and RF Engineering for Verizon Wireless in the Mountain Region. In this role, Dan managed a large engineering staff and capital budgets exceeding $100 million for a wireless network covering four states. Mr. Mieszala has held senior technical management positions for wireless carriers in increasingly responsible roles since 1990. Prior to his work in commercial wireless, Mr. Mieszala worked as a defense contractor on Electronic Warfare and Automatic Test Systems. He has also contributed to several publications including: Feed the Beast a Workbook for Effective Communications Planning (a response to the Columbine tragedy) and SANDAG Site and Zoning Considerations for Cellular Communications Facilities. Paul J. Naro (Technician/Programmer) has over ten years as a radio technician / field engineer and eight years software and database development. He manages, develops and hosts numerous high-end database-driven Internet applications in addition to providing AutoCAD and other engineering expertise. As a lead application engineer with Infront WebWorks, he provided database and system administration, development, and acted as a Project Leader on a number of internet-related projects. During his six years at SAIC, he was instrumental in determining software and hardware metrics for a wide variety of Air Force satellite systems. As a Senior Field Engineer for Magnavox Electronics Systems Company, he was assigned to the Systems Engineering group, in charge of designing, testing and fielding Regency Net, an advanced HF frequency hopping, spread spectrum communications system. Mr. Naro served both in the United States Army and Navy prior to joining Magnavox. KNS Communications Consultants is an RF consulting firm and specializes in SCADA system design. KNS has designed multiple SCADA systems in the a good part of the United States. KNS also has expertise in interfacing SCADA systems into Radio Telemetry applications, and represents and sells Microwave Data Systems Equipment, Data Radio, and Proxim Microwave products. KNS Communications was formed in 1988 to assist clients in RF system design and implementation. KNS Communications Consultants works in close association with Communications Systems, Inc. which provides necessary technical expertise to install and maintain all manner of communications systems. KNS and CSI are both woman-owned small business and are family-held. The principals are Ken Thomas (President of CSI) , Sue Thomas, (President of KNS) and John Thomas (Vice President of Operations). In addition there are 3 administrative personnel and 3 additional technicians on staff The following pages detail the experience and include resumes for those who will be involved with this project. Brief Resumes for KNS Communications Employees RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 L. Sue Scott-Thomas holds a BS from Texas Tech University in Zoology with a minor in chemistry. She has advanced coursework from University of Denver Graduate School in Microwave System Design and Telecommunications Electronics. She also has completed 6 annual 4 day seminars in RF Engineering taught by the professional engineers at Softwright in Aurora Colorado. She has extensive experience in design of the radio telemetry portion of SCADA systems – and frequently is retained by Consulting Engineering Firms who design water and wastewater treatement facilities. Ken Thomas (John K. Thomas, Sr.) holds a BA from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville Texas with a degree in Law Enforcement and Police Science. He worked in this field for 8 years before retiring to begin Communications Systems, Inc. He completed advanced coursework from University of Denver Graduate School in Microwave System Design and T1 Circuits. He also taught a 200 level communications course at Front Range Community College, Westminister Colorado. He is an FCC Certified and NABER Certified technician, and has extensive experience in installation and maintenance of all types of communications systems, including base stations, repeaters, duplexers, voting receivers, microwave systems, communications consoles, and GE EDACS trunking backbone equipment. John K. Thomas II holds a BA from Metropolitan State College in Denver Colorado in History and Philosophy. He also has 2 years of Greek. He has taken factory training in Microwave System Design from Proxim (1 week school), RF System Engineering Seminar (4 days) from SoftWright, Intellutions Basic Course (1 week), Orbacom Console Factory Training School (3 days), and ONSSI Security Software Factory training school. John has considerable expertise in RF system design and maintenance and has designed and installed the complete wireless LAN system for Adams County – covering multiple buildings county-wide. Section 2.0 - Response to Scope of Service 2.1 Radio Frequency Survey The joint venture will conduct a propagation analysis of the selected frequency EDX SHDMAP and Softwright Terrain Analysis programs and using both 30 meter data and the more accurage USGS NED Digital Elevations Models. 1 A sample propagation map which was done for the US Forest Service is provided in Appendix A – The following page has is a street level map to show the degree of detail that can be shown underneath the coverage studies for smaller areas such as Fort Collins. While propagation modeling is a reasonable predictor of radio coverage, no computer program can predict all the variables associated with a real world environment. Radio testing will be done during the pilot portion of the program to determine actual coverage. The propagation coverage prediction will cover the 50 square miles of the City’s jurisdiction and extend past those boundaries to determine coverage and interference past the required area. If holes in coverage are identified based on signal strength, alternate sites will be identified using either city buildings, electrical poles or existing towers. If none of these are available then a suitable structure will be sought out. The existing fiber-optic backbone will be used to link the sites RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 back to the main facility. Wireless links may also be required to bring access points back into the fiber backbone, if access points have to be placed at sites other than the existing electric substations. The propagation coverage prediction will cover the 50 square miles of the City’s jurisdiction and extend past those boundaries to determine coverage and interference past the required area. If holes in coverage are identified based on signal strength, alternate sites will be identified using either city buildings, electrical poles or existing towers. If none of these are available then a suitable structure will be sought out. No radio coverage is 100% - so one of the problems is persistence in the mobile computer – without a persistence, the computer must reacquire when coverage is regained. Software1 will be required to rectify this problem. Pericle and KNS will work with the city to determine which software will best meet their needs, and the software can be purchased if the initial study shows that the coverage is feasible and interference is acceptable for the proposed system. NetMotion software costs $5,999.00 for the enterprise edition with 25 device licenses, and an additional $2000.00 for policy management modules. Because of the cost of this software, it is prudent to complete the feasibility study before purchasing it. NetMotion is not the only software available – and all options will be considered before a purchase is made. Section 2.2 Existing Frequency Usage The Joint Venture will perform an Survey of existing frequencies using the FCC data base and a professional data base search tool. Licensed emitters identified by the survey in the target frequency band will be provided to the Utility in a spread sheet form and plotted on the City’s AutoCad drawing. Those emitters operating under FCC guidelines for unlicensed usage will have to be identified by a field survey. A survey of existing frequencies in either the 900 MHz or 5.8 GHz frequency bands will be done using tools developed by Pericle Communications. This survey will be done directly on the AutoCad map files supplied by the city using software that has been developed by Pericle Communications. Measurements will be taken with either a Grayson test receiver for the 900 MHz band or a Orinoco 802.11 a/b/g card for the 5.8 GHz band. The survey will focus on the areas around the electrical substations and the Service Center specifically looking for users in the unlicensed frequency bands of interest. If a received signal is suspected of being out of compliance with FCC rules we will use a spectrum analyzer to store a digital image of the signal and note the location. As an option a drive test can be done of the whole city for the desired frequency. This option is priced out separately in the cost spread sheet. The extended drive test would cover street in the City’s jurisdiction and would have measurements every 300 feet on residential streets and at safe speeds on main through fares. The extended drive test is priced as a separate option in Appendix B. Section 2.3 – Radio System Implementation Feasibility  Use MDS iNet for mobile coverage. IF MDS iNet is not suitable, evaluate Proxim ORiNOCO AP4000 Access points with associated client cards. RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004  Install MDS iNet access points at 1 or 2 selected sub-stations to demonstrate hand-off cabapility and system access.  Choose software to manage mobile applications. Purchase and install software. Request trial versions, if available from Vendor.  Work with city to interface AMR into system – specifications are not included with this RFP, so details cannot be provided at this time. However this interface should not be difficult. Programmers are available to help with interface issues if there are any.  The number of client or remote units can be determined by the city – the cost will depend upon the number of units chosen.  Support and a 2 day on-site training program, along with printed handbooks, CD’s, and study manuals will be provided to City Personnel.  Consulting Engineer will provide an evaluation of the ability of the license free radio to function in the electrical distribution environment  Complete system diagrams, USGS maps locating each access point, fiber and system interconnect diagrams, and proposed as-builts for the system will be provided to the City of Fort Collins. Section 2.4 – Radios and Additional Equipment A detailed list of the radios and additional equipment is listed under the Cost section. We have proposed MDS iNet radios, 7/8 coaxial cable for access points, mobile antennas and installations for the test mobile units, special Front Line Testing software for measurement of throughput and to test RTU/PLC interface to the MDS equipment. Software to allow mobility between the access points is approximately $8,000, and would only be purchased if the initial feasibility study and coverage studies indicate that it is required to proceed. Optional Proxim ORiNOCO AP4000 5.8 GHz equipment has also been listed in case the MDS iNet equipment is not feasible. Section 2.5 – Training and Support KNS will provide training and classroom time for use of either the MDS or Proxim equipment. Pericle will provide software support required for migration from existing system to the new system. Section 2.6 – Additional Work Additional work which outside of the scope of this project will be performed at the hourly rates stated in the cost section, or at mutually agreed upon negotiated rates. Section 3 Proposal Response Requirements: Item 1 – Cover Letter – Included Item 2 – List of Staff – Included under tabs 4 and 6 RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 Item 3 – Description of how Solution will be implemented – Included in text above. Item 4. Description of how the 50 square miles that comprises the City’s jurisdiction will be within the boundaries of the proposed solution. Substations will be identified within the City’s jurisdiction that will provide coverage for the selected frequency band. Radio propagation will modeled from these substations to identify coverage. If coverage is inadequate, alternate sites will be identified with the priority placed on transmission line poles or other municipal properties that would provide the needed height for propagation. Links back to the substations on the fiber ring will then be provided with unlicensed microwave of 802.11 point to point solutions. Item 5. Detailed information of RF coverage utilizing key electrical substations located on a fiber ring. Propagation models will be run on a minimum of 30 meter data from key electrical substations on the fiber ring to be identified by Fort Collins Utilities. The Joint Venture will use SoftWright’s TAP program to predict coverage from these substations and will use the Bullington Model for the study. Once the initial coverage studies are done, then radio testing to verify coverage model assumptions, and the model will be adjusted as necessary to match the testing which was done. The RFP appears to be written around the MDS iNet solution. This solution has improved dramatically over the last year, and may be an excellent choice. The concerns that must be addressed are those of interference from the 900 MHz non-licensed band where the iNet operates. If this band is too congested, other alternatives are the 2 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed bands. It must be understood that there can be no guarantees against future interference in any of the the unlicensed spread spectrum bands (900 Mhz, 2 GHZ, and 5 GHz spectrum ). Proper system design will certainly mitigate current and future interference issues – and quality robust equipment will perform well – but the nature of unlicensed spectrum leaves no recourse against other users when there is interference. Coverage Maps will be overlaid on one map to show coverage. Throughput measurements can be made to determine system capability and the number of units which can be supported. Once the final system design has been completed, the Joint Venture will work with the city to set up a Pilot test program to determine how test units can roam and what coverage can be accomplished while mobile. Item 5 - Proposed Implementation Solutions: This was discussed in detail under 2.3 above. We would propose an initial implementation of the MDS iNet radio. If it does not work, an alternative solution would be the implementation of the Proxim AP4000 access points with A/B/G cards. Testing and implementation would be the same for both systems. RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 Item 6 – Detailed Proposal of Suggested Radio Locations – Use existing substations and additional locations as required in the study. Item 7 – Description of Phased Approach  Install pilot system to include o Two Access Points with contiguous coverage areas o 10 Remote Clients o Software to manage roaming  Conduct tests to determine the following o Ability to roam between coverage areas of the two access points o Ability to upload and download to the server through the system o Ability to access intra-net o Ability for multiple users to access system at the same time o Measure bandwidth and throughput o Determine system reliability and ability to deal with interference which may occur within the same frequency band. o Use Front-line Test equipment to measure interface between the RTU and the mobile data system – this will look at transmitted hex codes, will measure through put and bandwidth performance of the system. o Prepare a final report documenting coverage, bandwidth capabilities, multiple user capabilities, throughput for final presentation to the city. Item 8 – Price Proposed Services Included in the cost section Item 9 – Identification of Work which is subcontracted All work will be a joint venture – tasks are identified in the cost section Item 10 – Proposed Schedule This is discussed in the section 3.2. Item 11 – List of 3 References Denver Water Board – Jerry Vahling (303) 628-6829 Castle Rock Water Utilities – Tom Abbott (720) 766-6051 East Cherry Creek Valley Water – John Robinson, PE – CDM Engineering – (303) 298-1311 Anthony Morroni, Morroni Engineering (now Corolla Engineering) (303) 980-8260 Pericle Reference phone numbers included with client list. Item 12 – Other Information This booklet contains samples of output which has been done, detailed resumes, client lists, references and equipment specifications. RFP - Fort Collins Communication Study – March 26, 2004 Section 3.2 – Project Schedule Both companies are immediately available to begin this project. Estimated completion for the preliminary feasibility study would be approximately 6 to 8 weeks. Implementation of the pilot project, based upon equipment availability would be approximately 4 weeks for installation and 4 weeks for testing. The final report would be available within 4 weeks after the completion of the testing. The entire project timeline is estimated to be 5 to 6 months. Comments: The system requested by the city is a mission-critical system. For this reason it is extremely important that the city is able to evaluate various options to accomplish this task, and to weigh the pros and cons of each option. KNS Communications Consultants has been providing services since 1988, and our sister company Communications Systems, Inc. has been servicing and maintaining RF equipment since July of 1979. KNS has successfully designed many radio telemetry and SCADA systems nationwide as is detailed in the company information which has been provided. Pericle Communications is a consulting engineering firm, and provides the expertise of 3 degreed engineers and one professional engineer. Pericle has been providing services since 1992 and has considerable experience in major complex RF engineering projects nationwide. Pericle has often been hired to solve major interference problems and deal with propagation issues. Because of the nature of the project years in business and experience should be a major consideration in the choice of vendors. The Joint Venture offers a combination of companies with over 37 years experience in the industry, with together have experience in SCADA System Design, technical installation and maintenance, troubleshooting of integration problems with a multiple number of RTU’s and PLC, and engineering experience in RF propagation and interference issues. We would request the opportunity to interview with the city prior to the final award of this RFP.