R2014-03 ACCEPTING THE BID - BODINE COMMUNICATIONS

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THE NEED While some work has been done to install high speed fiber optic links between City facilities, the need exists to provide a comprehensive network for all municipal locations and operations, so that data can flow equally rapidly to all parts of the operation for the enhancement of timely service delivery to the public. For example, network communication capacity requirements for the new Police Headquarters and the Law Enforcement Center will demand the capacity that fiber optic provides. Knowing this, fiber optic conduit was installed crossing the Sangamon River during the construction work for the dam project this Fall at minimum cost, which will eventually link the Headquarters by fiber to the Civic Center. A comprehensive fiber optic network would allow the City to connect each of its facilities with the same kind of high speed communications that are now present between the Civic Center and the Water Plant and are planned for the Police facility. The network could easily be designed to be scalable for 10-fold increases in capacity. Ten gigabit capacity is obtainable by simply replacing the hardware lighting up the fiber. The same fiber optic cable can be used for either speed. THE CURRENT OPPORTUNITY At present, the City has a very real window of opportunity for taking serious steps forward in building the basic fiber optic WAN. Bids have been requested to expand fiber optic connections to the following city locations. 1. Civic Center—One Gary K Anderson Plaza 2. Law Enforcement Center-333 S Franklin St 3. New Police Headquarters—707 South Side Dr 4. Fire Station No. 1-1415 N Water St 5. Municipal Services Center—2600 N Jasper St 6. Public Transit Administration—555 E Wood St 7. Public Transit Center—353 E William St 8. Decatur Public Library—130 N Franklin St Favorable pricing for the project is anticipated in the bidding, and staff is busy identifying funding possibilities for the work. Once these items are firmed up the City will be in a position to make informed decisions on the future of the fiber optic WAN. ADDED BENEFITS VOICE TRAFFIC - Besides the higher bandwidth, reliability, durability, and limproved applications performance for remote users, the City's fiber optic wide area network (WAN) Would add the capability to consolidate the individual phone systems by utilizing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The new Police headquarters will facilitate moving to this technology, which in itself has many benefits.