BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

Registered Office in Thimphu

Request for Proposal (RFP)

for
Technical and Functional Specifications
for Building a Tier-III Data Center for
Bhutan Telecom
(Version: 1.0 Date: 26 April 2013)
TIMELINE FOR RFP:
1. Pre-bid Meeting:
10:00AM-5:00PM on 10th May 2013 at Data Center Site, Bhutan Telecom Office, SouthWestern Region, Phuentsholing, Bhutan.
2. Deadline for RFP Submission:
Only one sealed & signed original hard copy of RFP and a soft copy in PDF format should
be submitted before or at 10:00AM on 24th May 2013 in person or by post to:
Manager
Procurement Section
Per & Adm Division
PO Box 134
Bhutan Telecom,
2/28 Drophen Lam
Thimphu
Bhutan
CONTACT POINT:
All inquiries on this RFP should be directed to the following:
Mr. Jichen Thinley, Project Manager
(Regional Manager, South-Western Region), Bhutan Telecom
Email: jichen.thinley@bt.bt
Phone: +975-5-252923

Fax: +975-5-252125

Mobile: + 975 17113042

Postal Address: PO Box No. 66, Bhutan Telecom, Phuentsholing, Bhutan

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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

Registered Office in Thimphu
I.
Introduction
Bhutan Telecom (BT) is the leading telecommunications services provider providing landline
telephony service as the sole operator; data (primarily Internet services as the biggest Internet
Service Provider) service and domestic & international connectivity; and GSM (mobile) with
3G service (as the market leader) in Bhutan. BT has about 27,000 landline telephone
customers, 17,000 fixed broadband subscribers, 230 enterprise customers for its data &
connectivity services, and 421,700 mobile customers including that of 3G. The 4G LTE will
be launched for trial for 2 sites in the capital Thimphu within this year.
It is primarily to serve enterprise customers national and international (in the future) that BT
plan to build a 5000 sq. ft. Data Center meeting the standards of Tier-III specifications as per
the Telecommunications Industry Associations TIA-942 which comprises mainly the
redundant & fully fault-tolerant capacity components including storage, chillers, HVAC,
servers, etc. with dual-powered equipment and multiple uplinks guaranteeing an uptime of
99.982%.
II.
Size and Location
The Data Center shall be built on the two floors: ground and the first; of approximate area of
2500 sq. ft. each making the combined total size of 5000 sq. ft. (approximately) in a 3-floor
building which has been recently constructed in BT premise in Phuentsholing, Bhutan.
The potential bidders are encouraged to visit the site before the submission of RFP.
III.

Scope of Work (in High-level)

The Data Center and its infrastructure should be built on a turnkey basis meeting the standards
of Tier-III as per TIA-942. Essentially, but not limited to, the Scope of Work shall include
design, supply, installation, testing, commissioning and handing over with one year warranty the
Data Center with necessary infrastructure like the: interior jobs with painting, precision air
conditioning system, fire detection & supression, power, UPS & DG, electrical, lighting, network
cabling, multilayer physical security using biometric/smart card, etc. based on access control, IP
surveillance, water leakage & detection, rodent repellent, and other incidental and necessary
components required to complete Tier-III Data Center specifications in all aspects. Further, the
solutions should be proposed to establish very effective and efficient infrastructure monitoring &
management systems/practices to ensure Tier-III reliability, availability, Quality of Services and
security of information system.
While the high-level scope of work has been outlined, Bidders are requested to prepare exact
BOM required based on the total area provided in the RFP.
IV.

Design Considerations

The Data Center should be capable to provide an uptime of 99.982%. It has to be compliant to a Tier-III
standards as per TIA-942. The design should be scalable to offer scalability over a minimum period
of 7 years and capable to house up to many nos. of 42U server racks (132 nos. if only racks) and
cages. Key considerations should be taken in to build for redundancy, scalability, modularity,
possibility of isolation and maintainability. The entire Data Center should be designed on the two
floors clearly demarcated as per the architecture designs of Ground and First floors. All partitions
should be constructed with fire-rated particle board and glass which will increase the aesthetic look.
All doors should be 2 hours fire-rated glass. Necessary measures should be taken for making the
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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

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critical server farm area tight, fire proof and free from condensation and dust. The electrical system
should be designed to Tier-III standards to allow concurrent maintainability. The secondary power
should be DG set. Cooling should taken with N+1 redundancy for server farm area. The auxiliary
areas should be provided with comfort AC with necessary redundancy. The structured cabling for
the racks within the server farm area should meet CAT6A based design system with flexible
deployment option in the form of enclosures in the flase floor. The physical security of the total
Data Center area including Network Operation Center (NOC) room and Building
Management System (BMS), viewing room should be taken care in multiple levels. Physical
access restrictions shall be addressed through Access Control System in multiple doors. The
critical areas shall be monitored through IP surveillance system with storing option. The
equipment and human safety from the incidents shall be met with the help of fire alarm
system. Further control action on fire/alarm shall be dealt using the fluid type NOVEC1230based fire suppression system for server room and other rooms will be handled by portable
fire extinguishers. The rodent repellent and water leakage detection systems should be
installed in the server farm area. Physical infrastructure components will be controlled
through BMS to provide alerts and alarms to the personnel operating and managing the
infrastructure.
The following but not limited to, are the major high-level systems design considerations that
should included:
S/N
Systems
1
Interior Jobs
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
2

3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
V.

Partitions
Doors
Thermal insulation on floor
Raised flooring
POP and paints
Ramp

Electrical Works
i.
Power distribution system with LT panel
ii.
Cabling & wiring through cable tray
iii.
Lighting system
iv.
DG system
v.
UPS system
vi.
Earth

Cooling solution and PAC system

Physical Security with IP Survellance and Access Contol
Fire Suppression system with NOVEC1230
Fire Detection system
Water Leakage & Detection
Passive Networking & Cabling
Rodent Repellant System
BMS system
Guidelines for Technical & Functional Specifications of Major Components
The following but not limited can be used as the guidelines to draw up and submit the
full proposal for Technical & Functional Specifications for building a Tier-III Data
Center for BT.
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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

Registered Office in Thimphu
1.
Architectural and Interior Jobs
This should cover supply, design and implementation of architectural and interior
jobs for the Data Center with supply of all accessories / tools required for aesthetic,
durability and technically superior solution for the following but not limited to:
i.
Paint work with POP
ii.
False flooring
iii.
Floor insulation
iv.
Partitioning (fire-rated)
v.
Doors
vi.
Required miscellaneous civil work as per Data Center sites
requirement.
1.1.

Insulation Work
The floor shall be heat-insulated or coated with a heat insulating
material to avoid condensation on floors below and above to reduce
heat transfer to the server/network rooms. Insulation should be done
with minimum 9 mm thick self-adhesive aluminum foil face nitrite
rubber. The ceiling and floor should be coated with epoxy paint.

1.2.

Raised Floor for Server Farm and Associated Rooms

The floor will cover server farm areas, BMS, fire panel and NOC
rooms. The server farm are with combined area of 2x2500 sq. ft.
should be provisioned to place many nos. of 42U (1000mm x
800mm) server racks (132 nos. if only racks) and cages in both
floors.
Supply and installation of false floor (450mm thickness) of fire
retardant category which should be replaceable/interchangeable
floor panels of 18 SWG steel, 600mm x 600 mm with top HPL of
1.5mm thickness with PVC beats. The floor system should be
capable to withstand a UDL of 1080 kgs per sq. mt. and point load
of 380 kgs. The understructure should be able to accept a pedestal
axial load of 2200 kgs. The supply requires numbers of grommets
for passive through wire and cables; and perforated tile for airflow.
There should be thermal insulation of the base floor with thick
insulation for all the areas.

1.3.

Partitioning Work
Fireproof aluminum composite panel with 8mm thick fire-rated
particle board in bottom half and upper half with toughened glass of
size 8mm thick with 2 hours minimum fire-rated for partition
between server room, monitoring room and help Desk area on first
floor room, and control room and viewing room on the ground
floor. All gaps should be filled with rubber runner.

1.4.

Doors
All doors should be 12mm thick glass with fireproof aluminum
composite panel and 2 hours fire-rated. The doors should be
completed with all accessories.
Door 1: Entrance to server farm area. Size: 3.5 ft. x 7 ft. for both the
floors.
Door 2: Control room door. Size: 3 ft. x 7 ft. on the ground floor.
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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

Registered Office in Thimphu
Door 3: Monitoring room door. Size: 3 ft. x 7 ft. on the first floor.
Door 4: Emergency door. Size: 3 ft. x 7 ft. for both the floors.

2.

1.5.

Painting
It should be anti-dust. The existing surfaces should be cleaned with
scratched before the application of punning material. After drying,
the smoothening should be done rubbing with sandpaper. Upon the
smoothened surface, one coat of primer and two coats of fire-rated
paint of high-quality make and shade should be applied.

1.6.

Ramp
The ramp is of concrete (cement) and it will have to be finished
with corrugated rubber mat at server farm entrance of both the
floors. Size of each ramp is 4x5 ft. with an elevation angle of 17.

Electrical System and Equipment

It shall cover design, engineering, assembly, testing and commissioning of
complete electrical system and equipment and their accessories for efficient
and trouble free operations and maintenance.
The following design considerations can be taken:
i.
Electrical power load of 6KW per server rack (approximately).
ii.
Electrical power distribution should be provided with redundant
path to avoid single point of failure. All elements of electrical
systems including backup system are should be fully duplicated to
provide N+1 redundancy
iii.
There should be provision to integrate additional power from
second transformer.
iv.
More UPS systems and DG set should be able to integrate in the
future.
v.
BT premise at where Data Center site is located currently has
500KVA capacity for the entire premise. Of this, 100KVA are in
use and the rest 400KVA can be used for Data Center.
vi.
Electrical system should provide power to all utilities like the
precision air conditioning, lighting, power distribution boards,
utility UPS, etc.
vii.
The following tentative list of equipment should be supplied,
installed and commissioned:
1. Modular type LT panel with multiple feeder
2. UPS panel with a provision of adding more UPS
3. Distributed inputs for precision AC supply system
4. BBT system with plug socket for power distribution to utilities
5. Distribution board for illumination
6. Power distribution board for raw power source
7. Distribution board from UPS system (UPSDB)
8. Cabling system with associated cables and cable trays
9. Earthing system for LT installations and UPS neutrals
10. Miscellaneous items for complete functioning of the system
viii. Server farm load of about 132 nos. server racks with dual source of
32Amp industrial plug socket per rack.
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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

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3.

UPS System
There should be at least 400KVA UPS system in Parallel Redundant
System (PRS) N+1 mode with backup (with SMF batteries) to cater to
99.984% reliability to feed power 30 nos. of server racks initially. In future,
it is projected to require 3x400KVA with the same reliability with SMF
battery bank connected in PRS N+1 mode that should be able to supply
800KVA power. Under PRS mode, all UPS should cater equal percentage
of power i.e. if one fails; other(s) will supply 100% of the load. The
monitoring of UPS enabled with SNMP card will be done through a LAN
network.

4.

Diesel Generator Set

A DG set with automatic start-stop i.e. with all the automatic features
should be used. The normal power supply for the Data Center shall be
available from the LT panels. The DG set which will be used, as the
standby power source will be connected to cater power in black out
condition. LT panel should have an inbuilt arrangement of two bus
sections: one for normal supply & another for DG supply. The interlocking
features between two different sections of buses will have to be provided in
the LT panel. The DG control panel should be integrated with this LT panel
by power & control cabling. The system will should be installed with AMF
panel along with required earth-pits.

5.

Cooling Solution
The precision air conditioning should be installed by considering the
following design, scope and requirement.
i.
Design Considerations
There should be fully redundant microprocessor-based digitalscrolled Precision Air Conditioning (PAC) system. Cool air feed
should be bottom-charged or downward-flow type using the raised
floor as supply plenum using perforated aluminum tiles for airflow
distribution. The return airflow should be through false ceiling to
cater to the natural upward moment of hot air. Cooling should be
done by the Precision Air Conditioning system only. PAC should
be capable of providing sensible cooling capacities at design
ambient temperature & humidity with adequate airflow. As per the
requirement, there would be around 130 racks. The PAC should be
integrated with the BMS for effective monitoring.
PAC system should cool the server rooms and other rooms on the
basis of available rooms size and estimated load. 5 nos. of 30 TR
floor discharge type PAC can be considered for each floor of Data
Center. Out of five units, four units should be active while one can
be in standby mode to provide redundancy.
ii.

Scope Considerations
This shall include:
Connecting the indoor unit with the main electrical point.
Connecting indoor and outdoor units mechanically (with
18G hard Gauge copper piping).
Connecting indoor and outdoor unit electrically.
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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

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6.

iii.

Temperature and Humidity Requirement

The inside environment of server rooms shall need to be
continuously maintained at 21 +-1 centigrade and ambient RH
level shall need to be maintained at 50% +-5 non-condensing.
Humidity sensors should be installed.

iv.

PAC System Component Requirement

a.
28TR Digital scrolled indoor unit
b.
Outdoor units for the above system
c.
Inbuilt network control card
d.
Required quantity of R407C refrigerant gas
e.
Copper piping with insulator
f.
Humidifier pipe
g.
Drain pipe
h.
Cable with other accessories to complete the system

Building Management System (BMS)

BMS should be proposed by considering the following scope and design
requirement.
i.
Scope
Integrated MBS GUI software of high-performance, building
automation system for monitoring and managing devices and
systems, including HVAC, lighting, water, electrical equipment,
etc. will be needed. It should be an application of building
integrator platform utilizers conforming to open system standards to
seamlessly integrate every control and information system with the
facility/enterprise. Building integrator platform shall have singlewindow control over all building operations, and all the relevant
data needed to maximize building performance.
ii.

7.

Nitrogen pressure testing, triple vacuum, final gas

charging.
Connecting the humidity feed line with the point provided.
Connecting the drain line with the point provided.

System Design Architecture

Enterprise building integrator platform should have architecture to
provide a scalable system that accommodate configurations ranging
from a small single-node system to an extended system with
multiple stations connected across a LAN. It should cover:
PAC monitoring
Life safety monitoring
Energy usage monitoring
IP Surveillance systems
LAN-based digital video management
Time and attendance

Intelligent Addressable Fire Detection System

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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

Registered Office in Thimphu
Intelligent addressable fire detection with alarm system with central
monitoring system will be required. This system should be installed at
server farm areas, NOC room, Help Desk room, control room and
monitoring room.
The system should incorporate following designs:
Intelligent addressable fire alarm control panel with inbuilt battery
Photo electric smoke detector
Heat detector
Response indicator
Manual pull station
Hooter

8.

Cable and other accessories require to complete the system

Fire Suppression System

Following scope, design and information should be considered:
i.
Scope
Fire suppression system with friendly fluid type NOVEC1230 agent
can be used for the server farm areas only. This fire suppression
system should be integrated with fire alarm system. For other areas,
ABC-type portable fire extinguishers should be proposed.
ii.

Design
The system should automatically discharge suppression agent after
getting signal from the fire alarm panel. System can be designed
with:
a. Agent cylinder 120 ltr. capacity
b. NOVAC1230 clean agent

iii.

c. Local manual actuator

d. Flexible Discharge House
e. Check value
f. Discharge nozzle
g. Pipes, cylinder manifold, fittings, etc.
Information useful for consideration in clean agent fire
suppression
The lessor harmful fluid type agent NOVEC1230 should
be proposed.
Clean agent system considered for total flooding
application is in compliance with the provisions of Kyoto
protocol.
Care should be taken that none of the Greenhouse gases
identified in the Kyoto protocol is used for fire suppression
application.
The minimum criterion for the section of the clean agent
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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

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9.

should be on: zero ozone depleting potential; global

warming potential not exceeding one; atmospheric lifetime
not exceeding 24 hours.
Clean agent fire suppression system with FK-5-12 and
inert Gas based systems are accepted as a replacement of
HCFC and HFC as per Kyoto Protocol.
The Clean Agent considered for the suppression system
must be suitable for occupied areas with NOAEL level (No
observable adverse effect level) of 10% to ensure high
safety margin for the human in the hazard zone.
Care should be given to ensure proper early warning
detection system with minimum sensitivity of 0.03% per
foot obscuration as per NFPA 318 & NFPA 72 to ensure
that one gets a very early warning to investigate the
incipient fire much before the other detectors activate the
fire suppression system automatically.

Access Control System

It should be IP-based access control system that will cover: normal door
entry and exit with reader and controllers; emergency exits; locking
devices, etc. and should have time attendance system with following design
consideration.
Design Consideration
All doors should have access control security implemented. Biometric card
reader should control the access to the server room door, main entrance
doors on each floor. Proximity card reader will control the other two doors
including emergency exit of each floor. The overall system will be
controlled by BMS system with the following units:
a. Multi door segment controller with power supply, IP connectivity and
battery backup.
b. Reader interface module to connect readers to central controllers.
c. Proximity card reader.
d. Biometric finger print reader.
e. Single door electromagnetic lock.
f. Magnetic contact (surface mount).
g. Emergency release switch.
h. Access management software with time and attendance features.

10.

Surveillance System
The system should an IP surveillance system to monitor the entire Data
Center infrastructure and should be designed with:
a. IP based colour dome fixed lens camera
b. Indoor type HD PTZ camera
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BHUTAN TELECOM LTD.

Registered Office in Thimphu
c. Video surveillance manager server
d. Operation manager with software
e. Video storage up to 30 days
f. Virtual matrix software
g. 80 LED display
11.

Rodent Repellent System

The pest repellent system should consist of one master console installed in
Help Desk room and twelve satellites/transducers in the problem areas.
The operation should be such that the powerful high frequency sound
waves (well above the 30KHz frequency which is the upper limit of the
hearing range of human ear) generated by the satellites are within the
hearing range of many pests, but cause pain and discomfort thereby forcing
them to abandon the areas.

12.

Water Leakage Detection System

Water leakage detection integrated with the BMS system should be
designed to protect the air-conditioned premises and to alert the personnel
about the leakage in the AC systems. The systems shall be capable of
interfacing to water leakage detection sensors, condensation
sensors/detectors, I/O modules and sounders all connected to control panel
so that events are clearly reported on LED display indicating the nature of
fault.

13.

Passive Networking (LAN)

The scope should comprise of design, supply, laying, installation, testing
and commissioning of structured Local Area Networking (LAN) / cabling
in the Data Center. The network will also connect associated rooms
including Power (UPS) room to bring all the power system under LAN.
The following design should be considered:
a. The networking/cabling should be designed with CAT6A, which
supports minimum of 10G both on copper and fiber cable.
b. 4 Main Distribution Area (MDA) racks will be placed in Row 1 of each
floor.
c. On each floor there will two numbers of active network racks and two
numbers of passive racks.
d. There will be two MUX room one will be on the ground floor and
other will be at the adjacent building.
e. CAT6A 24 ports per rack.
f. 48 fiber OM4 core per rack.
g. The connection between the MUX room and MDA rack will be Fiber.
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