INTRODUCTION

Background

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is seeking U.S. Firms who wish to assist in hosting the Mars 98 web site in exchange for public acknowledgment market exposure. Firms can participate in four primary areas: remote hosting, load balancing, search engine technology, and streaming video. As during the Pathfinder mission in 1997, the Mars 98 Landing will use mirror sites to distribute and manage the Internet traffic. JPL will partner with one or more firms to host the primary site which will handle the majority of the Internet traffic. The external site will contain a replica of the information on the primary JPL site. A firm will be selected to provide load balancing technology to redirect traffic from JPL to the primary external site and the network of international mirror sites. A firm will be selected to provide a search engine that will generate an index into the distributed site. One or more additional firms will be selected to host video clips and streaming audio from NASA TV and JPL. In exchange, JPL will acknowledge corporate participation and permit the corporate partners to engage in promotional activities.

Note: A firm may provide capability in all four areas, or may choose to provide capability in one or more areas. In preparing a Statement of Capability, firms should clearly delineate their expertise in each area.

The current JPL Mars 98 Site may be viewed at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98

Remote Hosting of Mars Site

JPL is seeking firms that can host the Mars 98 site using what is commonly know as a "server farm". A server farm is a network of co-located servers with the ability to handle large volumes of Internet traffic. Load balancing technology is typically used to evenly distribute the traffic across the network of servers. The server farm must be able to handle frequent updates from JPL in the form of a tar file or by means of a UNIX distribution application such as rdist. The server farm should have adequate capacity to handle 50 million hits per day.

Load Balancing of Traffic

JPL is seeking firms with technology that will vector traffic away from the main JPL site and to the primary external site as well as to the existing network of international mirror sites. The load balancing software and/or hardware should be able to sense when a remote site’s performance is degraded and make appropriate redirection decisions.

Search Engine Technology

JPL is seeking firms with search engine technology that is able to rapidly index the main site and generate a list of links. A preference will be placed on search engine software that runs on UNIX platforms.

Video and Audio Support

JPL is seeking firms with the ability to host web content which relies upon commonly available multimedia streaming video applets, such as RealPlayer and QuickTime. Exotic new technology that does not have a broad base of current users is not desired. The firms selected must reliably serve video and audio content with minimal connection and downloading delays.

JPL Experience During the Mars Pathfinder Mission

The goal of the Mars Pathfinder web site was to enable as many people as possible from around the world to participate in viewing the Mars images in near real time. The primary constraint was one of bandwidth; there are only two T3 lines coming into JPL with a combined bandwidth capacity of 110 megabits per second. For this reason the Pathfinder site was replicated to many identical sites around the world to ensure that the images would be simultaneously available on the Internet to millions of people. In order to reliably manage the updating process, software was written to determined which files had been added or modified on the master site. The updated files were first consolidated into a tar file ( a tar file is roughly equivalent to a pkzip file under a common windows or PC DOS environment ) to ensure that all of the files arrived at the mirror site before the updating process began.

When Pathfinder landed on July 4, 1997, JPL had 20 mirror sites in place around the world in order to handle the load. From any mirror site it was possible to get a list of all of the other mirror sites. Therefore, if one site was inactive or had poor response time, another mirror site could easily be selected. As a result, the collective network of Pathfinder mirror sites was extremely robust and had phenomenal performance given the number of people who were accessing the distributed site. In the first 4 days after landing the Pathfinder site collectively logged over 100 million hits world wide. The biggest day occurred on July 8th with an estimated 46.9 million hits to the Pathfinder web site. In the month of July the site received over 520 million hits world wide from over 120 countries.

Long Term JPL Internet Strategy

JPL recognizes that the network of mirror site employed during Pathfinder was a short term solution designed to overcome bandwidth limitations of the Internet in 1997. In the past two years the Internet has grown at a phenomenal rate with the result that new technologies and organizations have been developed to host major Internet events. JPL wishes to evaluate and potentially align itself with solution providers to support not only the Mars 98 landing but also other JPL activities in which major Internet traffic is anticipated.

Benefit to Firms:

1) Corporate logos in a credits area at the bottom of the Mars '98 home page.

2) Corporations may create a custom home page with links to JPL and their corporate site.

3) Corporations may create pages that promote products used by JPL.

4) Corporations may highlight their involvement with JPL in sales and promotional literature.

5) Corporations may create videos and other visual materials with permission from JPL.

6) Corporations may make factual statements about their participation to the press and in trade journals.

7) Corporations may solicit JPL for success stories to include in their literature.

Terms of Relationship:

As part of the partnership firms will be required into enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The MOU is a non-binding contract that delineates the terms of the partnership. The MOU addresses these topics:

1) There is no monetary obligation, no funds will be exchanged.

2) There is no liability, JPL and the corporate partner will make every effort to achieve success, but both parties will not be held liable in the event of a failure.

3) JPL is under no obligation to endorse a corporate partner or its products.

4) JPL will acknowledge corporate partners via the Internet and through other channels.

5) The partnership is non-exclusive, more than one corporate partner will be selected.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR CORPORATE PARTICIPATION

Remote Hosing of Mars Site

Corporation will be selected based upon their capability in three areas:

1) Demonstrated ability to handle a large number of Internet hits, typically in excess of 20 million hits per day.

2) Server capacity and quality of Internet connection.

3) Ability to pull updates from the main JPL site, and/or accept a consolidated update UNIX tar file from JPL. Although pulling updates from JPL is acceptable, corporate partners should also enable JPL to push updates to the remote site, thereby forcing an update.

Minimum Network Connection	155 mbps (OC-3)
Desired Network Connection	655 mbps (OC-12)
Minimum Number of Hits Per Day	20,000,000
Desired Number of Hits Per Day	50,000,000
Average Data Volume Transferred Per Hit	25 KB

800 megabytes of disk space

Automated pull of tar file update from JPL ftp site.

Adequate server security with ssh or kerberos access provided to JPL.

Load Balancing of Traffic

JPL is seeking load balance technology to distribute the load among a small network of JPL servers. Currently these servers consist of 2 SGI origin 200 severs and 2 Sun Netra servers. However, before landing it is expected that these severs will be upgraded and augmented with additional equipment. Depending upon the load received, the JPL servers may be used to serve mission data, or may only be used to serve the mission home page and a list of mirror sites. The mirror sites are primary for the benefit of International visitors, but may be relied upon in the event of a major malfunction of the main JPL site or primary external site. The load balancing technology must be able to spread the load across the network of JPL servers as well as redirect traffic away from JPL and to the primary external site.

Search Engine Technology

The technology selected must be able to search a list of predefined URLs and build a list of links. The search engine should be able to access remote sites via http protocol. The search engine should be capable of building a new keyword database once every 12 hours with no adverse effect on performance. JPL will place a preference on UNIX based technology. The list of links created in response to a query must load quickly and must support a large number of users.

Streaming Video and Audio

Due to bandwidth limitations of the current Internet infrastructure, full streaming video applications are not desired. JPL is seeking firms which will provide streaming video in the form short clips typically on the order of 30 seconds in length and viewable with standard applets such as RealPlayer and QuickTime. The firm selected should be able to serve at least 500,000 such video clips per hour.

The bandwidth requirements for audio is typically less than one tenth that of streaming video. The potential exists to serve a sizable number of audio sessions. JPL is seeking firms with the capability of serving between 500,000 and 1,000,000 audio sessions per day. However, the capability of serving audio clips of 10-20 minutes in duration is also acceptable.

GUIDLINES FOR PREPARING A STATEMENT OF CAPABILITY

Statements of capability are limited to no more than 5 type written pages per area of participation, for a maximum of 15 pages. Sales and promotional literature is not desired. An emphasis will be placed on demonstrated capability and hands on experience with the desired technology. For each of the four categories firms must provide the following information:

1) Security constraints and the degree of remote access available to JPL

2) Server capability and type of Internet connection

3) Proposed method of obtaining updates, http pull and/or use of JPL tar files.

4) The largest Internet event supported to date.

1) Switch throughput in Mbps

2) Number of fast ethernet ports supported

3) Method of load balancing used.

4) The largest network of servers support to date

Note: JPL may choose to purchase load balance equipment at the end of the 4 month trail period. For this reason firms participating in this area are requested to provide the cost of the load balancing software and hardware.

1) The operating system under which the search engine software runs.

2) The maximum number of queries supported per minute.

3) The maximum update frequency of the keyword database.

4) The number of users supported during a major Internet event.

1) Type of video and audio applets supported.

2) Number of video and/or audio connections supported.

3) Largest Internet media event supported to date.

4) Bandwidth and server capacity available.

All statements of capability must include the resume of the primary system administrator responsible for overseeing the desired technology.

All firms must submit a brief description of desired PR benefit to their firm. This information is for JPL’s edification and will not be used a basis for the selection of corporate partners.

In an effort to minimize the time required for preparation and review, succinctness and clarity is preferred. The 15 page limit is available for firms which need to elaborate their capabilities in detail, however, a 3 page statement that demonstrates proven capability is also acceptable.

Note: Firms may partner in providing capability, however, all firms involved must jointly state the individual responsibility of each firm.

PACKAGING AND SUBMITTING THE STATEMENT OF CAPABILITY

Deadline:

Statement of Capability is due by 30-JUL-99.

Corporate partners selected will be notified by 5-AUG-99.

Statement of Capability may be sent via e-mail to: kirk.goodall@jpl.nasa.gov

Send hard copy statements of capability to: Kirk Goodall

M/S 264-214

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

4800 Oak Grove, Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Any statement of capability received at JPL after the time and date specified is late.

Late statements of capability will not be considered, except under the following circumstances:

1) JPL determines that the late receipt was due solely to a delay by the U.S. postal service for which the offeror was not responsible. Timely postmark or receipt of registered, certified, or express mail "next-day service," establishing the time of deposit, must be evidenced.

2) JPL determines that the statement of capability was late due solely to mishandling by JPL after receipt at JPL, provided that the timely receipt at JPL is evidenced.

3) No acceptable statements of capability are received in a timely manner.

NOTE: If an emergency or unanticipated event interrupts normal JPL processes so that responses cannot be received at the JPL office designated for receipt by the exact time specified, the time specified for receipt will be extended to the first work day on which normal JPL operations resume.