National Library of Medicine, Office of Acquisitions Management, Building 38A, Room B1N17, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20894

D -- FURTHER REFINE THE TESTING OF INTERNET CONNECTIVITY SOL NLM 98-078/LTN DUE 081998 POC Liem T. Nguyen, Contract Specialist, 301-496-6546 The National Library of Medicine (NLM) intends to fund follow-on work performed by Inverse Network Technology, Inc., Cupertino, CA, to further extend and refine the testing of Internet connectivity previously conducted for NLM. The Inverse methodology uses dialbots to emulate dial-up access to designated web sites via selected Internet Service Provider (ISP) Points of Presence (POPs). The methodology measures download response times, throughput, latency, and time-of-day/day-of-week (peak/off-peak) variations for each web site and ISP tested. In the follow-on work, NLM is requiring the vendor to use its methodology to conduct additional testing as follows: 1) testing of the NLM, IGM, and PubMed web site download times and time-of-day/day-of-week variation using BBN/GTE POPs in five (5) major metropolitan areas (to be determined), with 2-3 tests per hour per web site/POP combination for one week; 2) testing of the PubMed and IGM standardized search response times (search term "discoid lateral meniscus") using BBN/GTE POPs in the locations specified above. Because of the vendor's prior efforts to test response times for NLM web sites and the need to directly compare follow-on test results with prior results, Inverse Network Technology, Inc. is the only source who can successfully meet the follow-on requirements within the required time schedule. Any other source would have to duplicate the efforts already made by Inverse Network Technology, Inc. This is a sole source acquisition. This is not a request for quotation (RFQ) nor is an RFQ available. ***** Posted 08/03/98 (W-SN231513). (0215)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0033 19980805\D-0009.SOL)