APPENDIX 1 - LIST OF AVAILABLE SERVICES
Dedicated Transport - Each Transport Service may be provisioned to Customer as a Protected or Unprotected Service as specified in the applicable Service Order and will be billed on a fixed monthly basis. Bandwidth for each service is available to Customer for use, twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week. There are three basic configurations for Dedicated Transport Service: Point- to-Point Service, Point-to-Multipoint (Hubbed) Service and Ring Configured Service. All Service types are not offered at all locations. Service may be offered by or through the RCN Affiliate identified in a Service Order.
Point-to-Point Transport - Dedicated Transport Services are available between RCN-designated locations on a point-to-point basis. Service may be ordered between Customer POPs, the Customer POP and the RCN POP, and/or the Customer POP and an End User building. Point-to-Point Service allows two (2) Customer-designated locations to be connected by one (1) dedicated transport service. RCN offers Point-to-Point Transports services at the following speeds:
Point-to-Multipoint Transport - Point-to-Multipoint Service allows Customer to aggregate multiple lower capacity transport services terminating at multiple locations onto one higher capacity service interface terminating at a single RCN location. Sometimes referred to as “Hub and Drops”, Point-to-Multipoint service is provisioned from a single customer interface point (A) to multiple termination points across the RCN network (B-Z). The aggregate bandwidth sum of sites B-Z must be less than or equal to the bandwidth available at Customer interface point A. RCN offers Point-to-Multipoint Transports services at the following speeds:
Hub
Drops
On-Net/Type I Services
1.25 Gbps Wavelength Service. This service is a protocol independent, dedicated, 1.25 Gbps capacity service that can be provisioned with a variety of protection configurations to meet the Customer’s needs and requirements.
2.5 Gbps Wavelength Service. This service is a protocol independent, dedicated, 2.5 Gbps capacity service that can be provisioned with a variety of protection configurations to meet the Customer’s needs and requirements.
10 Gbps Wavelength Service. This service is a protocol independent, dedicated, 10Gbps capacity service that can be provisioned with a variety of protection configurations to meet the Customer’s needs and requirements.
OC-48 Service. OC-48 Service is a dedicated, high capacity, full duplex channel with a line speed of 2,488.320 Mbps and is configured with 48 separate STS-1 signaling paths.
OC-12C Service. OC-12C Service operates at 622.080 Mbps with 1 STS-12C signaling path.
OC-12 Service. OC-12 Service operates at 622.080 Mbps with 12 separate STS-1 signaling paths of 51.84 Mbps each, having the equivalent capacity of 336 DS1 Services or 12 DS3 Services.
OC-3C Service. OC-3C Service operates at 155.520 Mbps and is configured with 1 STS-3C signaling path.
OC-3 Service. OC-3 Service is a dedicated, high capacity, full duplex channel with a line speed of 155.520 Mbps serial data having the equivalent capacity of 84 DS1 Services or 3 DS3 Services. OC-3 Service operates at 155.520 Mbps and is configured with 3 separate STS-1 signaling paths of 51.84 Mbps each
DS-3 Service. DS-3 Service is a dedicated, high capacity, full duplex channel with a line speed of 44.736 Mbps isochronous serial data having a line code of bipolar with three zero substitution (B3ZS). DS-3 Service has the equivalent capacity of 28 DS-1 Services at 1.544 Mbps or 672 Voice Grade (“VG”) services or 672 DS-0 Services at 56/64 Kbps.
DS-1 Service. DS-1 Service is a full duplex channel with a line speed of 1.544 Mbps. DS-1 uses a line signal format of either Alternate Mark Inversion (“AMI”) or Binary 8 Zero Substitution (“B8ZS”) and either Superframe (D4) or Extended Superframe formats. DS-1 Service has the equivalent capacity of 24 Voice Grade (“VG”) services or 24 DS-0 services. AMI can support 24 56 Kbps channels and B8ZS can support 24 64 Kbps channels.
Point-to-Point Ethernet. Point-to-Point Ethernet Service is configured between two customer locations (defined as A and Z). Point-to-Point Ethernet Service is available at the following and other incremental interface rates:
RCN’s Point-to-Point Ethernet Service conforms to applicable Ethernet standards. Requests for circuits greater than 100 Mbps are subject to availability.
Switched Ethernet Service (configurations include point-to-multipoint and multipoint-to-multipoint)
RCN’s Switched Ethernet offering is configured in a one-to-many topology and facilitates communications between multiple customer locations.
RCN’s standards-based Switched Ethernet service for Layer 2 transport is available at the following interface rates:
Internet Access. Internet Access is a Layer 3 IP transit service providing access to the global Internet. PowerNet Internet Access is available with a single port on Customer’s premise and a single port at RCN’s Internet gateways. Redundant service may be available upon special request. Internet Access is available on the following platforms:
IP Addresses. Customer may order up to eight (8) IP addresses. If Customer orders more than eight (8) IP addresses, Customer shall complete an IP address justification form. Customer may choose to provide its own IP addresses.
Domain Name Service (“DNS”). Primary and Secondary Domain Name System service. The Domain Name System is a hierarchical, distributed method of organizing the name space of the Internet. The Domain Name System administratively groups hosts into a hierarchy of authority that allows addressing and other information to be widely distributed and maintained. By providing Customer DNS, RCN eliminates dependence on a centrally maintained file that maps host names to addresses.
Change Orders will be charged a $500 NRC. A change involves a Customer’s request to change a feature or attribute of an implemented service. An example of a Change Order is Customer initially ordered and RCN delivered Channelized DS-3 and now Customer requests a clear channel circuit.
Move Orders will be charged a $500 NRC. A move involves a Customer request to move a circuit from one LIT location to another LIT location. A request to move a circuit from a LIT location to an Off-Net location will not be permitted under a Move Order.
BGP Customer Set-Up will be charged a $500 NRC. A request to set up Border Gateway Patrol after a circuit is implemented and accepted will be subject to this set-up fee. An example of when the BGP Customer Set-Up fee applies is if the Customer requires RCN’s assistance in setting up BGP routing post-implementation.
DNS and Reverse DNS Change Orders will be charged a $250 NRC per order except that no such charge shall apply to the first order placed in a given calendar month. Each Customer may place one free order per month; provided, however, that the free order will not transfer or carry over to another month or other company.
Dispatch for Non-RCN Trouble fee will be charged at a $500 NRC. A non-RCN Trouble fee will be imposed when Customer requests an RCN technician to the Customer’s site when the RCN NOC has diagnosed that the Customer’s RCN service or circuit is trouble-free and the RCN technician verifies the NOC diagnosis.
Off-Net Services are provided on an individual case basis. RCN will consider in good faith requests made by Customer by means of an RFQ.
Collocation - Collocation is a service where RCN grants Customer the right to locate telecommunications equipment and associated support systems and cabling in an RCN facility for the purpose of interconnecting to the RCN Network. Collocation Services are available and must be documented by a collocation agreement or amendment signed by both parties
APPENDIX 2 - ORDER PROCESSING PROCEDURES AND TARGET INSTALLATION INTERVALS
Ordering Format - Customer shall submit ASRs in the written format prescribed by RCN. All Order forms shall be signed by Customer’s authorized representative.
Contacts and Escalation - RCN will provide a complete escalation list of contacts for the On-Net Service provided to Customer, including RCN’s NOC.
Installation Intervals - The target installation intervals for each On-Net Service available to Customer are listed in this Appendix. If Customer requires a shorter installation interval than that listed herein, RCN will use commercially reasonable efforts to identify actions that would enable RCN to agree to meet the requested Start of Service Date. If RCN cannot meet the requested Start of Service Date, then RCN will make commercially reasonable efforts to negotiate in good faith with Customer the earliest Start of Service Date possible. The agreed upon Start of Service Date shall be documented in the Service Order.
Service Management - A service coordinator will be assigned to each account within two (2) business days after receipt of the ASR from RCN Order Entry. At this time, the service coordinator will contact the Customer to review order details and make any necessary adjustments. The service coordinator will become the primary point of contact through the turn up cycle of the Service Order.
Firm Order Commitment (FOC) - On-Net (Type I) Service – A FOC will be provided to Customer within five (5) business days of receipt of a complete and accurate ASR from RCN Order Entry, provided there is available network capacity.
Off-Net (Type II) Service – Access loops where one or more elements of the circuit are off the RCN Network and must be ordered through a third-party network provider are defined as Off-Net or Type II circuits. Type II Service is an Unprotected Service unless otherwise specified in a Service Order. RCN will provide to Customer FOC information two (2) business days after receipt of FOC from the third-party provider.
Design Layout Record (DLR) - On-Net (Type I) Service – DLR will be provided to Customer within eight (8) business days of receipt of a complete and accurate ASR from Order Entry, provided there is available network capacity.
Off-Net (Type II) Service – DLR will be provided to Customer three (3) business days after receipt of DLR from the third-party provider.
On-Net (Type I) Services
| Lit Available Capacity | On-Net (Without Capacity) | On-Net With Building Managed Riser | Off-Net (Construction Needed) |
| 15 Business Days | 45 Business Days | 45 Business Days | 90 Business Days |
Off-Net (Type II) Services. Circuit delivery times are subject to third-party provider time frames. As a result Type II circuit timeframes are ICB.
Special Requests. ICB
Collocation. Standard Install with available site capacity and power: 10 Business Days. Custom installation and power requests: ICB
Four Step Ordering Process
Overview
Access Services and Collocation are ordered using a Four Step ordering process:
All four steps are required when ordering Access Services or Collocation. Once the request has reached Firm Order status, it cannot revert to Service Request status.
STEP 1 - SERVICE REQUEST (SR): This step applies when Customer wishes to query RCN as to its ability to provide a particular type or quantity of service at some future date but does not want to place a firm order at this time. The Service Request requires submission of an ASR or Collocation form.
STEP 2 - SERVICE REQUEST CONFIRMATION (SRC): This step is initiated by RCN in response to a Service Request from Step 1. The response will let the customer know if RCN is able to provide the service, the appropriate interval to provide the requested service and any data required for the submission of a firm order.
NOTE 1: Planning information may consist of:
NOTE 2: An SRC does not reserve facilities nor does it guarantee a due date for service.
NOTE 3: The provisioning interval (in business days) is based on a current estimate and contingent upon facility and work force availability.
NOTE 4: For standard product offerings with available capacity, the SRC should take approximately 48-72 hours. For a SR requiring construction the time interval for response is ICB.
STEP 3 - FIRM ORDER (FO): This step is used when the SR or SRC information process has taken place and Customer now wishes to place a firm order for the service. Customer will be contacted by a RCN Service Manager to provide order and circuit information and advise of estimated installation intervals. A confirmed Service Request must be upgraded by Customer to a Firm Order within two (2) weeks of issuance of the Service Request. If a Firm Order has not been initiated by the Customer within two (2) weeks of a Service Request, Customer must initiate a new Service Request if it wants to proceed.
STEP 4 - FIRM ORDER CONFIRMATION (FOC) OR DESIGN AND ORDER CONFIRMATION (DOC): This step is initiated by RCN in response to a Firm Order (FO). The following responses will be provided to the customer according to the intervals stated in Appendix 2 of the RCN MSA:
Service Order Escalation Procedure
This escalation process permits Customer to raise any “systemic” issues related to the delivery of Services. This escalation process should occur only after normal business-to-business efforts have taken place to resolve the issue (e.g., issue has been brought to the attention of the implementation manager that has been handling the account, but the issue has not been resolved). Five levels of escalation will be used, which include:
Each Level will go through the same cycle (a “Cycle”), which is described below and shall include:
Item must be formally escalated as E-mail sent to the appropriate escalation level within RCN. Content of E-mail must include:
At each Level of escalation, RCN will acknowledge receipt of the escalation, and the appropriate RCN executive (see table above) will make commercially reasonable efforts to provide a substantive response through E-mail to the Customer within five business days of receipt of the escalation. Customer must respond to RCN within five days of receiving RCN’s escalation response as to whether the issue has been resolved, or whether further action is requested. If RCN does not receive a response within five (5) business days of providing its substantive response, the matter will be considered resolved and closed If the Customer responds in a timely fashion that it remains unsatisfied with an outcome, Customer may proceed to the next escalation level via E-mail submission, including in its renewed escalation any additional relevant information.. This process shall be repeated with each Level escalation.
APPENDIX 3 - ACCEPTANCE TESTING PROCEDURES
The following acceptance tests will be conducted:
All RCN Network Rings are tested for BER/Performance, with a requirement of zero (0) unavailable seconds during an initial 24 Hour test. Thereafter, the following tests are performed for individual circuit handoff from the Network Rings:
SONET/DWDM SERVICES: SONET/DWDM (SM) (OC-3 through OC-48): testing shall run for a 1hour period mutually agreed to by the Parties for Services where the Ring(s) and/or facilities are in service. A SONET circuit shall be deemed accepted when it is error-free over the 1 hour period with zero (0) unavailable seconds.
DS-3: DS-3 testing shall be clear channel, head-to-head testing. Testing shall run for a 1 hour period mutually agreed upon by the Parties for Services where the Ring(s) and/or facilities are in service. A circuit shall be deemed accepted when it is error-free over the 1 hour period with 0 unavailable seconds.
DS-1: Where RCN has been contracted to deliver DS-1 services over a DS-3 that was previously tested, DS-1 testing shall run for a one (1) hour period mutually agreed upon by the Parties. A circuit shall be deemed accepted when it is error-free over the test period and the targeted availability is met.
ETHERNET: The following describes RCN’s standard procedures for the testing and acceptance of customer connections across a Layer 2 Ethernet transport network:
Physical Test: RCN will verify through physical layer network testing (employing universally accepted industry test standards and equipment using OTDR and/or similar device) that the fiber path meets or exceeds standards for the transport of Ethernet service across the network.
Optical Test for WDM: RCN will verify through physical layer network testing that any Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology employed meets or exceeds RCN’s standards for optical connectivity.
Ethernet Test: RCN will verify through Layer 2 testing that the service can pass Layer 2 traffic from an originating network element to a terminating element through a core network switch. Testing will be conducted utilizing industry-wide accepted test and measurement standards (Smart Bits, Ixia, etc.).
Latency Test: RCN testing will confirm that end-to-end transport of a Layer 2 datagram across the RCN Network will not exceed 8 milliseconds from originating device through to the terminating device.
Testing will confirm Layer 2 connectivity via PING tests.
Application testing in the form of file transfers from a RCN laptop or similar device also may be conducted to help confirm higher layer connectivity and data integrity.
APPENDIX 4 - NETWORK TRANSPORT TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS AND SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVES
The following provides transmission performance objectives for Services covering the bi-directional path as specified in the Service Order and measured from the Point of Termination on a 24 hours per day, seven days per week basis.. It does not apply in cases of fiber cuts or Customer’s failure to use SONET equipment with automatic protected switching capabilities. Except as expressly specified in this Appendix 4, no SLAs or other performance guarantees are extended to Unprotected Services.
| Service | Availability |
| 10Gbps Wavelength Client and Path Protected: | 99.998% |
| 10Gbps Wavelength Unprotected: | 99.90% |
| 2.5Gbps Wavelength Client and Path Protected: | 99.998% |
| 2.5Gbps Wavelength Unprotected: | 99.90% |
| 1.25Gbps Wavelength Client and Path Protected: | 99.998% |
| 1.25Gbps Wavelength Unprotected: | 99.90% |
| OC-48: Client and Path Protected | 99.998% |
| OC-12 Protected at card level: | 99.998% |
| OC-12 Unprotected at card level: | 99.90% |
| OC-3c Protected at card level: | 99.998% |
| OC-3c Unprotected at card level: | 99.90% |
| OC-3 Protected at card level: | 99.998% |
| OC-3 Unprotected at card level: | 99.90% |
| DS-3 Protected N:1 | 99.995% |
| DS-3 Protected 1:1 at card level: | 99.998% |
| DS-1: Protected N:1 | 99.995% |
Background Bit Error Ratio (“BBER”): For DS-1 and DS-3: 1x 10 -11
Frame format: Transparent to framing
Maximum Consecutive Zeros (DS-1): 15
Error Bursts (“BES”): No more than 1 event second per 24 hours
Error Free Seconds (“EFS”): DS-1 - 99.995%; no more than 3 errored seconds over a 24 hour period across the RCN SONET network
Bi Polar Violations: None
Clocking: Derived from T1 source, either Customer or RCN. Stratum 2 level clocking traceable to a Stratum 1 level source.
Test periods:
| SONET test period: | 1 hour |
| Test periods for DS-3: | 1 hour |
| Test periods for DS-1: | 1 hour |
All Circuits must meet applicable specifications contained in Bellcore FR-NWT-000440
Specific RCN Interface Specifications are as follows:
OC-3 -- -8dBm to -15 dBm (NRZ 155.52 Mbps - 1310 nm, Compliant GR-GSY-00253)
OC-12 -- -8dBm to -15 dBm(NRZ 622.08 Mbps - 1310 nm, Compliant GR-GSY-00253)
OC-48 -- -5dBm to 0 dBm (NRZ 2.49 Gbps - 1310 nm, Compliant GR-GSY-00253)
OC-192 -- Bit rate 9.95328 Gbit/s , Tx power 5.5 dBm Maximum Typical, Tx power 5 dBm, Minimum Tx power 4.5 dBm , Minimum Rx sensitivity, –11 dBm, Maximum supported reach (NDSF) 17 km, 1310 nm
DS-1
DS-3
| Protected Service Only | Availability |
| Path Protected Ethernet Service | 99.99% |
RCN’s 10/100 and 1Gbs Ethernet services are delivered to an End-User’s building via single mode fiber optic cabling and connected via SC fiber connectors to a RCN-owned Ethernet device resident in the End-User’s building.
RCN’s 10Mbps and 100Mbps Ethernet service provides Customer and End-Users with connectivity handoffs (RJ-45, 8 pin modular connectors) that support Ethernet frame transmission over standard 4-pair, 100 ohm, Category 5 (CAT-5) unshielded twisted pair (UTP) balanced copper wiring for distances up to 100 meters, as defined by the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A (1995) cabling standard.
RCN’s 1 Gbs Ethernet services are delivered to customer premises via fiber optic cabling and support Ethernet transport service at the maximum speed of 1 Gbs. The RCN switches operate in full duplex mode. The Customer may request for the connectivity handoff to be 1000 Base LX or 1000 Base SX with SC fiber connectors as the physical interface.
RCN’s Switched Ethernet Service utilizes IEEE 802.1/Q Layer 2 VLANs (Virtual LANs) for Customer traffic segmentation. The 802.1Q standard makes use of the concepts and mechanisms of LAN Bridging that were introduced by ISO/IEC 15802-3, and defines additional mechanisms that allow the implementation of Virtual Bridged LANs.
VLANs facilitate administration of logical groups of stations in disparate locations that can communicate as if they were on the same LAN. VLANS facilitate easier administration of moves, adds, and changes in members of these groups.
A VLAN is defined by the IEEE as “a subset of the active topology of a Bridged Local Area Network. Associated with each VLAN is a VLAN Identifier (VID).”