The client intends to provide all schools under its sponsorship with a high-performance basic IT infrastructure and equipment as well as to ensure their operation and support.

The municipalities form the "meso level" of the German school system. They are responsible for the so-called external school affairs in accordance with the school laws of the federal states. They ensure that land and buildings are available for school education and are maintained. As the school authority, you provide the classroom and equip it - from the administration to the classroom furniture to the procurement of teaching and learning materials. They are therefore also responsible for the digital infrastructure and equipment of their schools. The "DigitalPakt Schule" and other funding programs have ensured that the IT infrastructure and equipment of many schools can be modernized. This is a necessity in order to provide children and young people with a modern learning environment and to enable teaching that – beyond the subject competences – strengthens the acquisition of media and IT competences for the pupils. As a result, the Saarpfalz district has the task of providing the schools with a high-performance basic IT infrastructure and equipment, as well as ensuring their operation and support.

The current state of expansion of the WLAN networks in the 18 schools under their own sponsorship no longer meets the requirements for the realization of digital teaching. With the nationwide equipping of ~10,000 students and teachers with IPads in 2022, a completely new need has now arisen. This includes security, data protection and data throughput. By means of these IPads as a central component of digital learning, not only are digital textbooks accessed online, but also exemplary topics such as timely update management of critical system software updates on the devices require a completely new WLAN infrastructure.

The strategic objective is to provide Wi-Fi in every classroom.

In each of the 18 schools under its own sponsorship, a separate WLAN network must be set up for the use of the iPads on the basis of the existing illumination plans and the separately upgraded network infrastructure. For this purpose, a state-of-the-art WLAN AP will be installed in each designated room in these schools. Each school location and each WLAN AP should still be able to be managed individually. The central management takes place in the data center of the contractor, in which the Internet traffic of these separate WLAN networks also breaks out (= tunnel end point). An existing next-generation hardware firewall provides data protection and security with the appropriate modules. As a pilot project, a WLAN network must be installed and put into operation in the part of the building at a school jointly by the client and the transducer. This includes eight access points and one access point controller, as well as the corresponding managed services. In addition, the optional provision of a so-called guest WLAN at these 18 schools is of great interest. This guest WLAN is to be managed via a voucher solution on the part of the client.

The subject of the local award procedure is:

1) The provision of designated hardware and central management;

2) The implementation of the specified WLAN concept;

3) The provision of services and maintenance;

4) The pricing of the one-time costs of hardware, the one-time costs of any licenses, as well as the ongoing operation (service and maintenance).

All further information can be found in the attached tender documents.