Government

Social Security Administration - Electronic Delivery System Engineering Project

EBT is an Electronic Delivery System for public assistance benefits that replaces paper checks with a magnetic stripe card and an EBT account with Citicorp. It is a Federally administered program, run by the Social Security Administration in conjunction with CitiBank. The beneficiaries are the eligible population of the Counties and States of the USA thus the EBT network spans all states. In an effort to eliminate, or at least reduce, the use of paper check transactions, the Social Security Administration was tasked with constructing the EBT network. This project was started in the mid 1990’s and is still in progress today. Base One Technologies engineers designed the original network architecture for EBT and are still expanding and implementing the network today. To date our engineers are still working on the project even as we get ready to develop the next generation of network architecture..

Several Commendation letters have been received for outstanding performance, minimal downtime of the platform, and quick resolution of network related issues.

CORE TECHNOLOGIES/RESOURCES USED ON THE PLATFORM: Fast Ethernet, HSRP, Gigabit Ethernet, Layer2 and Layer3 Switching, Routing, BGP, OSPF, Static Routing, Frame Relay, ISDN, ATM, Point to Point Transport, Public Addressing, Token Ring, DLSW+, SDLC STUN, X25, SNMP, Tacacs+, Cyberguard Firewalls, DNS, Load Balancers, Distributed and Local Directors.

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: INFRASTRUCTURE BUILDOUT FOR NEXT GENERATION EBT2.

The new generation of network infrastructure will be used for EBT2, which is being built for the State of California and beyond. This platform is going to be the final setup where the new customers of Citicorp will be implemented and the current production customers on EBT1 will also be migrated onto this next generation platform. The task also includes development of systems for Network Management & monitoring, Tacacs+ using resources and tools from SSB. The Platform uses Diverse Carriers for WAN Transport, Cisco Router Based Encryption using IPSec, Cisco 7206 VXR based architecture in the CORE, Standalone Firewall Solution, Switching and Connectivity to Internal Businesses and External Customers/Partners using TCP/IP and or other Encapsulation techniques for Transporting IP and SNA traffic.

• Responsible for gathering technical & business requirements to develop a broad architecture/design plan for the Citicorp’s Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) Network Platform.
• Assessed and gathered requirements from the EBT Business to provide access/Application Connectivity from EBT locations within the Corporate Global Data Network (GDN) to some partners/vendors of Citicorp, connectivity through standalone and shared Firewalls was setup between GDN and EBT sites.
• Provided the Analysis, Planning, Design and Implementation processes.
• This Project involved a lot of Cost saving for the Client in terms of lesser equipment, maintenance and management charges of the Legacy Platform.
• All the equipment & transport specifications were laid out along with costs and formulated by an internal document called Pricing Tool. Once the pricing tool was approved by the Business, the Equipment & Transport circuits were ordered. All the equipment --- LAN & WAN device configurations were developed and kept ready for installation. The tasks of TCP/IP address administration were also performed for the whole platform. After the equipment was delivered at the data center sites and staged, configuration loading and staging support was provided to the Service Delivery Team (SDT’s). Once the equipment was shipped to the vendor/customer site and WAN Telecom circuits connected, all the activation of interfaces, network testing and connectivity testing was carried out. Host to Host Application testing was also supported along with the customer and EBT, System resources. After those tasks were successfully completed, the platform / site was released to Production to be managed by the ATT GCSC.
• Coordinate with the users the Host to Host Application testing along with the customer and EBT, System resources.

• After those tasks were successfully completed, the platform / site was released to Production to be managed by the ATT GCSC.
• Coordinated and managed all the cutovers and implementation tasks
• Placed the circuit orders & coordinate the activation of lines / circuits from the vendors
• Coordinate the equipment installations
• Coordinate equipment activation
• Responsible for the decommissioning of the Telematics Nodes at the Citicorp Data centers and the consolidation of several data center routers into three at each location, which provided the above function.
• Coordination & management of The turn-up of new EBT sites, including the stacking and racking of new infrastructure.
• Coordinate the Activation of new router interfaces,
• Coordinate the network testing and connectivity testing

• Designed and implemented the pilot program to initially span four sites across separate state locations.
• Further expanded the EBT program to span each of the 48 contiguous U.S. states.

• This project included the design & implementation of the architecture, platform setup, initially using Frame Relay Technology & then point-to-point links, with Automatic fail-over using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
• This Project’s Design included Redundant Paths, Topologies using Diverse Firewalls, Routing paths, Transport Lines and Failover Mechanisms
• Currently responsible for the Design and Development of the next generation Infrastructure for EBT, called EBT2, which is being extended to the State of California and beyond. The expected goal of this new Infrastructure is to allow the consolidation of the current EBT services (EBT1) with the addition of new Citicorp Governmental customers.

• The task also includes the development of systems for Network Management & monitoring, using TACACS+, SecurId and other tools from Smith Salomon Brothers (SSB).
• The Platform will use diverse Carriers for WAN Transport, and provide Cisco Router Based Encryption using IPSec, Cisco 7206 VXR , WAN/LAN based architecture in the CORE, a Standalone Firewall Solution, and Switching and Connectivity to Internal Businesses and External Partners such as CitiBank's External Governmental Customers. The network will provide TCP/IP and/or other Encapsulation techniques for Transporting SNA and DECnet traffic.

• Designed a solution for the additional requirements from the EBT Business to provide access/Application Connectivity from EBT locations within the Corporate Global Data Network (GDN) to some partners/vendors of Citicorp, connectivity through standalone and shared Firewalls was setup between GDN and EBT sites.

• Responsible for the activation of interfaces, network testing and connectivity testing for the Citicorp Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) Network Platform.
• All the equipment --- LAN & WAN device configurations were developed and kept ready for installation.
• Host-to-Host Application testing was also supported along with the customer and EBT, System resources.
• After those tasks were successfully completed, the platform / site was released to Production to be managed by the ATT GCSC; which their Network Operations Control Center.
• Responsible for the decommissioning of the Telematics Nodes at the Citicorp Data centers
• Consolidated several Data Center routers onto three locations, to help Citibank meet its cost savings goal.

Technologies/Resources used on this Infrastructure includes:

• 10M/100M/1G Ethernet, Token Ring,, Layer 2 and Layer 3 Switching, DLSw+,
• SDLC Tunneling (STUN), T1/FT1 dedicated lines, Frame Relay, X.25, ATM, ISDN,
• IP Routing using Hot-Standby-Routing-Protocol (HSRP), BGP, OSPF, Static Routing, Public Addressing,
• SNMP, Tacacs+, Cyberguard Firewalls, DNS, Load Balancers, Distributed and Local Directors.

Responsible for the Design and Development/Infrastructure build up of the next generation platform for EBT. This is called EBT2, which is being built for the State of California and beyond. This platform is going to be the final setup where the new customers of Citicorp will be implemented and the current production customers on EBT1 will also be migrated onto this next generation platform.

Tasks included

• Development of systems for Network Management & monitoring, Tacacs+ using resources and tools from SSB.
• Use of diverse carriers for WAN Transport.
• Cisco Router Based Encryption using IPSec, Cisco 7206 VXR based architecture in the CORE, Standalone Firewall Solution, Switching and Connectivity to Internal Businesses and External Customers/Partners using TCP/IP and or other Encapsulation techniques for Transporting IP and SNA traffic.
• Full Life Cycle Analysis, Planning, Design and Implementation processes.
• Directed Significant cost savings for the client in terms of equipment recovery, maintenance and carrier management charges.

Network Design and Architecture

Responsible for the Design and architecture as well as the Project Management of the network infrastructure design and build between Citishare of Citicorp and an External Vendor/Clearing House, eFunds.

Tasks included

• Responsible for the design & implementation of the architecture, platform setup, initially using Frame Relay Technology & then point to point links, with Automatic Failover using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
• The Design included Redundant Paths, Topologies using Diverse Firewalls, Routing paths, Transport Lines and Failover Mechanisms.
• Provide Project Management and coordination for the network design and implementation.

• Responsible for the Equipment & Transport circuits ordering and tracking for the Citicorp’s Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) Network Platform.
• All the equipment --- LAN & WAN device configurations were developed and kept ready for installation.
• The tasks of TCP/IP address administration were also performed for the whole platform.
• After the equipment was delivered at the data center sites and staged, configuration loading and staging support was provided to the Service Delivery Team (SDT’s).

• MAC (Move, add, change) and ongoing Troubleshooting for Production and or other outages /problems and all other open Trouble Tickets was also performed and act as a Third Level Support to the contracted partner, the ATT GCSC in the timely resolution of problems.

• Designed and implemented security solutions using Cisco PIX, checkpoint firewall and Intrusion Detection Systems.
• Provide assistance in troubleshooting escalated security related problems from the Network Operations Control Center (AT&T GSCS).

• Assessed and gathered requirements from the EBT Business to provide access/Application Connectivity from EBT locations within the Corporate Global Data Network (GDN) to some partners/vendors of Citicorp.
• Connectivity through standalone and shared Firewalls was setup between GDN and EBT sites. Design and implemented security solutions based on analysis.

• Responsible for the Equipment & Transport circuits ordering and tracking for the Citicorp’s Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) Network Platform.

• Managed and tracked Network Equipment, along with developed LAN & WAN device configurations were tracked, stored and kept ready for installation.
• The tasks of TCP/IP address administration were performed prior to installation for the entire platform.
• After the equipment was delivered at the data center sites and staged, configuration loading and staging support was provided to the Service Delivery Team (SDT’s).

• Coordinate MAC (Move, add, change) process and resolution and ongoing Troubleshooting for Production and or other outages /problems in support of the Citicorp Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) Network Platform.

• Responsible for MAC (Move, add, change) process and resolution and ongoing Troubleshooting for Production and or other outages /problems in support of the Citicorp Electronics Benefits Transfer (EBT) Network Platform.