MODIFICATION
99 -- NAS VOICE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM
- Notice Date
- 6/9/2009
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- Contracting Office
- Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Headquarters, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, FAA HQ - FAA Headquarters (Washington, DC)
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- 8324
- Response Due
- 7/10/2009
- Archive Date
- 7/25/2009
- Point of Contact
- Kenneth Carter, 202-267-3012<br />
- E-Mail Address
-
kenneth.m.carter@faa.gov
(kenneth.m.carter@faa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This announcement is a Market Survey/Request for Information. This announcement IS NOT A SCREENING INFORMATION REQUEST (SIR) OR REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) of any kind. Further, the FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals. All interested parties are advised that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will not pay for any information or any administrative costs incurred that are associated with any response received from industry in response to this Market Survey/Request for Information (RFI). Therefore, any costs associated with Market Survey/Request for Information submissions will be solely at the interested party's expense. Previous market surveys have solicited responses pertaining to specific switch technologies and applications. The FAA is now pursuing an end-to-end system approach to upgrade the aging National Airspace System (NAS) voice communications infrastructure in order to satisfy NextGen initiatives that require a networked infrastructure to support dynamic asset reallocation. The NAS voice communications system consists of voice switching functions, radio control functions, and a telecommunications medium. The upgrade will require a system with proven technology that ensures availability in both high traffic volume and emergency situations while maintaining current voice quality and latency standards. The purpose of this Market Survey/RFI is: to solicit information related to improving the Government's understanding of the current voice communications marketplace, to obtain information on available technology and innovative approaches that may fulfill its mission, and to gain insight into industry capabilities and best practices in regards to a voice system that provides flexibility for the NAS. Vendors are welcome to invite the FAA to view demonstrations of any aspect of their representative solutions. The FAA is contemplating a Contract Award date in FY11. Attachment A provides background information on the current NAS voice communications system, concepts and ideas being studied by our European counterparts as well standards development by International bodies in support of Air Traffic Management communications to help gain insight into issues impacting its performance and long term supportability. Attachment B is the vendor response template. Interested vendors are requested to provide full and complete responses to the items in Attachment B. Special emphasis is being placed on identifying innovative communications solutions that will improve the quality of the FAA's Investment Analysis efforts and the forthcoming acquisition of a new state of the art voice communications system. Respondents to the Market Survey/Request for Information may be requested to provide additional information at the option of the Government. No evaluation of vendors will occur and vendor participation in any informational session is not a promise for future business with the FAA. Information obtained from Attachment B will be used to support the development of an acquisition strategy for a national program supporting all NAS voice communications; to refine the Government's NVS business case; and resolve system issues to support a business decision. Respondents who have additional material to add to previous inquiries are invited to provide supplemental responses. All responses (one response per company) are to be provided on company letterhead and limited to a total of 50 pages. No type font less than 12-point may be used. Any proprietary information submitted will be protected if appropriately marked. If there are questions, please submit them to the FAA Contracting Office, Ken Carter, via e-mail at Kenneth.M.Carter@faa.gov and via telephone at 202-267-3012. Responses to this RFI must be submitted by 3:00 p.m. on July 10 2009 but are welcome before the due date as well. The FAA prefers that all submittals, including attachments, be submitted electronically to the following email address: Kenneth.M.Carter@faa.gov. Please submit in a portable document format (PDF), however, Microsoft Word is acceptable. If you cannot respond electronically, please send to: Federal Aviation AdministrationATTN: Mr. Ken Carter, AJA-47800 Independence Avenue, SWWashington, D.C. 20591 ATTACHMENT ADESCRIPTION OF MISSION NEED There is an increasing need for flexible voice communication capabilities in support of both current and future demands on the FAA's NAS. New capabilities must overcome the inflexibility of current NAS voice communications by allowing better access to voice communication assets, load-sharing and load balancing across facilities, and dynamicallyreconfiguring sectors/facilities to support Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Business Continuity Planning. The future of the NAS requires the migration toward a networked voice communications system. The NAS voice communications system consists of voice switching functions, radio control functions and a telecommunications medium that supports Air Traffic Control (ATC) facilities with as few as 4 positions to over 800 positions. The scope of such a system creates several technical challenges. To meet mission requirements, the FAA must field a voice system with proven technology that ensures availability in both high traffic volume and emergency situations, while maintaining or improving current voice quality levels and latency standards. The following documents are included in this RFI as reference: - NextGen CONOPS (see http://www.jpdo.gov/library/NextGen_v2.0.pdf )- Presentation on European Organization for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) Working Group (WG) 67 EUROCAE Documents (EDs) 136-139.- NAS Voice Communications Proposed Functional Architecture and Definitions- Previous Market Survey Solicitations are available upon request The following may be used for a more complete understanding of current NAS planning:NAS Architecture 6.0 - http://nas-architecture.faa.gov/nas/NextGen - http://www.jpdo.gov/ ATTACHMENT BMARKET SURVEY/REQUEST FOR INFORMATIONRESPONSE TEMPLATE Respondents are requested to provide a white paper response identifying innovative approaches to the voice communications requirements in Attachment A. The response must: 1.Include an Executive Summary (no more than one page). 2. Provide analyses and information in response to the following: Voice Communication System1) Please identify the differences between your representative or deployed voice communications system and the attached Reference Architecture. Please provide information of any deployed location(s), system architecture, technology, communication protocols, scalability, etc. Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)/Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Considerations2) Assuming the FAA uses TDM, VoIP, or a hybrid of the two for the telecommunications medium, please describe the interfaces (e.g. E1/T1, 4 wire E&M, VoIP, etc.) supported by your representative voice communications system. 3) For your representative voice communications system architecture (Air-to-Ground/Ground-to-Ground), please propose a latency budget, for each ATM component in milliseconds. (e.g. European Organization for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) Working Group (WG) 67 EUROCAE Document (ED) 136) Please clarify your response with and without security considerations and also state your assumptions around the security parameters you would recommend. 4) Given the proposed Reference Architecture, would you consider TDM or IP a more optimal transportation medium to Air/Ground communication sites and other NAS facilities? 5) Given your representative protocol, please explain how you would transport the multiple PTT and main/standby select signals. 6) If your representative voice communications system utilizes VoIP, what would you allocate for bandwidth to satisfy the communication needs for a 4-position facility? What would be the allocation for an 800-position facility? Please describe specifically how you plan to deal with Capacity and sizing, number of packets per second, as well as throughput timing delay and performance. Please also provide the analysis of the aggregate bandwidth in terms of traffic and its rate of flow while accounting for security parameters. 7) If your representative voice communications system utilizes VoIP, what Interoperability Standards (e.g. European Organization for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) Working Group (WG) 67 EUROCAE Document (ED) 137) were used for VoIP ATM components (e.g. Radios, Radio Control Equipment, Voice Recording Equipment)? 8) If your representative voice communications system utilizes VoIP, what qualification tests for VoIP ATM components and systems are being used (e.g. EUROCAE WG67 ED 139)? NVS Management System (NMS)9) Please provide a description of the network management system functions and capabilities supporting your representative voice communications system. 10) How many network management nodes would you recommend in an optimal network? 11) Will the network status, monitoring and reporting system impact thenetwork performance, if so how? 12) Will the network management system capability be centralized ordistributed? 13) What type of network database design approach will be used for the NVS? 14) How would you integrate the NMS with the various elements of the NVS? Please focus your answer on the actual interfaces between each element and how the elements would "talk" to each other. Transition15) How would you meet the NextGen initiative during a transition (10 years or more) which continues legacy operations while introducing network equipment and capabilities (this includes replacing/modifying existing FAA switches, networks, and remote radio control units with your representative voice communications system)? Radio Control Equipment (RCE)16) Have you emulated RCE in voice switch and/or remote site equipment? 17) Presently, FAA Remote Communication Air Ground (RCAG) facilities' equipment racks accommodate 2U (3.5") of rack space for radio control equipment. Considering this 2U constraint, what is the size of your representative remote radio control unit (for 1 channel/2 frequencies) including thermal (venting) requirements? Reconfiguration18) What is the approach and how fast can your representative voice communications system reconfigure for one hundred Air-to-Ground channels to be up and operational at a back up site if there is a major disaster at an adjacent site? What are the limitations on reconfiguration as the number of channels increases over 100? Security19) What are the security risks and proposed mitigations, assuming a private, managed network? Consider the scenario where an unauthorized individual obtains physical access to a remote radio site; please specifically address the threat of a compromise to the voice communications system. Please document any assumptions upon which you have based your answer. 20) If your representative voice communications system utilizes VoIP, what Network Requirements (e.g. EUROCAE WG67 ED 138) were used to meet the needs of VoIP network services for ATM applications (e.g. Network Specifications/Domains, Security Architecture, IP Addressing Schemes)? Remote Maintenance Monitoring (RMM)21) Does your representative voice communications system support remote maintenance and monitoring? Please describe the system's RMM functions and high level design. Lifecycle Support22) Would your company consider a Build-Operate-Transfer Public/Private partnership located at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, OK for depot level maintenance on your representative voice communications system? 23) How would you recommend providing on-site controller training on your representative voice communications system including switch partitioning and separate switches? Please address the risks involved with each approach. General24) What tradeoffs should be explored in a system approach to the NAS voice communications system?
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