SOLICITATION NOTICE
D -- Aeronautical Communications Services (ACS)
- Notice Date
- 8/1/2019
- Notice Type
- Synopsis
- NAICS
- 517919
— All Other Telecommunications
- Contracting Office
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AAQ-320 WA - FAA Headquarters (Washington, DC)
- ZIP Code
- 20591
- Solicitation Number
- 34346
- Response Due
- 8/29/2019
- Archive Date
- 8/29/2019
- Point of Contact
- Benette Chen, benette.chen@faa.gov, Phone: 202-267-8420
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 1. Introduction The purpose of this Market Survey/Request for Information (RFI) is to obtain industry feedback on capabilities within the commercial marketplace to provide services similar to those currently obtained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under the Aeronautical Communications Services (ACS) contract. This public announcement is being issued in accordance with the FAA Acquisition Management System (AMS) Section 3.2.1.3.11. Interested parties are advised that: This is not a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposals; The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals; The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing the response to the market survey; and Any costs associated with the market survey/RFI response submittals are solely at the interested party ™s expense. 2. Background The ACS follow-on contract will support the exchange of the following data products between FAA facilities/systems, Airlines, International Civil Aviation Authorities (CAAs), and third parties: Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) data products distribution “ Allows the FAA to send advisory messages (e.g. Ground Delays, Flow Control) to airlines, and receive flight information from airlines using the Type-B International Air Transport Association (IATA) message format and the IBM-Message Queue (MQ) protocol. Dynamic Oceanic Tracking System (DOTS) data product distribution “ Allows the FAA to exchange Track Generation and Track Advisory data with airlines and third party providers from DOTS centers at Anchorage and Oakland using the Type-B IATA message format and the Common Message Handling Protocol (CMHP). CMHP is an FAA specific protocol. ACS services must comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Standards and Recommendation Practices, International Air Transport Association (IATA) Addressing Standards, FAA Procedures and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements as applicable. The defined performance requirements for ACS services are a minimum availability of 99.7% and restoration of service outages within 4 hours. The ACS contractor performs any communications protocol translations that may be needed to support the exchange of these messages. In addition, the ACS contractor is responsible for program management, engineering, solution development, testing, implementation, and service monitoring in relation to the exchange of the data products listed above. The estimated value of the possible follow-on contract is approximately $1 million over 5 years. 3. Current Message Volume and Functional Architecture Attachment 1, ACS - Message Volume Table, summarizes the message volumes supported by ACS. Attachment 2, Drawing of Current ACS Functional Architecture, provides a depiction of the current ACS functional architecture. 4. Potential Evolution of the FAA ™s Requirements A potential significant change under consideration is for the ACS follow-on contractor to utilize the FAA ™s System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) enterprise messaging infrastructure that implements JavaTM Messaging Services (JMS) and Web Services. Under this approach, the ACS follow-on contractor would be a subscriber of SWIM data products that would be available through the FAA NAS Enterprise Security Gateway (NESG). With respect to the pricing structure, the FAA is considering whether to keep pricing on a per-data product or per-service basis rather than connection-based pricing that supports the two products as a whole. Per service pricing provides granularity in the pricing so that the FAA has visibility into the impact of adding or discontinuing specific products/services. For example, TFMS messages may be discontinued as a service obtained under the ACS follow-on if the service can be migrated to SWIM. 5. Questions/Requests for Information a) Please describe your company/organization ™s ability to provide the services being considered for the scope of the ACS follow-on contract. b) Please provide an assessment of the pros and cons to pricing on a per-data product/service basis rather than a per-connection basis that supports all products as a whole. c) Please describe how leveraging SWIM enterprise messaging services could influence the structuring of the ACS follow-on contract in terms of requirements, pricing, etc. You may go to the following url for reference. https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/how_nextgen_works/new_technology/swim/in_depth/ for reference d) Are there any strategies that the FAA could employ to minimize the operational and financial impacts of transitioning from the existing ACS contract? e) How could a Service Level Agreement be structured to incentivize the Contractor ™s delivery of services that meet the FAA ™s requirements? f) Are there other service delivery models that the FAA should consider that would provide the current set of data products/services to stakeholders in a more cost-effective manner with no degradation in performance? For example, could the cost of distributing some message products be recovered by the subscribers rather than being subsidized by the FAA? g) Please identify any data products/services that could be added to the scope of the ACS follow-on contract to achieve economies of scale or other efficiency gains. Please indicate whether you would use any proprietary technology, software, tools, etc. to meet this requirement. h) Please provide your business size and category, e.g. Large Business, Small Business, Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), 8(a), Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB), etc. 6. Incumbent Contractor The ACS prime contractor is Collins Aerospace (formerly ARINC) located in Annapolis, Maryland. The current contract is DTFAWA-15-D-00042. 7. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code The North American Industry Classification System Code (NAICS) for this procurement is 517919, Other Telecommunications. 8. Responses to the Market Survey/RFI All comments/questions must be made in writing using Attachment 3, ACS Market Survey Comment Matrix and submitted to benette.chen@faa.gov via email not later than August 15, 2019, 4:00pm ET. Written comments received within this timeframe will be answered in writing and provided to all vendors. The Government reserves the right to not answer any inquiries received outside of the above timeframe. Interested parties are requested to submit their responses to the questions contained within this Market Survey/RFI by August 29, 2019, 4:00 pm ET. The FAA will not provide feedback on any of the submitted materials. In addition, responses to the Market Survey/RFI will not be viewed by the FAA as a commitment by the respondents to submit a proposal for the ACS follow-on contract. If any of the information submitted is considered to be proprietary, the submitter is responsible for marking it accordingly. Notwithstanding, the Government does not intend to release or distribute any of the information contained in the Market Survey/RFI responses. No bidder ™s conference or pre-proposal conference is planned at this time. 9. Market Survey / RFI Response Submission Instructions Market Survey/RFI responses must be submitted via electronic mail (e-mail) to Benette Chen (Benette.Chen@faa.gov) with œACS MARKET SURVEY RESPONSE in the subject line. Files must be submitted in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. No other form of submission will be accepted. Submissions must include the names and titles of company points-of-contact, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, fax numbers, and mailing addresses. Submissions are due by 4:00 pm ET on August 29, 2019. Please direct any inquiries regarding this matter to the FAA Contracting Officer, Benette Chen, via e-mail at benette.chen@faa.gov or telephone at (202) 267-8420. Attachments: 1. ACS “ Message Volume Table 2. Drawing of Current ACS Functional Architecture 3. ACS Market Survey Comment Matrix (End of Announcement) If you're viewing this announcement from a source other than Federal Aviation Administration Contract Opportunities (FAACO), visit https://faaco.faa.gov/index.cfm/announcement/view/34346 to view the original announcement. NOTE: THIS NOTICE WAS NOT POSTED TO FEDBIZOPPS ON THE DATE INDICATED IN THE NOTICE ITSELF (01-AUG-2019); HOWEVER, IT DID APPEAR IN THE FEDBIZOPPS FTP FEED ON THIS DATE. PLEASE CONTACT 877-472-3779 or fbo.support@gsa.gov REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
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