A -- INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES -- WHITE PAPER IN SUPPORT OF THE DUAL USE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (DUST) BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Notice Date

February 16, 2001

Contracting Office

U.S. Army CECOM, CECOM Acquisition Center, Fort Monmouth, NJ 07703-5008

ZIP Code

07703-5008

Solicitation Number

DAAB07-01-R-L562

Response Due

March 9, 2001

Point of Contact

Gary Reckeweg, Contract Specialist (732) 427-1346; Andrew Dellomo, Contracting Officer (732) 532-3569

E-Mail Address

Gary Reckeweg, Contract Specialist; Andrew Dellomo, (Gary.Reckeweg@mail1.monmouth.army.mil; Andrew.Dellomo@mail1.monmouth.army.mil)

Description

PURPOSE: The purpose of this announcement is to solicit ideas/topics for using commercial technologies to satisfy Army tactical communications needs. These topics/ideas, if accepted, will be included in the Dual Use Science and Technology (DUST) Broad Agency Announcement in the area of Information and Communications. DUST seeks to exploit the efficiencies generated through the use of common production lines for commercial and military products, reap the reduced costs resulting from larger scale production runs and leverage industry's willingness to invest in commercially viable technologies. DUST provides incentive funding to support dual use technology projects. DUST projects are funded 50% by the Government and 50% by the industry partner using cooperative agreements or other transactions for execution. BACKGROUND It is anticipated that over the next five to ten years the current terrestrial based network will evolve into a dynamic, multi-tiered architecture with the addition of the UAV (Unmanned Ariel Vehicles) and other flying platforms and satellite networks. This evolutionary architecture will be characterized by a number of integrated but different communication transmission bands, logically interconnected by some form of packet or cell based switching to provide robust, multi-media, QOS based, unicast/multicast/anycast communication for the (nearly) continuously On the Move (OTM) subscriber network nodes as they move through a dynamic network environment. Any backbone required will similarly be OTM as well. The term OTM implies that communication (unicast, multicast, or anycast) is provided without loss of end-user capabilities, while both (or either) the user end point and/or the associated backbone networks are in motion. In the commercial world, this capability is sometimes referred to "Plug and Play". The dynamic re-configuration must be accomplished without human intervention, and incur a minimal amount of communication and machine overhead. OBJECTIVE The focus of this effort is to develop secure mobile wireless networking and solutions for mobile digitized communications and information networks such as those being deployed to the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) and Objective Force. We are interested in the following sub areas: On the Move Networked Communications: Seeks to enhance battle command mobility, increase the operational tempo, reduce battlefield signatures and increase survivability for both personnel mounted in vehicles or dismounted in small unit operations. This mobile On-The-Move (OTM), dynamic communications network capability will increase the commander's flexibility and mobility by reducing the need for the commander to stop and set up, prior to communicating. The focus of this effort will be in integrating a highly adaptive open system architecture. The communications infrastructure will support the seamless flow of multimedia services across terrestrial and space based platforms in support of dispersed elements, split based operations, integrated multi-tiered communications and range extension. The following concepts highlight areas of interest: Horizontal and Vertical Hand-off Between Multiple Wireless networks: This area specifically addresses horizontal hand-off and vertical hand-off for terrestrial, airborne, and space based networks to support seamless connectivity of fixed or mobile users within a military environment. This heterogeneous communications environment is characterized by networks with widely varying parameters such as bandwidth and delay characteristics, channel availability and bit error rate. Ad-hoc Mobility: This addresses the ability to provide network solutions for mobile, ad hoc, wireless, multihop, peer to peer communications in the absence of a fixed infrastructure. Dynamic Multi-tier Communications: The efficient use of all communications resources in a wireless, ad hoc, dynamic, heterogeneous communication environment. Additionally, management of networks in this environment is critical to meeting Army needs. It is also anticipated that the techniques developed above will be required to operate the developing/emerging WIN-T, SINCGARS/INC, and JTRS communication network platforms. In addition, the subscriber host population must be assumed to be a collection of laptops and workstations, cell phones and hand-held hosts such as PDAs (Personal Data Assistants). It may be assumed that these end devices are multi-media capable (including simultaneous voice, video, and data) and may require VTC and real time reliable multicast capabilities. It is further assumed that these devices are capable of end-to-end as well as link encryption. Networking of Unattended Sensors: The U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) will rely heavily on the use of remote, unattended sensors to find, identify and track enemy targets. Successful use of these critical sensor fields requires development of complementary communication networks to interconnect the sensors within a sensor field and also to connect the sensor field back to higher-level data fusion and command and control facilities. In addition, the communications must support static sensor fields and other distributed robotic sensors that could be air or ground mobile. The sensor network will consist basically of two seamless layers; the Lower Sensor Sub Layer (LSSL) consisting of acoustic, magnetic and seismic detection sensors and the High Sensor Sub Layer (HSSL) consisting of infrared imagery sensors, which are cued by the lower layer. Antennas: Develop a family of highly efficient, practical, cost effective antennas and subordinate products for the Future Combat Systems (FCS). The FCS antennas require increased antenna bandwidth for multimission communications; increased antenna gain for robust communications and range extension; increased mobility for high data rate on-the-move (OTM) communications; and reduced antenna visual signatures for low probability of mission detection and increased survivability. Information Protection and Information Assurance: This includes security mechanisms that protect against, detect, and respond to network-based attacks. The security solutions must be integrated and proven within the bandwidth and connectivity constraints of the Army's tactical networks at all its levels. Topic areas may include but not be limited to Network Access Control (User Identification and Authentication, Cryptographic authentication and Multi-level security), Intrusion Detection and Response to insider and outsider attacks, Host Protection Devices to include C2 Protect tools, malicious code detection and eradication mechanisms, and malicious mobile code detection/eradication, Security Management tools to assist network managers to more efficiently manage the various network protection mechanisms in a mobile network while greatly reducing the training and skill level required to accomplish the task of security management. RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS Interested parties are encouraged to submit a one page white paper describing the proposed topic including the commercial technology of interest, top-level capabilities and the operational enhancements the technology will add to the integrated systems under this topic. Additionally the white paper will describe the potential commercial application of the proposed topic are. This procedure is intended to minimize unnecessary effort in proposal preparation and review. Offerors may respond to this topic in whole or some subset thereof. Open system techniques and solutions are encouraged due to the necessity to provide an integrated solution. Responses are required Not Later Than 9 March 2001.

Web Link

Army Business Opportunities Page (http://abop.monmouth.army.mil)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010221/ASOL012.HTM (W-047 SN50D9D1)