BAA-ITS V2X Spectrum Testing Amendment 001.pdf

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT (BAA)

No. 693JJ3-20-BAA-0002 Amendment 001

“ITS V2X Spectrum Testing”

BAA No.

693JJ3-20-BAA-0002

BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT

(BAA) No. 693JJ3-20-BAA-0002

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Section Title Page

1 BAA Process Overview 3

2 Statement of Objectives 6

3 General Proposal Information 8

4 Instructions for Submission of Proposals 9

5 Proposal Format 10

6 Evaluation Criteria for Proposals 12

Technical Discussions and Cost/Price Negotiations 13

8 Attachments 14

SECTION 1 – BAA PROCESS OVERVIEW

1.1 GENERAL INFORMATION

Points of Contact: All inquiries regarding this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) shall be sent via email to the following individuals:

Contracting Officer: Veronica L. Price Veronica.Price@dot.gov

Contract Specialist: Amalia Rodezno Amalia.Rodezno@dot.gov

Contract Type: The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) anticipates making award of one or more Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contracts, resulting from this BAA.

1.2 SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT DATES

FHWA anticipates that the proposal evaluation, and award process for this BAA will proceed generally in accordance with the following schedule:

Broad Agency Announcement Issued February 3, 2020 Questions Due 11:00 AM (ET) February 19, 2020 Proposals Due 11:00 AM (ET) March 19 April 6, 2020 Anticipated Contracts Award Date April 2020

All correspondence shall be sent by electronic transmission to Amalia.Rodezno@dot.gov and a carbon copy Veronica.Price@dot.gov. No telephone requests will be taken.

Each prospective offeror submitting questions shall state each question in a format that the offeror would have no objection to the FHWA’s publishing that precise question (and its answer) in a formal amendment to the BAA, on the Government- wide Point of Entry (GPE), beta.SAM.gov. As such, the publication of each question (and its answer) on the GPE shall be worded so as not to divulge any information that the submitter considers to be proprietary or confidential.

1.3 BACKGROUND

US DOT monitors and assesses wireless technologies and available devices to determine their capabilities to support a wide range of transportation system communications requirements regarding safety, effectiveness, and other capabilities. These technical research and assessment activities provide data-driven inputs to the US DOT policy decision-makers.

In the context of US DOT’s responsibilities, US DOT is currently testing whether LTE-C-V2X, dual-mode, or 5G NR technologies can meet the requirements for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) Safety-of-Life and Public Safety Systems, as well as whether they mailto:Robert.p.brown@dot.gov mailto:Amalia.Rodezno@dot.gov mailto:Amalia.Rodezno@dot.gov mailto:Veronica.Price@dot.gov can perform potential interactions with existing technologies which currently support these systems. Based on evolving industry standards, there is a need to assess the commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) devices and prototype devices with any of these technologies if we expect to continue an uninterrupted and seamless advancement toward the greater safety that these technologies might provide.

1.4 PROGRAM SCOPE

Assessment of V2X technologies for safety, system efficiency, and mobility; and assessment of the safest and most efficient use of allocated spectrum to accommodate transportation needs requires transparent, comprehensive, and repeatable test results that assure that the technologies work under normal as well as varying traffic conditions that create “edge-use” cases. US DOT finds that the ability to achieve these results is to complete testing and use the data and results to inform decisions. US DOT seeks the following devices to pursue professional test track and real-world conditions testing in 2020:

• Long Term Evolution-Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (LTE-CV2X based on the 3GPP LTE specifications and the emerging SAE J3016 standard) devices

• Dual-mode DSRC and LTE-CV2X devices

• 5G New Radio (5G NR) devices

The USDOT’s Test Framework is comprised of several phases, test metrics, test procedures, and parallel planning test schedules. The USDOT’s Test Framework will require the purchase of multiple rounds of devices over the period of performance. The USDOT’s Test Framework for these testing efforts can be found here:

https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/pictures/Arnold%20Slides%20v3%2019NOV20 19%20rk-sms%20%28002%29.pdf.

1.5 PURPOSE

The U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) / Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is issuing this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to procure prototype or commercially available off-the-shelf Vehicle to Everything – referred to as V2X throughout this document – communications devices to support US DOT’s 5.9 GHz “Safety Band” Spectrum Testing. The devices will be used to evaluate the safety performance and capabilities of available equipment/devices and underlying technologies through both small and large scale testing, including scalability and congestion, interoperability, and complex transportation scenarios.

https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/pictures/Arnold%20Slides%20v3%2019NOV2019%20rk-sms%20%28002%29.pdf https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/pictures/Arnold%20Slides%20v3%2019NOV2019%20rk-sms%20%28002%29.pdf

SECTION 2 – STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

The US DOT is seeking devices, documentation, and technical assistance (when necessary) to evaluate the capabilities of available equipment/devices and underlying technologies through both small- and large-scale field testing in the 5.9 GHz “Safety Band.” Since the US DOT is seeking diversity in devices, the US DOT anticipates acquiring a minimum of 250 devices across offers from different vendors to conduct field testing. Vendors are encouraged to specify the number of devices that are available and suitable for testing and can be delivered within 30 days of an agreement with US DOT. There is no minimum number that a vendor can offer.

The intent of this work is three-fold:

a) To gauge the maturity of each device technology,

b) To assess their technical capabilities (performance, interference sensitivity or interference mitigations, effective use of spectrum, among others) and interoperability among devices from different suppliers, and

c) To inform decision makers.

The materials and personnel required to meet the US DOT objectives are summarized below and outlined in more detail later in this document.

• Materials – Provide all necessary equipment in order for devices to operate in testing, including technical manuals (e.g. hardware/software installation manuals), and access to data logs. The equipment requested are prototype or COTS device types as follows:

o LTE-CV2X (based on the 3GPP LTE specifications and the emerging SAE J3016 standard) devices1 o Dual-mode DSRC and LTE-CV2X devices o 5G NR devices

• Personnel – Provide personnel with the technical background to answer technical questions about device operations.

The USDOT’s Test Framework is comprised of several phases, test metrics, test procedures, and parallel planning test schedules. An ideal test schedule would subscribe to testing LTE-CV2X, Dual mode DSRC and LTE-CV2X, and 5G NR devices in parallel. However, the USDOT has recognized that the three (3) devices are at different maturity levels of design, prototype, and production. Therefore, the USDOT anticipates acquiring a minimum of 250 COTS devices (i.e., production ready devices) from different vendors to conduct field testing; whereby the USDOT anticipates acquiring small values of prototypes based on the vendor’s availability of devices. The USDOT reserve the right to purchase multiple rounds of prototype and/or COTS devices over the period of performance based on maturity levels and/or the USDOT’s Test Framework.

1 If there is a different set of specifications or standards with the device, please identify them.

Operating Constraints / Assumptions In order to meet testing requirements in a timely fashion, the following operating constraints and assumptions will be considered:

• Devices must be configured to operate within the 5.9 GHz band

• Devices must have the ability to be encased in weather-protected enclosures to allow for realistic field testing in outdoor settings; these enclosures are sought along with the devices

• Devices must provide the capability for testers to interface in a reasonable manner (i.e.

using pre-defined scripts) to device settings (such as power settings, channel number, message size, message transmission rate, modulation scheme, or congestion control parameters)

• Devices must be interoperable among devices from different suppliers

• Devices must provide minimum data logs during testing. Minimum logs include:

o Log of Transmission (Tx) and Received (Rx) Messages o Time Stamp of each message o Channel Busy Ratio o Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) o Transmit Power levels o Display of resource block (RB) and subframe selection if LTE-CV2X

Required devices, documentation and relevant information

The US DOT is seeking the following devices and supporting documentation:

I. Commercially Available off-the-shelf LTE-CV2X devices that are sold in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace, without any modification required for testing

1) Name of the company

2) Manufacturer Part Number and Unit Cost

3) Provide a Technical Brochure

4) Provide the minimum and maximum number of units that can be delivered within 30-days of receiving an order

5) Provide technical manuals (e.g., hardware/software installation manuals)

II. Prototype LTE-CV2X devices that support testing by providing appropriate test data logs

1) Name of company

2) Manufacturer Part Number and Unit Cost

3) Provide salient features (i.e., both hardware and software)

4) Provide amount available; and an exact month and year of availability

5) In detail, describe the availability of the company’s technical support for research and testing purposes

III. Commercially Available off-the-shelf LTE-CV2X and DSRC (dual mode) devices that are sold in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace, without any modification required for testing

1) Name of the company

2) Manufacturer Part Number and Unit Cost

3) Provide a Technical Brochure

4) Provide the minimum and maximum number of units that can be delivered within 30-days of receiving an order

5) Provide technical manuals (e.g., hardware/software installation manuals)

IV. Prototype dual-mode devices that support testing by providing appropriate test data logs

1) Name of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)

2) Manufacturer Part Number and Unit Cost

3) Provide salient features (i.e., both hardware and software)

4) Provide amount available; and an exact month and year of availability

5) In detail, describe the availability of the company’s technical support for research and testing purposes

V. Prototype 5G New Radio devices that support testing by providing appropriate test data logs

1) Name of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)

2) Manufacturer Part Number and Unit Cost

3) Provide salient features (i.e., both hardware and software)

4) Provide amount available; and an exact month and year of availability

5) In detail, describe the availability of the company’s technical support for research and testing purposes

Regarding the availability of a company’s technical support, this support will need to align with the USDOT’s efforts to prepare for testing the safety effectiveness of wireless devices designed to operate in the radio spectrum reserved for vehicle safety applications such as Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications.

SECTION 3 – GENERAL PROPOSAL INFORMATION

3.1 GENERAL INFORMATION

All business and administrative correspondence or questions on this BAA shall be directed to the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist identified in Section 1.

The FHWA may elect to make award to all offerors, none, or a subset of the proposal submission which meet its needs. The FHWA anticipates that a minimum of 250 devices will be tested overall.

Price reasonableness and realism will also be considered in the overall selection process.

Individual proposal evaluations will be based on the acceptability or non-acceptability of the proposal without regard to other proposals submitted under the announcement. Selection will be based on the technical acceptability of items proposed and the availability of funds.

The number of awards and their dollar values will vary depending on the merit of proposals received.

3.2 OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

It is the policy of the FHWA to treat all proposals as competitive information and to disclose the contents only for the purposes of evaluation. Only Government evaluators will make successful proposal selections under this BAA.

This BAA constitutes the public announcement as contemplated by FAR 5.203(e) and is in accordance with the competitive procedures outlined in FAR 6.102(d)(2)(i).

3.3 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The maximum length of each contract will be for 18 months, but it is expected that the initial delivery will occur within 30-45 days of each respective contract award.

3.4 PROPOSAL INFORMATION

This BAA is an expression of interest only and the Government will not pay any direct proposal preparation costs. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit proposals, which will be evaluated based on the evaluation criteria outlined in Section 6.

The number of awards, and their dollar value, will vary depending on the technical merit of proposals received and the availability of funding.

SECTION 4 – INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

4.1 PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

Offerors shall submit technical proposals, which shall detail the devices that are available, how many are available, provide technical manuals or a description of the technical support that is available for prototypes and demonstrate the device(s)’s overall readiness for testing.

In addition, offerors shall submit a price proposal that provides a complete and total price, which will include the price per device, any detailed breakdown of the labor hours and rates for the technical support for any proposed prototypes, and other general business information.

If necessary, the FHWA will request additional price back-up information, resumes or supplemental information as appropriate.

Any failure to conform to the instructions and rules in this section or in the instructions accompanying the invitation to submit a proposal may result in the proposal being deemed unresponsive and eliminated from further consideration.

If an offeror does not understand the instructions as described herein, then they must submit their questions(s) to the Contract Specialist (and Contracting Officer) listed in section 1 for clarification; the deadline for all questions is specified in Section 1.2 of this document.

SECTION 5 –PROPOSAL FORMAT

All proposals shall be submitted in Microsoft® Word or text searchable Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF). Pricing data shall be submitted in Microsoft Excel format.

The format of the proposal volumes discussed below shall be as follows:

(a) Proposals shall be prepared on 8½ x 11-inch paper.

(b) A page is defined as one side of an 8 ½ by 11-inch sheet of paper. Therefore, a sheet with printing on both sides is considered two pages.

(c) Text shall be printed using a Times New Roman or Arial font, size no less than 12-point font.

(d) Page margins (exclusive of headers and footers) shall be a minimum of 1inch top, bottom and each side. Columns shall not be used as they are difficult to read electronically.

(e) Footnotes, legends, or labels associated with tables or diagrams, and other information that is ancillary to the main text, may be presented in a font size smaller than 12-point font---provided that any such smaller font is fully legible.

Proposals shall consist of two separate volumes:

• Volume I – Technical Proposal, consisting of:

o Technical Merit

• Volume II – Price Proposal and Business Information

Proposals shall be submitted by an authorized representative and include a technical volume of 10 pages or less in length (not including technical manuals or the response to Appendix A) and a separate, detailed price proposal.

The technical volume shall include the following sections and subsections.

Cover Page with:

• The solicitation number

• Proposal title

• Type of business (large business, small disadvantaged business, other small business, HBCU or MI, other educational, or other nonprofit)

• Technical and administrative/contractual points of contact including addresses, telephone numbers, electronic mail addresses, and facsimile machine numbers.

Technical Merit, to include the following:

(1) Description of the proposed device availability:

• The offeror must clearly and concisely state the device availability and their ability to deliver the devices within 30, 60, and 90 days of an agreement with the USDOT. The offeror must provide amount available and an exact month and year of availability.

• Provide the minimum and maximum number of units that can be delivered within 30, 60, and 90 days of receiving an award.

• Because the device(s) technology is new, there is no strict minimum number that an offeror can offer.

(2) Technical Documents for Device(s) (for items beyond the prototype phase)

• The offeror must provide all technical manuals (e.g. hardware/software installation manuals) for the proposed device(s) which clearly articulates the device configuration and functionality.

• If the device is a prototype, the offeror must provide a description of any available technical support.

(3) Technical Support for Prototype Device(s)

• The offeror must provide an approach to technical support for all prototype devices.

• In detail, the offeror must describe the availability of the company’s technical support for research and testing purposes. Staffing approach showing that proposed staff have the relevant experience, education and expertise to successfully perform the work required in the BAA;

• Proposed Key Personnel - Demonstrated education, experience, and accomplishments of key personnel to perform their proposed duties under the contract.

• This support will need to align with the USDOT’s efforts to prepare for testing the safety effectiveness of wireless devices designed to operate in the radio spectrum reserved for vehicle safety applications such as Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications. The test framework for these testing efforts can be found here:

https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/pictures/Arnold%20Slides%20v3%2019 NOV2019%20rk-sms%20%28002%29.pdf

(4) Technical Merit for Readiness in Testing

• Offeror must complete Appendix A- Device Characterization

Volume II –Price Proposal (No page limit)

In addition to the technical volume, offerors shall submit a detailed price proposal that provides complete budget information. The proposal shall include a price per each individual device, the price for any technical support, with supporting evidence of labor rates and hours, and the overall total price for the effort.

If necessary, the government will request additional pricing supporting documentation information, as appropriate.

Other Financial / Organizational Information:

All offerors must be registered to accept Federal contracts in SAM.gov before submitting a proposal. All offerors must complete the representations and certifications portion in SAM.gov before submitting a proposal.

https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/pictures/Arnold%20Slides%20v3%2019NOV2019%20rk-sms%20%28002%29.pdf https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/pictures/Arnold%20Slides%20v3%2019NOV2019%20rk-sms%20%28002%29.pdf

SECTION 6 – EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR PROPOSALS

6.1 Evaluation Criteria

The primary basis for selecting proposal submissions for award will be based on Technical Merit, to include: 1) device availability and timely device delivery; 2) technical documents; 3) technical support for prototype devices; 4) technical merit in readiness in testing; and availability of funds.

Technical merit will consider the robustness of the device configuration, integration, and flexibility in a testing environment. Price proposals shall not be score or rated, but will be evaluated for price realism and reasonableness. The evaluation criteria are in descending order:

Technical Merit:

1) Device Availability and Timely Device Delivery: The Government will evaluate the likelihood of successful and timely delivery of the devices.

2) Technical Documents for Device(s): The Government will evaluate whether the offeror has submitted technical manuals with sufficient information that the USDOT can conduct the testing without needing technical support.

(3) Technical Support for Prototype Device(s): The Government will evaluate the offeror’s technical approach, including technical personnel, to ensure successful performance of devices required in the BAA SOO. The Government will evaluate whether the proposed support aligns with USDOT’s efforts to prepare for testing of the safety effectiveness of the wireless devices designed to operate in the radio spectrum reserved for vehicle safety applications such as Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications.

(4) Technical Merit for Readiness in Testing: The Government will evaluate the offeror’s responses to Appendix A to evaluate the overall readiness of the devices for testing.

Fund Availability and Reasonableness:

Funds availability will be considered in the ultimate award decision. The Government will analyze proposals to determine the fair and reasonableness of all proposed pricing.

SECTION 7 – TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS AND COST/PRICE NEGOTIATIONS

7.1 Contract Vehicle

All contracts under this BAA will be awarded as a Firm Fixed Price contracts.

7.2 Discussions/Negotiations

If any technical clarifications or technical discussions are necessary, or if there are questions regarding/exceptions taken to price proposed, the Government will contact the respective offeror to initiate discussions/negotiations.

7.3 Revised or Updated Price Proposal

If necessary, at the same time an offeror is notified of their selection as an awardee, they may be requested to submit either an updated or revised price proposal and any additional cost information or supporting pricing data.

7.4 Redacted Proposals

All successful offerors (awardees) are required to submit redacted proposals within 10 business days of contract award. These redacted proposals will allow the U.S. DOT to provide timely responses to any Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests it receives for the subject BAA. A redacted proposal shall consist of the following documents (adobe pdf read/write format):

• Clean Copy of the Final Technical Proposal Revision and all negotiation/discussion questions and responses.

• Redacted Copy of the Final Technical Proposal Revision and all negotiation/discussion questions and responses.

• Clean Copy of the Final Price Proposal Revision and all negotiation/discussion questions and responses.

• Redacted Copy of the Final Price Proposal Revision and all negotiation/discussion questions and responses.

• A summary document listing the redactions on each proposal volume, the related FOIA exemption and a brief narrative describing why the FOIA exemption selection applies.

SECTION 8 – ATTACHMENTS

1. Attachment A- Device Characterization

2. Attachment B-Technology Readiness Level Description