BNJA SSJA OM SAP greater than SAT - 5G RIC and Services for Stockbridge and Table Mt Locations 26 Aug (1)_1_Redacted.pdf

Sole Source (Including Brand Name) Justification - Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items

April 2021 Page 2 of 4

I. Contracting Activity.

Air Force Research Laboratory/RIK, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome NY 13441-4514

II. Nature and/or description of the action being processed.

This action will be awarded as a new contract. The type of contract planned is firm-fixed-price “FFP” with a value of to acquire highly specialized supplies and incidental services from Nokia Corporation of America.

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs.

Under the contemplated FFP contract, Nokia will provide supplies and incidental services in accordance with PWS titled:

“PWS - 5G RIC and Services for Stockbridge and Table Mt Locations” and the following:

-SEP (RIC) HW, Airframe OE HW RIC Server -SEP (RIC) SW, SEP(RIC) SW Platform, Sep 22 -NPO, Network Planning and Optimization: HLD, LLD, ATP Creation -Deploy, Network Deployment of RIC, installation, configuration, commissioning -TSS SWS, Technical Support Services - SW -TSS HWS, Technical Support Services - HW

The supplies and services listed above, are equally replicated/split between two test sites: the AFRL Stockbridge, NY test site, and the NTIA/ITS Table Mountain, CO test site.

The following is a high-level summary of the supplies and incidental services documented in the aforementioned PWS:

• Hardware and software for a 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) Intelligent Controller (RIC)-based “Xf” interface

• Engineering services (incidental) labor to perform:

o pre-deployment staging at the contractor's facility o deployment into the 5G stand-alone networks located at the AFRL Stockbridge, NY test site, and the

NTIA/ITS Table Mountain, CO test site - including:

site engineering services for hardware and software installation, including installation of Xf

Application in the RIC Platform End-to-End Testing and Acceptance Technical Support Services

IV. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

AFFARS 5313.501 - 10 U.S.C. 2302b, Implementation of Simplified Acquisition Procedures (41 U.S.C. 1901)

V. Demonstration that the contractor's unique qualifications or nature of the acquisition requires the use of the authority cited above (applicability of authority).

The products to be acquired are essential to the Government's requirements and other companies' products do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet the Governments needs. Nokia is the only source who can provide the required supplies and incidental services as it is a follow-on for deployment of a highly-specialized hardware/software interface into two Government test sites under a separate Other Transactional Agreement (OTA) for National Spectrum Consortium Project NSC-20-2070, OUSD R&E funded a competitively-awarded contract on 9/28/2020 to Nokia Corporation of America to deploy a commercial 5G network at Hill AFB, UT. NSC-20-2070 has a period of performance through 7/31/2023. In Modification 08 to OTA project agreement NSC-20-2070, Milestone (6.23a) required Nokia to develop a highly-specialized interface, called the “Xf” interface, which provided an interface to enable external application software control of internal features (Physical Resource Block Blanking, and Beam Muting) of Nokia's commercial 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) product. Milestone (6.33a) required delivery of a 5G Core and Additional Network Infrastructure

Sole Source (Including Brand Name) Justification - Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items

April 2021 Page 3 of 4 to enable the establishment of stand-alone 5G network sites at both AFRL - Stockbridge, NY and NTIA/ITS - Table Mountain, CO.

The hardware, software, and incidental services to implement Nokia's highly-specialized interface, called the “Xf” interface, into the existing Nokia equipment in the AFRL Stockbridge and NTIA/ITS Table Mountain 5G testbeds was not part of the scope of the NSC-20-2070 OTA contract.

Deployment of the Nokia-designed Xf interface into the AFRL Stockbridge and NTIA/ITS Table Mountain stand-alone 5G testbeds will be accomplished via this proposed acquisition. The highly-specialized Xf interface is essential to enable DoD use of the existing Nokia equipment in these testbeds, to support planned Government-led testing and experiments during FY 22-23 focused on interference mitigation between commercial 5G networks and DoD airborne radar systems.

The rationale for why the “Xf interface” supplies/services are “highly-specialized” is due to the fact that the “Xf interface” is unique to Nokia's existing commercial Radio Access Network hardware design, which is already deployed at the Stockbridge and Table Mountain test sites. No other vendor has access to the Nokia commercial 5G hardware product design upon which the Xf interface design is based. Substantial duplication of cost to the Government, which could not be recovered via open competition, would be necessary to essentially replace the existing multi-million-dollar network with a different design that would enable competition for an equivalent to the “Xf interface”. Furthermore, such an approach would also be entirely time-prohibitive, because the delays incurred in re-designing and re-competing the entire 5G network infrastructure would impact the entire program (to maintain compatibility of designs), not just the stand-alone test sites.

Therefore, this acquisition is for the acquisition of highly specialized equipment, and the incidental services to integrate, test, and provide engineering support for the highly specialized equipment at two Government test sites.

As the designer of the Nokia 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) and RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) commercial products upon which the Xf Interface is based, and as designer of the Xf Interface specific to those commercial products, Nokia Corporation has unique capabilities and qualifications necessary to meet the requirements of this acquisition.

The joint Program Management Team for the 5G Dynamic Spectrum Utilization Program believes that award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition and unacceptable delays in fulfilling the Air Force's requirements. The cost to design/develop the Nokia Xf Interface under NSC-20-2070 was approximately $6 M and the cost to acquire the Nokia 5G network equipment at the Stockbridge, NY and Table Mountain, CO test sites was approximately $3M. The anticipated cost to run a competition to acquire an equivalent Xf Interface (valued at $273 K in this acquisition) from another vendor, would require duplicating the $9 M + already invested by the Government to design/develop that interface for Nokia's commercial Radio Access Network (RAN) product. Additionally, the time necessary for another vendor to develop an equivalent Xf capability competitively would be approximately 6-7 months from date of award, based upon Nokia's performance on NSC-20-2070.

Coupled with the 4-6 months necessary to competitively award, the total delay would prevent the Stockbridge, NY and Table Mountain, CO test sites from conducting 5G interference testing events already scheduled in the Q1 FY 2023 timeframe. This would in turn negatively impact the OUSD R&E 5G Dynamic Spectrum Utilization Program, which funded these two testbeds that are based on the Nokia 5G commercial products.

Accordingly, Nokia Corporation is the only firm capable of providing the supplies and services described in Section III above without the U.S. Air Force experiencing substantial duplication of cost that could not be expected to be recovered through competition and unacceptable delays in fulfilling its requirements.

VI. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable.

A Presolicitation Notice outlining the Government's intent to make a sole source award to Nokia was posted to the SAM.gov website from 10-25 August 2022 A sources sought synopsis was not issued. No responses were received to give indication that another company other than Nokia could fulfill the requirement.

VII. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and

Sole Source (Including Brand Name) Justification - Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items

April 2021 Page 4 of 4 reasonable.

The Contracting officer will determine prices fair and reasonable with prices found fair and reasonable on previous purchases of the same or similar items in the same industry IAW FAR 13.106-3(a)(2)(ii).

VIII. Description of the market research conducted and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

A Presolicitation Notice outlining the Government's intent to make a sole source award to Nokia was posted to the SAM.gov website from 10-25 August 2022 A sources sought synopsis was not issued. No responses were received to give indication that another company other than Nokia could fulfill the requirement.

IX. Any other facts supporting the use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

None.

X. List of any sources that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

Nokia Corporation of America

XI. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required.

This acquisition is for supplies and services that will be integrated into two Government test sites. Those test sites will be conducting test events during a finite performance period associated with a separate OTA contract NSC-20-2070, which is currently through July 2023. Beyond the performance period of the NSC-20-2070 contract, the Government may choose to pursue future competitive acquisitions to evolve and transition the existing test sites, based on other vendor 5G network architectures and designs, including open/standardized interfaces to commercial 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) hardware.

XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

As evidenced by my signature above, I have determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by my (our) signature(s) above, I (we) certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is my (our) responsibility, is both accurate and complete.