DARPA-SN-20-11 OPS-5G Proposers Day Announcement.pdf

Special Notice

Open Programmable Secure 5G (OPS-5G)

Proposers Day

DARPA-SN-20-11

December 18, 2019

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 675 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203-2114

DARPA-SN-20-11

DARPA Information Innovation Office

Open Programmable Secure 5G (OPS-5G) Proposers Day – January 7, 2020

Arlington, VA https://www.schafertmd.com/darpa/i2o/ops-5g/pd/

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Innovation Office (I2O) is sponsoring a Proposers Day, to provide information to potential proposers on the objectives of the anticipated Open Programmable Secure 5G Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). If released, DARPA will post the BAA on the System for Award Management (SAM) website at https://beta.sam.gov/.

DARPA will hold this Proposers Day at the unclassified level. There is no fee to attend. DARPA hosts Proposer Days to promote teaming arrangements between researchers, provide potential performers with information on whether and how they might respond to the Government's research and development solicitations, and to increase efficiency in proposal preparation and evaluation. Therefore, Proposer Days are open only to registered potential proposers. This meeting is not open to the general public or members of the media.

The Proposers Day will be on January 7, 2020, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM (ET) at the DARPA Conference Center, located at 675 N. Randolph Street, Arlington, Virginia, 22203. Check-in begins at 8:00 AM (ET). Advance registration is required to attend in person. Attendance at the OPS-5G Proposers Day is voluntary and is not required to propose to subsequent solicitations (if any) on this topic. The Proposers Day does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals. This notification is issued solely for information and program planning purposes, and is not a Request for Information (RFI). Since this is not an RFI, DARPA will not accept submissions against this notice. DARPA will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred to participate in this Proposers Day. Interested parties to this notice are cautioned that nothing herein obligates DARPA to issue a solicitation.

The Proposers Day will include overview presentations by DARPA personnel. There will be a Question & Answer session following the presentations. Additionally, in order to facilitate teaming discussions, proposers may indicate on the registration website that they authorize their contact information to be shared among meeting participants. DARPA will not actively manage teaming.

Following the Proposers Day, DARPA anticipates posting additional information regarding the Open Programmable Secure 5G program (e.g., DARPA materials presented at the Proposers Day and a Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ] document) to http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities.

SUMMARY

DARPA’s Open Programmable Secure 5G (OPS-5G) program will create open source software and systems enabling secure 5G and follow-on mobile networks. OPS-5G creates capabilities to address feature velocity in open source software, a trillion-node Botnet of Things (BoT), network slicing on suspect gear, and adaptive adversaries operating at scale. The long-term objective is a US-friendly ecosystem.

http://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/opportunities

5G networks are characterized by increased capabilities across a variety of measures, including throughputs, latencies, numbers of devices and battery life. 5G is used to attach small special purpose devices comprising the Internet of Things (IoT) to the Internet, and the important and growing number of services provided by the World Wide Web. IoT devices are often sensors, and 5G access to their data is envisioned to play important roles in medicine, manufacturing and smart cities.

Core network features to support new applications are also present, ranging from network slicing to support for programmable networks. Support for programmability may include software-defined network (SDN) switches, network function virtualization (NFV) nodes, and Manycore data plane processing devices. The combination of customized virtual infrastructures and programmability permits customization at a wide variety of network locations.

These futuristic features also present the greatest risk to US national security, as networks are simultaneously critical infrastructure and the means used for cyberespionage and cyberwarfare.

DARPA’s OPS-5G will overcome this risk by pursuing research leading to development of a portable standards-compliant network stack for 5G mobile that is open source and secure by design. OPS-5G will create open source software and systems enabling secure 5G and subsequent global networks.

The signature security advantage of open source software is increased code visibility, meaning that code can be examined, analyzed, and audited manually or more fruitfully, with automated tools. In addition, the portability of open source serves, as a desired side effect, to decouple the hardware and software ecosystems (see Figure 1). This significantly raises the difficulty of a supply-chain attack, and eases the introduction of innovative hardware into the market.

Figure 1: OPS-5G augments Open Source Software to obtain a secure 5G system

The over-arching goal of OPS-5G is to improve 5G security. Specifically, this program will develop novel technologies in the following areas:

• Cost-effective, scalable network and node security across devices with vastly disparate size, weight, and power

• Mitigation of new attack surfaces introduced by virtualization and network slicing

• Changing network programmability from a threat vector to an enabler of security at scale

OPS-5G changes are focused on increasing trust at a set of soft points that include unmanaged, unattended, long-lived, and possibly long-forgotten IoT devices, unintended and unwanted interactions between slices, and threats from the vast increases in the scale of the network.

Additionally, OPS-5G will develop technology accelerating the development of open-source software from 5G standards documents by developing automated capabilities to translate such documents into a machine representation facilitating software development and verification. Such information could include software structure, interfaces, and protocol graphs.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Please register at https://www.schafertmd.com/darpa/i2o/ops-5g/pd/ no later than 5:00 PM (ET) on January 2, 2020. Attendance is open to individuals who are U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and foreign nationals.

Any U.S. citizen wishing to attend, who has not pre-registered on OPS-5G Proposers Day registration website, will be required to submit a completed Form 104 at the registration table prior to admittance into the event. The Form 104 can be found directly on the DARPA website at http://www.darpa.mil/policy/visitor-information.

Any registrant who is not a U.S. citizen must complete and submit a DARPA Form 60 (U.S. Permanent Resident and Foreign National Visit Request) no later than January 2, 2020 at 5:00 PM (ET). This form and submission instructions are provided on the registration website.

Late registrations may be admitted after all pre-registered attendees are admitted, and only if room capacity allows. In addition, late registration processing requires significant coordination and may not be completed in time to attend the Proposers Day.

Due to space limitations of the conference facility, attendance will be limited to the first 160 registrants.

No more than two representatives per organization unit may attend this Proposers Day. Registrants are strongly encouraged to coordinate attendance internally within their organizations prior to registration, and to send the fewest number of people.

Upon entry to the event, all attendees will be required to present valid, Government-issued photo identification.

http://www.darpa.mil/policy/visitor-information

TENTATIVE AGENDA

Start End Duration Item

8:00 AM 9:00 AM 0:60 Registration

9:00 AM 9:05 AM 0:05 Security Briefing

9:05 AM 9:30 AM 0:25 Contracts Management Office Briefing Mr. Mark Jones, DARPA CMO

9:30 AM 10:30 AM 0:60 Open Programmable Secure 5G (Ops-5G) Presentation Dr. Jonathan Smith, DARPA I2O

10:30 AM 10:45 AM 0:15 Turn in Questions

10:45 AM 11:45 AM 0:60 PM Question Review and Informal Teaming Discussions

11:45 AM 12:45 PM 0:60 Q&A Session (Answer attendee questions)

ATTENDEE TEAMING

To assist those wanting to establish collaborative teaming efforts and business relationships, potential proposers may indicate on the registration website that they authorize their contact information to be shared among meeting participants. For organizations new to DARPA, this may be of use in connecting with potential partners. Team formation, communications, and networking are the sole responsibility of the participants. As noted above, the Proposers Day agenda has time for informal teaming discussions.

POINT OF CONTACT

Send all questions regarding the Proposers Day to OPS-5G@darpa.mil.

mailto:OPS-5G@darpa.mil