FBO_MITRE_Sole_Source_or_Brand_Name_SAP_Justification.pdf

V220T.12 (01/15)

Procurement Request No. V3451005

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

VOLPE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS CENTER (VOLPE CENTER)

INSERT OFFICE OF THE TECHNICAL INITIATOR OF THE PR

SOLE SOURCE OR BRAND NAME SAP JUSTIFICATION

A. Description of Supplies/Services.

Recommend that negotiations be conducted with MITRE Corporation (MITRE) on a noncompetitive basis for award of an electrical engineering services contract to develop a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver test plan to measure the susceptibility of GPS receivers to signal loss. The period of performance will be eight (8) months.

The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R), seeks to develop a Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receiver test plan to measure the interference tolerance of GPS receivers. The tolerance will be determined by using out-of-band emissions (OOBE), Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular, and Continuous Waveform (CW) frequency interferences. The goal is to bound interference tolerance by one or more masks, for GPS receiver categories, to define allowable adjacent band (to GPS signals) power limit criteria. The contractor shall consider LTE and CW signals as the most critical adjacent band interference.

The GPS Receiver test plan will be used to document the procedures, methodologies, interference sources, and other critical items related to the effective testing of GPS receivers. This test plan is critical as it will be shared amongst the GPS community (through workshops) to provide an open and transparent approach on how the GPS receivers’ masks will be measured. The test plan will be the basis and/or road map on how to measure where GPS receivers are susceptible to frequencies adjacent to GPS signals. The plan developed as a result of this contract may be used to perform testing under a future contract.

In order to meet the Government’s needs the contractor must meet the following requirements: (i) expertise in GPS interference issues, (ii) expertise in cellular LTE technologies, (iii) laboratory facilities for GPS receiver testing, (iv) laboratory facilities for LTE signal generation and network simulators, (v) experience of having conducted Adjacent Band Compatibility analysis between civil GPS receiver and LTE Networks, and (vi) independent from the commercial GPS and cellular industries.

B. Market Research.

The Volpe Center has hosted two GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility workshops which were open to the general public and advertised through Federal Register Notices (FRNs):

Workshop I: September 18, 2014 , Volpe Center, Cambridge, MA Workshop II: December 4, 2014, Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA

These workshops were intended to provide an open and transparent forum of the work that the Volpe Center is conducting on behalf of the DOT. In addition to obtaining feedback of that process, the Volpe Center looked for understanding of the capabilities and expertise in the areas of GPS receiver and interference testing.

Subsequent to the workshops, project staff met with a variety of organizations and companies to better understand their capabilities and conduct market research. Listed below are the companies/organizations, date of interaction, and strengths and limitations:

Exelis Corporation: September 5, 2014, September 16, 2014, and December 18, 2014

Exelis Corporation, a for-profit organization, has access to engineers who have an understanding of the fundamentals of GPS receivers and spectrum interference issues. Exelis has not been involved with previous

GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility efforts (TWG) and does not understand the issue related to those previous efforts. They do not have relevant experience with the RFI sources identified above and therefore do not meet the basic requirements of this requirement.

Aerospace Corporation: September 25, 2014, September 30, 2014, December 18, 2014 Aerospace Corporation is an FFRDC and they have been involved with previous GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility efforts. Therefore they have an understanding of the issues related to previous efforts and have highly skilled engineers who understand GPS receiver architecture and interference sources. However they have no relevant experience with cellular LTE RFI sources. As a result, Aerospace Corporation does not meet the Government’s requirements.

National Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network (NASCTN): September 19, 2014 NASCTN was established by the Department of Commerce (NIST and NTIA) in 2014 in order to organize a national network or Federal, academic, and commercial test facilities that would provide testing, modeling and analysis necessary to develop and deploy spectrum-sharing technologies and inform future spectrum policy and regulations. Although they have been set up to conduct work similar to the Government’s requirements, they desire to remain on the sidelines to observe and learn the process as they are newly formed and are still in the process of developing their qualifications to perform a Government requirement.

Market research using the Small Business Administration’s (SBA), “Small Market Database” returned no search results of companies who meet the Governments requirements. The following keywords were searched 1) “GPS Testing”, 2) “Test Plans”, and 3) “GPS Receiver Testing”.

The outcome of additional market research conducted through web searches and discussions with industry experts did not yield a suitable alternative resource to meet the Government’s need to develop a GPS receiver test plan and measure where GPS receivers are susceptible to loss to received GPS signals.

One example of a company found through a web search is Spectracom. They are a manufacturer of GPS receiver test equipment and do not meet the Government requirements listed in Part A, specifically “v” and “vi”. Another company found during a websearch was National Instruments, who again do not meet the Government requirements listed in Part A, specifically “v” and “vi”.

Therefore, as a result of these workshops and additional market research conducted, to date, there are no other companies or organizations that meet all of the requirements set forth in this PR besides MITRE.

C. Supporting Rationale.

(1) Sole Source: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

MITRE Corportation is the only source capable of meeting all of the Government’s requirements listed in Part A.

MITRE has deep knowledge related to Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) systems and technologies, for which GPS receiver spectrum interference has been and continues to be an issue. MITRE is recognized in the aviation community as having expertise in GPS and navigation technologies. In support of the FAA, MITRE recently has been involved with a similar GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility effort related to certified GPS avionics. The focus of that effort is to determine compatibility criteria for wireless broadband communication handsets together with generic broadband base stations based on aviation GPS receivers (1575.42 ± 10 MHz) which conform to current FAA standards. Over the past year and a half, MITRE has been working to provide key analysis methodologies, aviation GPS receiver characteristics, Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) propagation path models, certain basic source emission parameters and interaction scenarios. This work unequivocally demonstrates their unique capabilities and specialized experience as it relates directly to the work required in this solicitation.

In the last few years, MITRE was heavily involved in the LightSquared Technical Working Group (TWG) and led smaller breakout groups which were formed to address interference to GPS from a proposed commercial, terrestrial communications system operating on frequencies adjacent to the primary GPS band. As a result, the GPS community opposed such uses. This lead to the formation of the TWG for the assessment of such interference.

An additional area of required expertise is MITRE’s knowledge of LTE signals and communication systems. MITRE has been involved with the development of LTE systems used for communication to support the Department of Defense (DoD). They have an advanced knowledge of the LTE standard air interface protocol, channel structure, and physical layers for downlink and uplink transport channel processing. They have been involved with power management schemes which can be used as a basis for frequency interference from an LTE handset.

In addition to the expert personnel, as well as, a contractor requirement, MITRE has a state-of-the-art laboratory containing GPS simulators, anechoic chambers, interference sources (e.g., CW and LTE), LTE networks simulators and a variety of GPS receivers and antennas. This laboratory is unmatched in that it brings together both the GPS receiver testing capability as well as an LTE radio frequency interference source to be integrated in one analysis.

As a not-for-profit federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), MITRE does not accept contracts from commercial entities, and is therefore independent from the commercial GPS and cellular industries. This is a requirement as the contractor shall develop Government-approved criteria for commercial entities and seek to utilize frequency bands adjacent to the GPS band. The criteria developed as a results of the Government’s needs must be accepted and adhered to by both the GPS receiver and user community as well as the cellular industry. Therefore, utilizing a testing contractor that is perceived to be closely tied to either the GPS or cellular communities could compromise the acceptability and credibility of the final work product — criteria which recommend limitations on emission in the frequency bands adjacent to the GPS band.

Therefore based on MITRE’s FFRDC status as well as having no contracts with industry, MITRE is an un-biased and independent testing contractor.

There is no other FFRDC or source independent from industry that can meet the Government’s requirements.

(2) Brand Name: A specific brand that is available from multiple vendors.

N/A

(3) Unusual and Compelling Urgency.

N/A