HR001122S0053.pdf

Broad Agency Announcement

Generating Communication Channels to Operate

(GeCCO)

STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY OFFICE

HR001122S0053

September 9, 2022

HR001122S0053 GeCCO

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: OVERVIEW INFORMATION

PART II: FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description A. Program Overview II. Application and Submission Information III. Application Review Information A. Evaluation Criteria

IV. APPENDIX 1: CLASSIFIED ADDENDUM REQUEST FORM

PART I: OVERVIEW INFORMATION

Federal Agency Name – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Strategic Technology Office (STO) Funding Opportunity Title – Generating Communication Channels to Operate

(GeCCO) Announcement Type – Initial announcement Funding Opportunity Number – HR001122S0053 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers (CFDA) – Not applicable Dates (All times are Eastern Time) o Posting Date: September 9, 2022 o Proposal Due Date and Time: November 8, 2022 by 4:00 p.m.

o FAQ/Questions Due Date: October 7, 2022 by 4:00 p.m.

o Proposers’ Day: September 20, 2022 o Request Classified Addendum Date: September 23, 2022 o Notification of Classified Submission Date: October 28, 2022

Total amount anticipated to be awarded for Phase 1 (Base and Option): $25.5M Anticipated individual awards – Multiple awards are anticipated.

Types of instruments that may be awarded -- Procurement Contract or Other Transaction.

Agency contact o Points of Contact The BAA Coordinator for this effort can be reached at:

HR001122S0053@darpa.mil

DARPA/STO

ATTN: HR001122S0053

675 North Randolph Street Arlington, VA 22203-2114

PART II: FULL TEXT OF ANNOUNCEMENT

I. Funding Opportunity Description

This publication constitutes a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) as contemplated in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.102(d)(2) and 35.016 and 2 CFR § 200.203. Any resultant award negotiations will follow all pertinent law and regulation, and any negotiations and/or awards for procurement contracts will use procedures under FAR 15.4, Contract Pricing, as specified in the

BAA.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative proposals in scalable, privacy-preserving communications over commercial networks to enable military applications.

The program, Generating Communication Channels to Operate (GeCCO), is a vital part of the Mosaic Warfare end-state vision. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.

A. Program Overview

Generating Communication Channels to Operate (GeCCO) seeks to enable secure communications for military applications in permissive environments by using a flexible communications architecture to deploy virtual network services to preserve privacy by preventing pattern-of-life analysis. Today’s distributed operations across the globe require a small logistical footprint in order to enable collaboration with mission partners while still preserving privacy of communications. GeCCO will overcome this challenge by enabling the secure use of already widespread cellular networks in order to reduce the logistical burden of deploying military systems. GeCCO will use virtualization and software programmability to create the network services needed to preserve privacy while improving quality of service compared to today’s tactical radio networks.

Cellular networks connect over eight billion mobile subscribers worldwide with fifth generation (5G) wireless expected to bring advanced cellular networking capability to an estimated 4.4 billion subscribers by 20271. The proliferation and commercialization of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations promise nearly global coverage with high-speed broadband connectivity2. 5G standards envision the integration of cellular technology with non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) enabling continuous, mobile coverage even in remote areas.

Advanced cellular networks present tremendous opportunity for military use and reduce the logistical burden of deploying military communications gear. Related work primarily examines the adaptation of commercial networking solutions to military use cases including stand-alone cellular deployments. The GeCCO program instead looks at directly using commercial cellular

1 https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/mobility-report/dataforecasts/mobile-subscriptions-outlook 2 https://www.pcmag.com/news/with-polar-satellite-launches-spacexs-starlink-eyes-global-coverage infrastructure for communications. Communications over commercial cellular networks are limited to applications with unique fingerprints that leak information. Even encrypted traffic reveals patterns-of-life, e.g., who is talking to whom and how often they are talking.

GeCCO will develop privacy-preserving techniques to prevent pattern-of-life analysis. For example, onion routing3 reduces the association of endpoint communications by introducing proxies into the network. Such privacy-preserving techniques do not require dedicated hardware and may be implemented in software. GeCCO will define a new networking architecture to deploy network services drawing on the software programmability characteristic of today’s advanced cellular networks. Microservice principles of resilience, scale, and speed will further drive GeCCO innovations.

DARPA seeks innovative proposals in the following Technical Areas of Interest:

Technical Area 1 (TA-1) – Network Services: TA-1 will research privacy-preserving techniques and develop software services to be deployed by TA-2. TA-1 solutions will optimize the deployment of network services to tradeoff network utility and privacy aligned with operational requirements.

Technical Area 2 (TA-2) – Network Architecture: TA-2 will develop the framework to deploy and manage TA-1 services. Through collaboration with TA-1, and as lead system integrator starting in Phase 2, TA-2 will build the GeCCO system to prevent pattern-of-life analysis over commercial networks.

Integration of the TA-1 and TA-2 system will begin in Phase 1 with Government-led integration events. GeCCO solutions will be evaluated in a controlled field environment and validated through field testing with operational partners. Commercial-off-the-shelf cybersecurity tools and services will be used to quantify performance.

GeCCO is a three-year program organized into two phases: Phase 1 is fifteen months (Base), Phase 1 Option is six months, and Phase 2 is fifteen months. This BAA is soliciting proposals for the Phase 1 (Base) and Phase 1 Option only. Proposers may propose to TA-1 and TA-2; however, separate proposals are required.

II. Application and Submission Information

The effort being solicited by this BAA is classified SECRET or otherwise involves access to or generation of classified information. A formal request for the classified addendum may be submitted by filling out the HR001122S0053 REQUEST FORM (found at the end of this notice) and emailing the Request Form to HR001122S0053@darpa.mil with subject line titled "Request

DARPA-BAA-HR001122S0053".

Proposers are required to submit this request no later than September 23, 2022 by 4:00 p.m. to allow for adequate time for delivery of the material. Requests submitted after this date will be

3 D. Goldschlag, M. Reed, and P. Syverson. "Onion Routing." Communications of the ACM, pp. 39-41, 1999.

mailto:HR001122S0053@darpa.mil disregarded. The HR001122S0053 Request Form is the only method of request that will be accepted. All requestors will receive a confirmation email with either a delivery tracking number or email confirmation depending on delivery method. Prior to receipt of any information, proof of facility clearance level must be validated by the Program Security point of contact before any classified documentation on the BAA is sent to the proposer.

III. Application Review Information

A. Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated using the evaluation criteria for selecting proposals, their relative importance, and the method of evaluation contained in the CLASSIFIED Addendum.

IV. APPENDIX 1: CLASSIFIED ADDENDUM REQUEST FORM

APPENDIX 1: HR001122S0053 CLASSIFIED ADDENDUM REQUEST FORM

Date:

Company Name:

Company Address (Unclassified):

Company Address (Classified):

Unclassified Fax:

Point of Contact Name:

POC Phone Number:

POC Fax Number:

POC Email:

Company CAGE code:

Security or FSO Phone Number:

Security or FSO Fax Number:

Security or FSO Email:

Company Secure Fax number: