Sources Sought_ITS InfrastrStds_1.28.26.pdf

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Infrastructure Standards Development, Maintenance, and Related Activities

693JJ3-26-SS-0007

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE, RELEASED PURSUANT TO FEDERAL

ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) PART 10: MARKET RESEARCH.

This Sources Sought Notice is issued solely for informational, market research, and planning purposes only and does not commit the Government to any further contract actions, i.e., solicitation and/or contract. Respondents are advised that the United States Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in responding to this Sources Sought Notice. Not responding to this Sources Sought Notice does not preclude participation in any future RFP that may be issued. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the U.S Government to form a binding contract.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) / Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is conducting market research to determine if there are any organizations capable of providing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Infrastructure Standards Development, Maintenance and Related Activities, in their entirety including the ability to build from existing standards to update or evolve content as well as develop new standards.

Requirement

1. Background

The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Standards Program has been legislatively directed to work with Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) to develop non-proprietary standards that enable the integration of ITS technologies into a seamless transportation system.

Herein describes the USDOT’s requirements for participation in the infrastructure standards focused portion of the ITS Standards Program. This effort is contracted-for by the Federal Highway Administration on behalf of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS-JPO).

2. Scope

The USDOT ITS Standards Program’s current primary focus is in the areas of ITS infrastructure, Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications, vehicle automation, accessibility for all travelers and other standards required to fully support the successful deployment of emerging ITS technologies both from USDOT-funded research efforts and elsewhere.

Through the acquisition of these services, the ITS JPO will be able to support safe, secure, and interoperable integration of ITS technologies and systems to meet the needs of State and local transportation agencies into a unified transportation infrastructure that extends throughout regions, across corridors, and over jurisdictional boundaries. If these requirements go unmet, crucial safety-of-life transportation technologies will be delayed or precluded from entering the marketplace and playing a key role in operations. Transportation system efficiency opportunities associated with interoperability will be, at best, sub-optimally met. State and local agencies may spend more money investing in proprietary, non-interoperable systems. Further, the United States’ leading position in the global marketplace for advanced/automated transportation systems may be placed at risk.

The Contractor is responsible for the development and maintenance of ITS Standards in the areas of National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol (NTCIP), Traffic Management, Advanced Transportation Controllers (ATC), ATC Application Programming Interface (API), ITS roadside cabinets, Roadside Unit (RSU) Standards, Connected Transportation Interoperability (CTI), Connected Intersections Implementation, and emerging automated transportation operational systems.

In particular, the Contractor must meet current and future requirements in the development of new ITS standards using the systems engineering process, the maintenance of currently published and actively used ITS standards, and the testing of selected ITS standards before and after publication. The Contractor will provide their own program management and will be responsible for all aspects of the development and documentation of effort and interaction with the stakeholder community. They will draw upon expert consultants to facilitate the development and maintenance of standards in the ITS program. With the USDOT ITS-JPO, the Contractor will develop and maintain the requisite ITS standards that facilitate wide-scale deployment of interoperable ITS.

3. Objectives

The overall objective of this acquisition is to make available an appropriately comprehensive set of transportation infrastructure technology standards both through new development and through maintaining and evolving existing standards that support interoperability and meet performance requirements for accelerating efficient deployment of ITS environments, including V2X and automation as they interact with existing infrastructure and operational systems.

The Contractor shall have the technical experience, expertise, and capability develop standards primarily in the ITS infrastructure areas of: Traffic Management, Advanced Transportation Controllers (ATC), ATC Application Programming Interface (API), ITS roadside cabinets, National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol (NTCIP), Roadside Units (RSU) and Connected Intersections (CI). Additional development requirements are possible in the following areas to the extent they relate to the primary areas of interest outlined above included Connected Vehicles (CV) and Vehicle Automation and/or standards related to the interaction between infrastructure and air mobility; artificial intelligence related to infrastructure; and/or cybersecurity.

The second objective of this contract is to improve transportation systems operations through industry education and training support, technical and programmatic support as well as industry outreach and involvement to an extensive audience comprised of State and local transportation professionals and practitioners, owners and operators of transportation facilities, transportation engineers, planners, consultants, academia, and researchers.

Those activities shall include the following:

Identifying and prioritizing ITS Standards Program infrastructure standards work tasks to be accomplished;

Developing infrastructure standards with user needs, requirements, and design content following a systems engineering process for information level standards;

Updating existing infrastructure standards with user needs, requirements, and design content following a systems engineering process for information level standards;

Participating in and coordinating stakeholder participation in other ITS Infrastructure, Connected Vehicle and Automation standards development efforts and other relevant activities not led by the Contractor;

Ensuring a continued open and balanced process in the infrastructure standards development activities supported by this contract;

Participating in research projects;

Participating in technology assessment activities;

Testing of protocols and standards;

Supporting information facilitation among and within committees, and with other

Standards Development Organizations (SDOs);

Facilitating the participation and involvement of key public sector and other stakeholders associated with digital roadway infrastructure, transportation roadway automation, and surface transportation operations as well as experts in and users of the standards development process; and

Coordinating with other activities such as research and development efforts and operational tests and deployment activities.

Additional development requirements are possible in the following areas to the extent they relate to theareas of interest outlined above:

Connected Vehicles Infrastructure needs associated with automated ITS operations systems or Vehicle

Automation.

Improve transportation systems operations through industry education and training support, technical and programmatic support as well as industry outreach and involvement to an extensive audience comprised of State and local transportation professionals and practitioners, owners and operators of transportation facilities, transportation engineers, planners, consultants, academia and researchers.

4. Required Capabilities

The following capabilities are necessary to meet the project scope requirements and public sector needs. The Contractor must:

Have the ability to facilitate broad representation of suitable stakeholder communities, in this case including but not limited to infrastructure device and application manufacturers/suppliers, related Information and Communications Technology (ICT) suppliers, ITS system users, along with State and local ITS deployers;

Have the ability to establish and maintain diverse industry expert working groups;

Provide an established, transparent and equitably accessible processes by which requirements and voluntary technical standards are developed and governed;

Provide for an established collaborative, consensus-based requirements development processes that will address needs of this specific area of the transportation industry;

Provide for an established formal processes for drafting, balloting, receiving and resolving member comments;

Provide an established formal processes for preparing ballots, voting and publishing standards that are recognized by both the automotive and cyber industry and offer a firm basis for testing;

Provide an established mechanism by which all standards are made available for use by industry; and

Have the ability to publish standards as a standards development organization as legislatively directed, as well having required intellectual property rights necessary to make publicly available existing standards on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms and to appropriate update these standards as needed. Stipulate that intellectual property generated by this activity shall be retained by the Contractor so that standards can be offered for use based on fair and reasonable licensing terms; and the Contractor can maintain and evolve standards over time.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Issue Date: 01/28/2025

Response Due Date: 02/12/2025, 2:00pm Eastern Time

Submit responses electronically to malik.arnold@dot.gov; hcfa-23sri@dot.gov

Less than 5MB with a page size of 8.5” x 11”, Acrobat (.pdf) format preferred Email Subject Line must include: “693JJ3-26-SS-0007 - Intelligent Transportation

Systems (ITS) Infrastructure Standards Development, Maintenance, and Related Activities”:

Shall not exceed 15 pages in length single-spaced with font size twelve or larger.

Responses to this Sources Sought Notice should demonstrate the firm’s ability, capability, and responsibility to provide and deliver the requirement listed above. In response to this notice, interested parties shall submit a written Statement of Capability that shall include the following information:

Cover Page, containing o Offeror’s name, UEI, address, point of contact, phone number, and e-mail address.

o Offeror’s type of small business and Business Size (Whether 8(a), HUB Zone, Women-Owned Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, etc.), or Large Business Status o Federal Supply Schedule (FSS/MAS) and OASIS+ Contract Number(s), as applicable

Offeror’s interest in providing a proposal/quote on the solicitation if one is issued.

Offeror’s capability to provide the services being requested, including experience.

Scope Feedback: If desired, Sources Sought Notice respondents may also provide feedback on the overall intent and scope of this requirement.

Commerciality Feedback: The Government desires to make a determination regarding the commerciality of this requirement. Considering the definition of commercial services from the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO), does your firm consider this requirement to be commercial or non-commercial? Please explain why.