Sources Sought Notice_Spectrum Testing Modeling and Emulation.docx

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

For the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)’s Spectrum Testing Modeling and Emulation 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 companies or universities capable of performing the Spectrum Testing Modeling and Emulation requirement, in its entirety. Small businesses are encouraged to respond to this notice.

Scope

The selected contractor will provide services for DOT by providing Next Generation Spectrum Research: Support spectrum testing modeling and emulation, which includes a Radio Frequency (RF) Testbed to conduct complex spectrum research in the 5.9GHz Safety Band for Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. The DOT is further seeking to model real-world RF spectrum scenarios for V2X technologies to assess critical performance metrics including safety, system efficiency, and mobility. Moreover, the DOT is seeking to expand this research by adding the evaluation of safety, effectiveness, and scalability of the emerging CV2X technology (considering both the LTE and 5G NR devices), and its interoperability in co-presences of the DSRC and UNII devices. This real-world modeling is required to assess the safest and most efficient use in allocating the 5.9GHz spectrum and to accommodate transportation needs with repeatable test results. The test results and findings of this project will be used by DOT to inform decision makers. The requirement intends to leverage capabilities and infrastructure for the Wireless Internet of Things in modeling of protocol stacks for vehicular safety, spectrum sharing, and emulation to provide the DOT with expertise and data in this area. See the Draft Performance Work Statement for more information.

Objectives The successful offeror shall be capable of performing the following tasks:

1. Provide services for DOT by providing Next Generation Spectrum Research: Support spectrum testing modeling and emulation, which includes a Radio Frequency (RF) Testbed to conduct complex spectrum research in the 5.9GHz Safety Band for Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications.

2. Provide model real-world RF spectrum scenarios for V2X technologies.

3. Provide evaluation of safety, effectiveness, and scalability of the emerging CV2X technology (considering both the LTE and 5G NR devices), and its interoperability in co-presences of the DSRC and UNII devices. This real-world modeling is required to assess the safest and most efficient use in allocating the 5.9GHz spectrum and to accommodate transportation needs with repeatable test results.

4. Provide at least 28 Software Defined Radios with a massive digital channel emulator backed by an extensive FPGA routing fabric that allows for large scale RF testing with up to 256 independent radio nodes. Accessible as a cloud-based platform, provide other resources to create a real-time high-fidelity radio scenarios such as traffic generation, timing, and GPS synthesis. Provide ITS deployment support in the transportation planning process at the state, region, and on occasion, local levels.

5. Develop traffic scenarios that need to be defined based on requirements of different traffic behaviors of various V2X technologies as well as the coexistence scenarios of unlicensed radios operating in the Safety Band.

6. Develop DSRC, C-V2X and UNII devices which is envisioned to be a software centric approach, where implementations will be developed, configured and deployed on Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) devices.

7. Deploy scenario models and run emulations. The contractor shall deploy, test, and evaluate the different RF Scenarios and various traffic scenarios through extensive emulations and repeated testing. This includes the interference scenarios at the coexistence of such technologies along with the unlicensed devices operating in the same spectrum, i.e., the Safety Band.

8. Add technology-specific commodity hardware to the platform. This will be an optional task that will be exercised at the discretion of DOT.

9. Provide extensive scenario generation for a variety of urban, mobility and traffic settings. This will be an optional task that will be exercised at the discretion of the DOT.

10. Provide active monitoring and potential participation in standard working groups of IEEE and 3GP. This will be an optional task that will be exercised at the discretion of DOT.

11. See Performance Work Statement for further information.

Instructions for Sources Sought Notice Capability Statement Responses:

Capability Statement responses must be submitted electronically to the DOT contact using the e-mail address below:

U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, Office of Acquisition Management

Respondents should submit their responses no later than July 22, 2020, 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Format requirements are:

(1) Format on 8.5”x11” size paper and prepared in Microsoft Word.

(2) Single-sided and not more than 10 (ten) pages in length.

(3) The total page count of 10 pages includes the cover letter, table of contents and acronym list.

(4) The total page count also includes all other information provided, i.e., graphs, technical, etc.

(5) Font size should be 12 point, 8-lines/inch, Times New Roman.

(6) Fold out charts for tables or graphics are allowed with a limited size of 8.5”x11 and each foldout counts as a single page and also counts towards the total page limit.

(7) Charts and graphics must be in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Visio or PDF format.

(8) Proprietary information submitted in response to this Sources Sought Notice will be protected from unauthorized disclosure as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). All proprietary markings should be clearly delineated. The respondent shall identify where data is restricted by proprietary or other rights and mark it accordingly.

The services and/or any product solutions should include supporting data/rationale for the offered services, and any product solution(s) if applicable, adequately to determine capability.

The cover page should contain:

(1) Company name

(2) Primary Point of Contact

(3) Phone Number and Email Address

(4) DUNS/Cage Code

(5) NAICS Code

(6) Business Size

(7) Socioeconomic Business Status (8(a), HUBZone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), or the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Program).

(8) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Contract Number and SIN, if applicable.

Technical Ability: The respondents’ technical ability shall describe your company’s ability to provide the services and/or any product solution(s) described in the Performance Work Statement. The responses shall include an overall description of the proposed services and/or any product solution(s) and provide technical data and a demonstrated ability for those task areas identified.

Interested parties shall also describe technical benefits of their proposed services and/or product solution(s) in terms of existing technologies or resources, improvements/enhancements, cost efficiencies of their specific approach, and any other support capabilities that provide service and/or product excellence or uniqueness, such as Performance-Based solutions.

Note: Responses may include links or web addresses that demonstrate evidence of your technical expertise (i.e.: final reports, technical Journals, peer reviewed papers, etc.)

Sources Sought Notice Response Contact Respondents to this Sources Sought Notice shall designate a primary and one alternate point of contact within the company (Name, Address, Email, and Telephone).

Clarification of Sources Sought Responses To fully comprehend the information contained within a response to this Sources Sought Notice, there may be a need to seek further clarification from respondents. This clarification may be requested in the form of brief verbal communication by telephone; written communication; electronic communication; or a request for a presentation of the response to a specific FHWA group or groups. FHWA reserves the right to seek additional information from respondents identified with unique solutions that are determined to be beneficial to FHWA.

Attachment:

Attachment 1: Draft Performance Work Statement