SSJA-24q63_redacted.pdf

Sole Source (Including Brand Name) Justification - Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items

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I. Contracting Activity.

AFRL/RIKO

26 Electronic Parkway Rome, NY, 13441-4514

II. Nature and/or description of the action being processed.

This action is for a new firm fixed price contract for the purchase of Quantum Network Design, Simulation, and Control Software. The Government intends to negotiate a sole-source award with Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc. to fulfill this requirement. The total estimated value for the base year is $ with the overall total for a base plus two option years being $ Estimated yearly outlay is as follows:

Base year - $ Option Year 1 - $ Option Year 2 - $

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs.

The Government intends to purchase a base year and two option years each of Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc.'s Simulator and Orchestrator software subscription products. Descriptions of these products, as obtained from the Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc. website are as follows:

Simulator - Aliro Simulator is a versatile, modular quantum network simulator equipped to model all portions of a quantum network from the smallest optical components to the largest heterogeneous networks.

Orchestrator - Aliro Orchestrator manages the entire life cycle of a quantum network and provides a unified, intuitive application through which network operators can view everything, control everything, and automate network operations.

Appropriation type: FY '23 3600 (R&D) funding.

Two option years are being included due to the end user anticipating having a continued need for the required software subscriptions beyond the initial year and an anticipation that funding will be available to fund the out years.

It is economically beneficial to use options based on the Government's need for continuity of operations and the potential cost of disrupted support of this recurring need were to be re-procured every year.

IV. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

DAFFARS 5313.501 - 10 U.S.C. 3572, Implementation of Simplified Acquisition Procedures (41 U.S.C. 1901)

V. Demonstration that the contractor's unique qualifications or nature of the acquisition requires the use of the authority cited above (applicability of authority).

The Government has determined that other companies' products and services do not meet or cannot be modified to meet the Government's needs. While there are several open-source quantum network simulator platforms available, none offer the necessary combination of discrete event simulation, flexible quantum state management, extensive component and model library, customizability, highly abstracted network behavior simulation functionality, low level physics simulation functionality, and flexibility in navigating computational tradeoffs between precision, accuracy, and problem size. The unique features the required Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc. branded quantum network design, simulation, and control software provides that other platforms do not offer are as follows:

· Excellent simulated time precision via discrete event simulation

Sole Source (Including Brand Name) Justification - Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items

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· Support for independent quantum simulation backends and multiple state representations

· A large library of components to model many different types of hardware devices, ranging from sophisticated quantum memories to optical fibers and individual optical elements

· A composable set of different kinds of noise, loss, and delay models to faithfully model realistic conditions

· The ability to customize component models to reflect the internal operations and/or performance of bespoke hardware, add exotic error models, or build protocols tailored to novel network architectures and use cases

· Support for simulating high level network behavior based on probabilistic models of node performance

· Detailed low level physics modelling including optical modes and how they interact in a number of optical components (beam splitters, waveplates, etc.)

· Absolute control over exactly what is being modelled, and how, so that users can leverage the optimal balance between modelling the relevant nuances and scaling up the problem sizes

Interchanges with Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc. have yielded that they do not maintain a network of resellers for their Simulator and Orchestrator products and are the sole-source provider. Accordingly, as aforementioned, the Government intends to make a sole-source award to them for this requirement.

VI. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable.

A Notice of Proposed Contract Action (NOCA) in the form of a pre-solicitation notice outlining the Government's intent to make a sole-source award to Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc. for this requirement was posted to the SAM.gov site between the dates of 09 May 2024 and 24 May 2024. No responses to this notice were received to give an indication that a company other than Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc. is interested in or capable of fulfilling this requirement. It is therefore in the best interest of the Government to make a sole-source award to Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc. for this requirement.

VII. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The intent is to compare the proposed pricing for both the Orchestrator and Simulator products to pricing reflected in a published price list, pursuant to FAR 13.106-3(a)(2)(iii). Additionally, for the Orchestrator product only, the intent is to compare proposed pricing to the price paid for that same product by another commercial customer, as a supplemental means of determining the price fair and reasonable (pursuant to FAR 13.106-3(a)(2)(vii)). This cannot be done for the Simulator product too, since it's a relatively new product and hasn't yet been sold to another commercial customer.

Only the Orchestrator product has been previously sold to another commercial customer.

VIII. Description of the market research conducted and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

Searches for alternative products were performed online and through a close study of the relevant scientific literature.

Great care was taken to assemble a list of all available alternative network simulation and control software. Reviewed alternative products, and their respective shortcomings, are detailed below.

1.

a. Any issues a user has are reported to an online discussion board, and have the risk of never being addressed

b. It generates and processes quantum information using nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, such that other qubit modalities are not functionally available.

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2.

a. It generates and processes quantum information using rare-earth ions, such that other qubit modalities are not functionally available.

3.

a. is still a work in progress and in its current state, it is more of a toy example to demonstrate and create quantum networking protocols at a high level that could potentially make their way into real applications for quantum networks. , presently, is not designed to accurately simulate quantum physics and therefore we make some assumptions and use potentially unrealistic methods for achieving the things we want to do with quantum network simulations.”

b. This simulator focuses only on the upper, more abstracted network layers, leaving the physical layer unspecified. Since RITQ needs a detailed understanding of the processes occurring in the network's physical layer, this software will not be useful.

4.

a. Similar to does not attempt to model the physical layer of quantum networks, rendering it of little utility for the development of RITQ's testbed quantum local area networks.

5.

a. This software does not actually aim to simulate quantum networks, but only to facilitate the development of network applications.

6.

a. “Most of the infrastructure is up and running, though the sets of actual experiments (interesting simulations) you can do are fairly limited still.”

b. The software restricts the studied scenarios to point-to-point communication over distances of up to 50 km.

Implementation of higher layers including routing and more complex network topologies are not available.

7.

a.

While these open-source tools are helpful for basic research, they have certain limitations. Many of these tools have sprouted from academic groups, and require significant time investment to learn how to use. Related to that, should any questions or problems arise when using these tools, there is no dedicated staff available to provide guidance.

Finally, all of the above tools allow for network simulation, but none of them assist with network design and control.

Additionally, the network topology that is simulated will be the same topology that is controlled using the Orchestrator tool, so that moving back and forth between simulations and real-life operation is quick and seamless. As the network is expanded or otherwise updated, that can be reflected in the Simulator and Orchestrator simultaneously.

IX. Any other facts supporting the use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

There are no other facts supporting this justification.

X. List of any sources that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

Aliro Quantum Technologies, Inc.

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XI. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required.

RITQ will continue to monitor the market for availability of alternative products as future needs for similar items arise.

XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

As evidenced by my signature above, I have determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by my (our) signature(s) above, I (we) certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is my (our) responsibility, is both accurate and complete.