5G RIC and Services for Stockbridge, NY and Table Mountain, CO

The Government has determined that no other source has commercial offerings that can meet this requirement. The Government requires a 5G RIC hardware and software package, accessories, and installation/configuration/technical support.  This effort is for the hardware, software, and services to implement Nokia's highly-specialized interface, called the “Xf” interface, into the existing Nokia equipment in the AFRL Stockbridge and NTIA/ITS Table Mountain 5G testbeds. Nokia is the only source that can meet the need as this is a follow-on contract from a previously awarded R&D effort.  This contract would tie the commercial 5G network deployed at Hill AFB, UT to locations in Stockbridge, NY and Table Mountain, CO.  Procuring hardware and software units from a different manufacturer would cause incompatibilities and render the previous Government investment obsolete. This acquisition is for the acquisition of highly specialized equipment, and the services to integrate, test, and provide engineering support for the highly specialized equipment at two Government test sites. The rationale for why the “Xf interface” supplies/services are “highly-specialized” is because the “Xf interface” is unique to Nokia's existing commercial Radio Access Network hardware design, which is already deployed at the Stockbridge and Table Mountain test sites.  No other vendor has access to the Nokia commercial 5G hardware product design upon which the Xf interface design is based. Substantial duplication of cost to the Government, which could not be recovered via open competition, would be necessary to essentially replace the existing multi-million-dollar network with a different design that would enable competition for an equivalent to the “Xf interface”.  Furthermore, such an approach would also be entirely time-prohibitive, because the delays incurred in re-designing and re-competing the entire 5G network infrastructure would impact the entire program (to maintain compatibility of designs), not just the stand-alone test sites. Under the contemplated contract, Nokia will provide the following supplies and services:

5G RIC system and incidental services:

SEP (RIC) HW, Airframe OE HW RIC Server

SEP (RIC) SW, SEP(RIC) SW Platform, Sep 22

NPO, Network Planning and Optimization: HLD, LLD, ATP Creation

Deploy, Network Deployment of RIC, installation, configuration, commissioning

TSS SWS, Technical Support Services - SW

TSS HWS, Technical Support Services - HW

Awarded contract FA875122C0021 to unknown vendor for unknown amount on 2022-09-22.