99--Operational Conference System (OCS)

1. Policy. In response to desires expressed by the user community, and in keeping with the agency's commitment to work with industry, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is seeking information on products and capabilities to replace the Conference Control System (CCS) currently supporting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) operations. Information sought under this request will be used to gain an understanding of marketplace availability of products and capabilities that meet FAA operational needs. Although the Operational Conference System (OCS) implementation plans are still evolving, it is the agency's policy to provide industry with pertinent information early on. Implementation is expected to begin before 2011. The OCS is expected to support the projected needs for a high capacity telecommunications conferencing system through a ten (10) year lifecycle. The RFI responses will serve as a means of learning what the market capabilities are and to gauge industry's level of interest in working with the FAA to provide switching products meeting the Command Center's operational environment needs. In addition to comments on the OCS technical requirements and capabilities, industry input on the FAA's planned business approach for acquiring the OCS capability is strongly encouraged. The FAA will continue to keep industry informed through future announcements. 2. Objectives. The FAA intends to work with the communications equipment manufacturing and service industries to provide a communications capability to support current and future ATCSCC operations 3. Operational Concept. The Operational Conference System (OCS) will be high-capacity telecommunications conferencing system. Air traffic control specialist (ATCS) at the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) will use the OCS to coordinate with national and international and weather organizations to establish and maintain ad-hoc, meet-me, progressive, and preset telecommunications conferences. The telecommunications conferences will be used to expedite the flow of air traffic and enhance the safety and integrity of the National Airspace System (NAS). Air traffic control specialist (ATCS) will be able to quickly and easily initiate and manage simultaneous conferences. The OCS will provide a telecommunications conferencing capability for simultaneous small and large scale predefined telephone conferences and contingency conferences initiated from the ATCSCC. The duration of a conference is normally from five (5) to 100 minutes. The host for a conference requires the capability to identify which incoming line is active and the capability to mute or disconnect individual lines without affecting the other conference participants. There are normally less than 100 participants in planning conferences, however the OCS must be able to accommodate up to participants. The OCS will provide sophisticated connection, switching, and conferencing capabilities for voice communications supporting air traffic management coordination between FAA facilities, commercial air carriers and other associated organizations. OCS will interface with existing interphone networks, consisting largely of government-furnished point-to-point and multi-unit dedicated lines. The OCS will support multiple signaling/supervision interface requirements and provide complete dialing functions for local, long distance and international destinations. The OCS will be fully consistent with current operational concepts of ATCSCC communications. The ATCSCC System will duplicate the basic functions and features of current equipment, and will add new features for operators (air traffic control specialists and supervisors, and maintenance personnel). It will be easy to operate, thus reducing training requirements and lowering the risk of communications-related errors. It is expected that new FAA systems should meet the requirements for On-Site Maintenance Monitoring capability, including, but not limited to, the reporting of all fault detection to the maintenance position, to the supervisory positions, to any remote maintenance terminals, to the maintenance logging function, and to remote alarms, as required. Four attachments can be downloaded at: http://faaco.faa.gov/index.cfm Telephonic requests will not be entertained. Email comments or questions.