Common Operational Picture (COP)

PURPOSE: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR MARKET RESEARCH ONLY. There is no solicitation available at this time. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking qualified concerns with specific and recent experience with Common Operational Picture (COP) Technology Refresh and creation of Decision Support Systems (DSS) that automate the capture, assessment and utility of multi-source data. DHS is seeking the following: (a) To determine if the capabilities and supporting requirements described in this RFI are practical and complete; (2) To identify specific capabilities and supporting requirements that can only be addressed through customization of proven products or development of new technology; (3) To identify the degree of risk associated with customization of proven products or development of new technology; (4) To Identify the methodologies and tools that can result in integrated solutions; (5) To Identify new data sources, analysis tools, and opportunities for collaboration that could enhance situational awareness and enable timely, risk mitigated, decision making across the entire Homeland Security Community. (6) To identify other information that would be useful to the mission owner or program manager. BACKGROUND: The Homeland Security Presidential Directive - Five (HSPD-5) (February 2003) designated the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (SECDHS) as the - Principal Federal Official for Domestic Incident Management. This role was expanded by Section 515 of the Post Katrina Emergency Reform Act (PKEMRA) (October 2006) which directed the National Operation Center (NOC), as the principal operations center for the Department, to: (a) Provide situational awareness and a COP for the entire Federal Government, and for State, local, and tribal Governments as appropriate, in the event of a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster. (b) Ensure that critical terrorism and disaster-related information reaches Government decision-makers. Furthermore, the National Response Framework (December 2008), stated that the NOC: (a) Maintains the COP that provides overall situational awareness for incident information. (b) Is required to meet its information-fusion and information-sharing responsibilities by providing spot reports, situation reports, and other information'sharing tools, all supported by and distributed through its NOC COP. (c) Has a high priority to continue development and rapid integration of electronic reporting and information-sharing tools (at all levels) in support of the COP. CONSTRANTS: (1) The NOC COP and the NOC DSS are presented to the user through a single user interface (UI). (a) The system will be available to users with low-tech equipment and limited bandwidth, such as mobile devices, slow internet connections and old computing platforms. (b) HSIN user authentication procedures and technology will be used to grant attribute-based access. Therefore, different degrees of information will be available to different users. (2) The NOC COP and the NOC DSS will fully support Web 2.0 technologies. (a) The system will use DHS enterprise services such as the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), HSIN Help Desk, the Integrated Common Analytical Viewer (iCAV) and DHS Earth. There will be no duplication of capability. (b) The system will allow real-time changes to the UI without disruption in availability. (c) The system capabilities will be independent of the data feeds or analytical tools that certain users may employ. (3) The NOC requires a COP and DSS at the Unclassified, Secret and Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) levels. Although the host platform will be different, the UI will be nearly identical for each classification level. (4) The NOC COP visualization system will allow users to create a unique User Defined Operational Picture (UDOP) on a single desktop or for dissemination on multiple panels as found in a typical operations center. An individual UDOP does not affect or copy back to the NOC COP. DESIRED SYSTEM CAPABILITIES: (1) AUTOMATE INFORMATION INGEST AND TRIAGE: (a) Tag, flag and extract information from asynchronous (unstructured) sources such as email. (b) Receive and filter information from pre-set discovery agents. (c) Automatically elevate information to the shared DHS NOC workspace on HSIN. (d) Automatically push information to the NOC COP. (2) ASSESS DATA AND INFORMATION: (a) Integrate advanced analytical tools such as automated searches, modeling, text analytics, geospatial rendering, report generation, and data management services currently available in DHS and other products configured to meet NOC requirements. (b) Link to the DHS NOC workspace on HSIN where collaboration can occur. (3) SEARCH FOR INFORMATION: (a) Enable a federated single query search using applications currently available in DHS and other products configured to meet NOC requirements. (b) Automatically search internal and external databases, documents and e-mail. (c) Run simple or complex queries of multiple databases by specifying attributes such as keywords, phrases, time periods, or locations. (d) Elevate information to the shared DHS NOC workspace on HSIN. (4) FACILITATE COLLABORATION: (a) Use the DHS NOC workspace on HSIN to conduct collaborative work sessions with multiple participants. (b) View and access data elevated to the DHS NOC workspace on HSIN. (c) Allow users with appropriate privileges to view elevated information, attach commentary and observations, and insert new information. (5) ENABLE ACCESS TO HISTORICAL DATA: (a) Store and retrieve all structured and unstructured information received by or created by the NOC. Allow access to previous versions of documents. (b) Capture and store the actual NOC COP display and any collaborative work sessions for later review and analysis. (c) Perform extract-transform-load actions from old to new systems or formats. (6) VISUALIZE INFORMATION: (a) Allow for the automatic display of data and reports in the NOC COP in accordance with established business rules. (b) Allow users to create a unique UDOP on a single desktop or for dissemination on multiple panels as found in a typical operations center. An individual UDOP does not affect or copy back to the NOC COP. (7) DISPLAY GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION: (a) Use DHS enterprise geospatial services including iCAV and DHS Earth. There will be no duplication of capability. (b) Automatically or manually organize and depict layered information geospatially on map or other image. (8) FACILITATE INTEROPERABILITY: (a) Allow the NOC to disseminate and distribute the NOC COP to the entire Homeland Security Community. (b) Encrypt data according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53 guidelines. (c) Comply with all information assurance standards and security classification requirements. (d) Provide controls for authorized users to access information sources across all security classification levels/domains from Unclassified through TS/SCI. Provide similar controls for user access to special types of information such as Proprietary Information, Personal Identification Information (PII), Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) Information, and US Persons Information. (9) PROVIDE SECURITY: (a) Grant attribute-based access so that different degrees of information will be available to different users. (b) Deploy a one-way-transfer mechanism to automate the movement of relevant information from unclassified to classified systems without having to manually transfer the material. MISSION SCENARIOS / USE CASES: (1) The NOC COP and DSS must enhance SA and facilitate timely, risk mitigated, decision making across the entire Homeland Security Community during every type of Homeland Security incident as represented by the Mission Scenarios/ Use Cases below. (2) Please consider the following mission scenarios / use cases when responding this RFI. (a) SCENARIO #0 STEADY STATE: All known incidents are below the level of national significance. (b) SCENARIO #1 CRIMINAL - DOMESTIC/ CIVIL UNREST: Initial Incident Report: The National Guard was summoned to the University of California-Berkeley for riot control. Shots were fired and tear gas deployed. (c) SCENARIO #2 WMD - EXPLOSION: Initial Incident Report: At 0800 hours today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Control Tower at Dulles International Airport exploded in flames. The FAA reports that the tower is inoperable and all flying operations have been suspended. Flights are being rerouted to alternate locations. (d) SCENARIO #3 NATURAL - EARTHQUAKE: Initial Incident Report: An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 has occurred 400 miles north of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. A Tsunami Warning was issued stating that waves exceeding 60 feet are moving toward the Hawaiian Islands. (e) SCENARIO #4 NATURAL - HURRICANE/TYPHOON: Initial Incident Report: Formation of Typhoon - SAN, located 530 miles SE of Guam. It has maximum sustained hurricane force winds of 103 MPH out to 40 miles and 40 MPH Tropical Storm force winds out 120 miles from the center of the storm. The typhoon is tracking to the NW at 12 MPH and is anticipated to reach landfall on Guam in two days. NOAA predicts it will be a Storm Category 2 or 3 when it hits Guam. (f) SCENARIO #5 TERRORISM - POSSIBLE TERRORIST ATTACK: Initial Incident Report: TSA reports that SIDA Badges and FEDEX uniforms were stolen in the Los Angeles area and credible sources are stating that individuals are planning a coordinated attack on the Tom Bradley Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. (g) SCENARIO #6 BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM - ANTHRAX: Initial Incident Report: A mix of positive and negative anthrax results was received early this morning from Portable Sampling Units in New York City's Penn Station. Most positive samples were obtained near the 8th Avenue subway entrance, the Amtrak waiting area, and the Long Island Railroad waiting area. Over 180,000 people are expected to pass through Penn Station during the morning commute. CONCLUDING REMARKS: As stated above, this Request for Information is for planning purposes only. The Government will neither award a contract due to this synopsis nor will it reimburse the respondent for any costs associated with preparing or submitting a response to this notice. This synopsis does not constitute a future solicitation nor does this issuance determine the Government acquisition approach. The Government recognizes that proprietary data may be part of the respondent submittal. If so, please clearly mark such restricted or proprietary data in all responses. Please also indicate the respondent's socioeconomic statues as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 19: A rough order of magnitude (ROM) pricing statement; Information related to the concern's General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule or any other Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) including but not limited to DHS Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions (EAGLE) contract vehicle. Please limit responses to ten (10) pages of text with no more than twenty (20) pages of attachments. Responses to this request are due ten (10) days from the date of the notice in FEDBIZOPPS. Responses shall be e-mailed to Ms. Kiera Buggs at kieria.buggs@dhs.gov . Telephone inquires will not be accepted.