TELEMETRY BEST SOURCE SELECTOR

Telemetry Best Source Selector

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

1. Description

1.1 The 96th Test Systems Squadron (TSSQ), is currently conducting market research seeking capabilities statements from potential sources, including small businesses (SB) and large businesses that can provide procurement and sustainment support for Telemetry Systems capable of meeting the Government’s Telemetry Best Source Selector Requirements.

1.2 This announcement serves as a REQUEST FOR INFORMATION only for the purpose of market research in accordance with the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul Part 10. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal (RFP), Invitation for Bid (IFB), or an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. In accordance with (IAW) the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul part 15.101(c)(2), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with the preparation or submission of the information requested. All costs associated with responding to the RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if issued. The Government reserves the right to reject or disregard, in whole or in part, any contractor’s input resulting from this RFI. This RFI does not constitute a solicitation for proposal or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. The information provided may be used by the Government in developing an acquisition strategy, a statement of work (SOW), statement of objectives (SOO), or performance specifications. Some information resulting from this RFI may eventually be included in one or more solicitations. Proprietary information or technology should be clearly marked. Any subsequent actions resulting from the evaluation of the information provided in response to the RFI may be synopsized at a future date. If synopsized, information detailing the specific requirements of such procurement will be included.

2. Background and Statements of Need

The Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range (EGTTR) currently utilizes Telemetry Systems to provide test item data to relevant USAF test stakeholders. The 96th Test Wing is interested in understanding current Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and Government-Off-The-Shelf (GOTS) solutions for Telemetry Best Source Selector Systems to support systems under test.

The Telemetry Best Source Selector Systems will be used to provide accurate data for all airborne test platforms, test items, and targets utilizing the Eglin Test and Training Complex (ETTC) test space for airborne, waterborne, and land test missions.

Of special interest are Best Source Selector Systems that capable of grouping and processing up to 80 Telemetry receivers tracking nine 20 Mb/s telemetry transmitters. The Government is interested in systems that have a clear and cost-effective upgrade path to support higher data rates, such as 50MB/s, in the future. The Government is interested in ease-of-use interface requiring minimal operator training.

The Government is interested in Best Source Selector Systems capable of using the Inter-range instrumentation group (IRIG) Standard 218-20, Telemetry Over Internet Protocol, and Data Quality Metric (DQM) and Data Quality Encapsulation (DQE) as defined in IRIG Standard 106-25R1 Appendix 2-G. The Government is interested in Best Source Selector Systems that provide both conditioned serial and network data stream outputs, capable of simultaneously outputting multiple independent processed data streams derived from different groups of telemetry sources, and configurable option to strip DQM/DQE from any independently selected output stream to create a clean passthrough stream.

Desirable capabilities:

• Telemetry over Internet Protocol (TMoIP) (IRIG-218) source ingest that is not logically limited such that the limitation is not an arbitrary number, just the bandwidth available on the Network Interface Card (NIC).  Threshold is 1G and Objective is 10G for the NIC.
• Ability to input TMoIP and output Analog/Digital and the reverse.
• Exposed user software Application Programming Interface (API) for mission operations level usage (selecting source groups, identifying outputs, formats, bitrates, etc.).
• Event logging for what happened source selection wise during a mission set.  Prefer the system to write the files to a remotely mapped location.
• Up to 8 sources in a source selection group such as an 8:1 ratio for down select.
• Ability to specify the time stitching or time alignment capability.
• Accept Time Sources IRIG-A, IRIG-B, Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and, Network Time Protocol (NTP).
• Frame Sync source selection as a requirement along with majority vote for encrypted data without DQE/DQM.

The system will be maintained and operated on a Department of War (DoW) network and will be required to comply with all rules and regulations pertaining to Information Systems (IS) that processes DoW data and validated in accordance with Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs).

3. Information Requested

Interested sources must provide demonstrated capacity and capability with verifiable past performance history to provide engineering and technical support for at least the following: procure, provide and install all materials, spare parts and consumables; design, test, modify and install system components, modifications and improvements; repair, refurbish, and maintain to manufacturer specifications; operate, calibrate, align, tune, and verify performance to manufacturer specifications; procure new Best Source Selector systems.

4. Responses

4.1 All interested vendors are requested to respond to this RFI with a white paper and/or a PowerPoint presentation. White papers and/or PowerPoint presentations are due no later than 30 days from RFI release. White papers should be no more than 8 pages, 8.5 x 11 page size with 12 point font. PowerPoint presentations should be no longer than 16 slides. Submissions should be submitted electronically, via the appropriate communication channels to:

Mr. Anthony Aldrich

NIPR: 96TSSQ.RNXT.RNXTRFI@US.AF.MIL

4.2 Submissions should be either PDF files, Microsoft Word documents or Microsoft PowerPoint.

4.3 Please contact Mr. Aldrich via email if submission of any potentially sensitive or classified material is required.

4.4 Section 1 of the white paper or the beginning of the presentation should provide administrative information and should include the following as a minimum. This information does not count toward page limits:           

4.4.1 Company name, mailing address, cage code, point of contact (POC), POC telephone number, email address, and business website.

4.4.2 Business size status (i.e. 8(a), HUBZone, Woman/Woman Owned or Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, small business, large business, etc.).

4.4.3 Status as a foreign-owned/foreign-controlled firm and any contemplated use of foreign nation employees.

4.5 Section 2 of the white paper or right after the above, in the presentation should address the information requested in Section 3 of this RFI. Proprietary information, if any, must be clearly marked. Please be advised that all submissions become U.S. Government property and will not be returned.  

5. Questions

All questions regarding this announcement should be submitted in writing and marked appropriately as to whether they address any proprietary or controlled information. Questions should be submitted to Mr. Aldrich. Government responses to all general non-proprietary questions will be shared with other industry members. The government does not guarantee questions received after 15 days from release date will be answered in time for the 30 days from release date submittals.

6. Summary

This is a request for information (RFI) only to support the modernization of the Eglin Test and Training Complex and its test missions. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding upon the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government has not made a commitment to procure any of the items discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur costs for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become U.S. Government property and will not be returned.