Telemetry Receiving Interface

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION. The Department of Defense, United States Air Force (USAF), Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Air Force Test Center (AFTC), is currently conducting market research seeking capabilities statement from potential sources, including small businesses (SB), 8(a), HUBZone, Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned (EDWOSB), Woman-Owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SDVOSB) small business that are capable of providing Remote Operation of Telemetry Receiving Stations. All interested vendors shall submit a response demonstrating their capability in Remote Operation of Telemetry Receiving Stations to the Point of Contact listed below. Proposals are not being requested or accepted at this time. As stipulated in FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No solicitation (Request for Proposal) exists at this time; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. The decision to solicit for a contract shall be solely within the Government's discretion. The NAICS Code assigned to this acquisition is 334513 -- Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing (500 employees). Respondents should indicate their size in relation to this size standard and indicate socio-economic status (i.e. SB, 8(a), HUBZone, EDWOSB, WOSB, or SDVOSB). Respondents are further requested to indicate their status as a Foreign-owned/Foreign-controlled firm and any contemplated use of foreign national employees on this effort. The Government reserves the right to consider a small business set-aside based upon responses hereto for any subsequent action. All prospective contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database to be awarded a DoD contract. No set-aside decision has been made. Note that a key factor in determining an acquisition to be a Small Business Set Aside is that small business prime contractors must perform at least 50% of the effort, as defined in FAR Clause 52.219-14. PURPOSE. The purpose of this RFI is to seek information on current, existing technologies (with possible minor modifications) that can be used to meet the Remote Operation of Telemetry Receiving Stations Interface. Remote Operation of Telemetry Receiving Stations The Government has a requirement to remotely operate telemetry receiving stations located on test ranges. As part of this effort, and prior to planned telemetry equipment acquisitions, the 96th RANSS, Eglin AFB, FL is seeking information on technical approaches to provide a means to design an antenna control unit to receiver interface congruent with the requirements for telemetry receivers under RFI number FA2487-16-R-0056, entitled Spectrum Efficient Airborne Receiver. ANTENNA CONTROL UNIT TO RECEIVER INTERFACE a. Digitally interface the Antenna Control Unit (ACU) with multiple telemetry Receivers located some distance away from the antenna (potentially through an IP network). This includes the information the ACU uses to maintain antenna tracking of the TM signal. This is normally derived from the amplitude and phase information from the telemetry receivers' Amplitude Modulated (AM) and the Automatic Gain Control (AGC) signals required by the ACU and the phase alignment signal from the ACU to the telemetry receivers. b. The technical approach should address the modifications to the ACU and/or TM receivers and information to allow this approach to become an industry wide standard for operations. This approach would not, at least not initially, replace the existing analog interface between the ACU and receivers. 1. RECEIVER COMMAND AND MONITORING INTERFACE Remotely operate via Ethernet multiple telemetry receivers. The interface would be common between all receiver manufacturers and models. Operation includes the receiver power up, setup configuration, status monitoring and display streaming, and shut down. The attached document is a proposed receiver command interface standard that addresses both an Internet Protocol (IP) and a serial Command Line interface. The 96 RANSS request comments to this document to better define the interface standard. The standard should include all the commands necessary to remotely control a telemetry receiver. A means of requesting and receiving graphical feedback from the receiver over a network interface is also required. Parties not interested in participating in the development of the standard method/language for these interfaces are encouraged to provide a list of applicable commands that are required to be supported by the new interface for consideration of inclusion into the standard. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is voluntary. This RFI is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government reimburse any costs associated with the submission of information in response to this notice. Respondents will not be individually notified of the results of any Government assessments. The Government's assessment of the capability statements received will factor into whether any forthcoming requirement resulting into a solicitation will be conducted as a full and open competition or as a set-aside for small business, or any particular small business program. CAPABILITIES STATEMENT. All interested vendors shall submit a capabilities statement that demonstrates their capability to provide the requirement stated in this notice. The capabilities statement should be brief and concise, yet clearly demonstrate an ability to meet the stated requirement. The response must not exceed 20 pages and should address the following: 1) Technical approaches for a digital telemetry receiver to Antenna Control Unit interface that simplifies and standardizes the interconnecting cabling. 2) Comments on the Standard Telemetry Receiver Control Interface's architecture and the completeness of the command set for day-to-day operations. Small businesses with only partial capabilities of this requirement are encouraged to submit their capabilities statement demonstrating the portion of the requirement they are capable of providing/performing. This information will allow the Government to identify areas of possible breakout or possible subcontracting opportunities. SUGGESTED RESPONSE OUTLINE. Following is a suggested outline with suggested page counts for a response to this RFI. This outline is intended to minimize the effort of the respondent and structure the responses for ease of analysis by the government. Nevertheless, respondents are free to develop their responses as they see fit. Section 1 - Technical Mission Areas Briefly identify and describe one or more mission areas for which the response is made. Discussion must include the respondent's relevant experience. Section 2 - Feasibility Assessment For each mission area response addressed, briefly describe the feasibility of each and the design tradeoffs involved as matched against the requirements and risks including the reliability, flight heritage and technology readiness characteristics of the alternatives. Section 3 - Corporate Expertise Briefly describe your company, your products and services, history, ownership, financial information, and other information you deem relevant. In particular, please describe any projects you have been involved in that are similar in concept to what is described in this RFI, including management and operations approach, and any relevant lessons learned. Section 4 - Additional Materials Please provide any other materials, suggestions, and discussions you deem appropriate. The responder may include any recommended structure of the programmed TSPI operational requirements as suggestions in anticipation that the government will issue a request for proposal. Proprietary information shall be clearly marked. The Government will NOT be responsible for any proprietary information not clearly marked. An updated technical requirements document for the Receiver Command Interface Standard and the Question and Answers document V2.0 have been attached to this RFI to further assist you with your responses. RESPONSES ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 5:00 P.M. (CT) on 8 February 2016. Questions and responses should be addressed to the Primary POC Mr. Craig O'Neill, via email, to craig.oneill@us.af.mil. Alternate POC is Ms. Margaret Santos, Contracting Officer, margaret.santos@us.af.mil. All correspondence sent via email shall contain a subject line that reads "FA2487-16-R-0056-TMRI, Telemetry Receiver Interface". If this subject line is not included, the e-mail may not get through e-mail filters at Eglin AFB. Filters are designed to delete emails without a subject or with a suspicious subject or attachment. Attachments with files ending in .zip or .exe are not allowable and will be deleted. Ensure only .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xsls, or .xls documents are attached to your email. All other attachments may be deleted. File sizes greater than 5 megabytes should be submitted via the Army's Safe Access File Exchange, located at https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/. INDUSTRY DAY. The Eglin AFB Air Force Test Center will be hosting an Industry Day to obtain industry feedback associated with the SEGR TRD under RFI FA2487-16-R-0056 and the Telemetry Receiver Interfaces (TMRI) under RFI FA2487-16-R-0056-TMRI, as an initiative for the 96th Range Squadron (96 RANSS). These two requirements will be procured concurrently as one effort. We welcome collaboration with industry to critically review our requirements and discuss mutual issues and concerns with respect to technical requirements and acquisition strategy approach. The agenda for industry day has been formulated and has been posted on FBO under this solicitation number. The agenda delineates three discussion sessions; these sessions are intended to open dialogue between industry and government. Industry is invited to prepare a brief presentation of their technology to share. Disclosure of proprietary information is at industry discretion. The government is not liable for protection of proprietary information during the public discussions. Please review the agenda's ground rules and assumptions for vendor briefings carefully. The event will commence with a public brief program overview and discussion sessions, which will be held from the morning of 23 May 2016 to the afternoon of 25 May 2016. It will be followed by private one-on-one presentations and discussion sessions with Government representatives, which will held from the afternoon of 25 May 2016 through the afternoon of 27 May 2016. All one-on-one sessions will commence at 8:00 am and finish NLT 4:15 pm with a 1 - hour break for lunch. The duration of these one-on-one sessions will be 50 minutes. The entire event will be held from 23 May 2016 through 27 May 2016 at the address below. Industry Day Location: University of Florida Research & Engineering Education Facility 1350 N. Poquito Road Shalimar, FL 32579 The contract specialist will contact all vendors who previously expressed interest to arrange a time for the one-on-one sessions. Please be aware, a limited number of one-on-one sessions are still available. Contact the contract specialist via e-mail if your company has not already done so to express interest. Thank you for your interest in industry day, and we look forward to your attendance. Industry Day Presentations: Industry Day Presentations will be uploaded periodically.