| | The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation. |
Objective: | Develop a capability for routing entities in an airborne network to automatically optimize configuration and performance and adhere to network policies by selection of appropriate routing protocols.
| Description: | The future Airborne Network will include airborne nodes on wide body platforms that will perform internet working between heterogeneous networks operating with various protocols and communication link technologies. It is envisioned that the RF links between hub nodes will be somewhat persistent allowing the formation of an Airborne Network core, or backbone, routing structure. In some cases an airborne network will be configured as a single autonomous system operating with a uniform interior routing protocol (e.g., Open Shortest Path First or OSPF Mobile Ad-hoc NETworking extension) throughout. In other, more complex cases an airborne network may be composed of several autonomous systems (i.e., composed of several service-specific administrative domains, each with its own individual routing policy). In any case, the network must be capable of being reconfigured rapidly and securely with little human intervention. One approach for rapid automatic network configuration for very large networks is reported in Reference 1.
Airborne network dynamics will result in changes to network link performance and topology. These dynamics will cause changes to routing peer neighbors and autonomous system boundaries. Multi-protocol routers should be capable of automatic configuration to optimize network performance based on the existing topology and available link conditions. Based on network policies, routers should be capable of automatically deciding whether to exchange routes as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) peers between autonomous systems, or OSPF peers within an autonomous system. For OSPF peers, routers should decide whether their interconnections should form a link in the OSPF area 0 backbone or in a subordinate area. BGP interconnections should be capable of automated peer discovery and enforce routing policies on traffic between domains.
Certain radio terminals, such as Airborne and Maritime Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio Systems (AMF JTRS), employ (layer 3a) subnet routing protocols that operate below the Internet Protocol (IP) layer of the protocol stack. Based on network and connectivity conditions, the airborne network routing entity should be capable of automatically selecting an appropriate subnet routing protocol to operate in conjunction with the IP routing protocols, or to operate with only the standard IP routing protocol with options for link-metric performance feedback.
Innovative solutions are required to enable auto-configuring networks, and to ensure that the resulting networks adhere to established routing policies and are optimized for the available physical links. Analogous to Zero Configuration Networking (Reference 2), which defines a set of technologies to allow two or more computers to communicate with each other without any external configuration, mechanisms are needed to allow a policy-based network routing structure to form and adapt without the need for external configuration.
| | PHASE I: Identify the routing protocol family expected to be used for airborne networks and any shortfalls/modifications required. Define algorithms for automatic routing protocol selection in an airborne network environment. Analyze the performance of these algorithms through simulation.
| | PHASE II: Develop, test and demonstrate a prototype implementation of auto-configuring routers in an emulated dynamically forming network. Emulate expected link conditions in a multi-node airborne network. Stress performance by increasing node count and the number of policy-unique autonomous systems in the composite network. Determine technology transition targets and potential industrial collaborators.
| | PHASE III
| | DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION:
Military Application: Potential applications to joint-service airborne network operations. Commercialization path involves collaboration with DoD prime contractors developing IP-capable radio/satellite terminals.
Commercial Application: Applicable to airborne networks providing Internet access for passengers on commercial airliners. Potentially applicable to ad-hoc ground networks for first responders from varying departments.
| References: | 1. A. McAuley et. al., Automatic Configuration and Reconfiguration in Dynamic Networks, 23 Army Science Conference, Dec. 2002
2. Internet Engineering Task Force Zeroconf working group http://www.zeroconf.org/
| | Keywords: | airborne networks, routing, auto-configuring, policy-based |
Questions and Answers: |
Q: The requirements section of AF103.pdf Page AF-3 mentions a voluntary protection program (VDD). So it's unclear if responding to it is required or voluntary.
Will this be used to discriminate proposals? Follows is the text under question:
"Voluntary Protection Program (VPP): VPP promotes effective worksite-based safety and health. In the VPP, management, labor, and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) establish cooperative relationships at workplaces that have implemented a comprehensive safety and health management system. Approval into the VPP is OSHA’s official recognition of the outstanding efforts of employers and employees who have achieved exemplary occupational safety and health. An “Applicable Contractor” under the VPP is defined as a construction or services contractor with employees working at least a 1,000 hours at the site in any calendar quarter within the last 12 months that is NOT directly supervised by the applicant (installation). The definition flows down to affected subcontractors. Applicable contractors will be required to submit Days Away, Restricted, and Transfer (DART) and Total Case Incident (TCIR) rates for the past three years as part of the proposal. Pages associated with this information will NOT contribute to the overall technical proposal page count."
Thank you. |
A: This question is outside of the TPOC's purview, but the way I read that clause is that if the proposer happens to be participating in the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), then the proposal has to include Days Away, Restricted, and Transfer and Total Case Incident rates for the past three years. Otherwise, that particular data would not be included in the proposal.
According to the OSHA website, the VPP is indeed a voluntary program.
VPP participation is not part of the evaluation criteria listed in the solicitation, so it cannot be used to discriminate proposals.
|