This Request for Information (RFI) is not a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, quotations or obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services, but for planning purposes only. This RFI is to gain knowledge of potential qualified sources and to explore industry capabilities. Your response to this RFI will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission to this announcement or the Government use of such information. The information provided may be used by the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) in developing its acquisition strategy, statement of work/statement of objectives, and performance specifications. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request for information or to otherwise pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI. The purpose of this RFI is to gather Industry's input regarding a requirement supporting the USSOCOM, Special Operations Forces Acquisition Technology and Logistics (SOF AT&L), Program Executive Officer for Command, Control, Communications, Computers (PEO - C4), Program Manager for Special Operations Forces Tactical Communications. Responses to this RFI will be used by USSOCOM, PEO-C4 to identify potential architectures and equipment for participation in the further evaluation of market information and/or ascertain potential market capacity to provide services consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice. The Program Manager is specifically interested in 5G architectures and technologies, ideas and solutions which advance communications capability in the following Key Interest Areas: - Advanced Heterogeneous Networks (HETNET) architecture and systems (3G, 4G, 5G, WiFi combined) - 802.11 ax infrastructure and end points - 802.11 ad infrastructure and end points - Millimeter Wave technology - Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) architectures and systems - Advanced Antenna solutions for efficient connectivity at high wireless bandwidth (>800Mbps) with benefits in RF congested or contested environments - Military Internet of Things/Secure Machine to Machine - Force protection/perimeter/ - Next Generation end user devices planned, developed, or available with 5G connectivity - Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) and application development with a 5G architecture focus - Network, baseband, radio access virtualization focused in network densification - Network slicing architectures and systems focused on 5G bandwidths and scale - Self-Organizing Network (SON) architectures and systems - Femto Application Platform Interface (FAPI) and Network Functional Application Platform Interface (nFAPI) technologies - Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) architectures and systems PEO-C4 is seeking potential solutions with the below criteria as initial guidance but not formal direction: Solutions that enable a military "smart city" can be ranged for 1km squared area with > 300 roaming users, 10 km squared area with > 600 roaming users and 30km square area with 10000 roaming users. Users are persons, machines, vehicles and in all cases will be a mixture of operational functions from Command, Control, and Communications (C3), to Force Protection (FP), to Signals Intelligence (SI) as examples. PEO-C4 will be hosting a demonstration/briefing/working group during the week of 19-21 December 2017. PEO-C4 is requesting that industry submit white papers, at no cost to the Government, specific to ≥ Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 5G architecture and/or solutions that will scope future connectivity architecture and updated communications capabilities for tactical networks. TRL 5 is identified as a breadboard technology and must undergo more rigorous testing than technology that is only at TRL 4. Simulations should be run in environments that are as close to realistic as possible. PEO-C4 is requesting that each white paper include a detailed description of the either current 5G capabilities of the system (again ≥ TRL 5) or planned systems that are expected to be at TRL ≥ 5. Based on the white paper responses PEO-C4 will determine which vendors qualify for the demonstration/briefing. The Government is aware of many 5G pilots with varying focuses throughout the country and would also be interested in technical data, lessons-learned to date for those environments. Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to perform the above listed services are invited to submit a response to this notice no later than 17 November 2017, 12:00 PM Eastern. All responses and any questions under this RFI shall be emailed to
[email protected]. PEO-C4 will notify all vendors via email by 24 November 2017 regarding their eligibility for the demonstration. There is no solicitation/ request for proposal (RFP) at this time. This RFI does not constitute a RFP. Submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary. The Government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred and will not provide responses to any questions. PEO-C4 will not provide any funding for vendors to demonstrate their capability but will support with facilities, services, and systems if possible. If USSOCOM decides to solicit proposals in the future, USSOCOM Contracting will issue a formal RFP at that time. Please note, telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions.