MODIFICATION
A -- Advanced Wireless Networks for the Soldier (AWNS)
- Notice Date
- 12/3/2010
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Other Defense Agencies, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Contracts Management Office, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia, 22203-1714
- ZIP Code
- 22203-1714
- Solicitation Number
- DARPA-BAA-11-06
- Archive Date
- 5/17/2011
- Point of Contact
- BAA Coordinator, Fax: (703) 248-1842
- E-Mail Address
-
DARPA-BAA-11-06@darpa.mil
(DARPA-BAA-11-06@darpa.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The purpose of Amendment 1 to DARPA-BAA-11-06 Advanced Wireless Networks for the Soldier (AWNS) is to correct the proposal due "time" and provide answers to the questions received to date. A. Page 4, change the "time" only for the proposal submission from 12:00 am local time, to 12:00 pm, local time. The proposal due date remains 20 December 2010. B. Page 25, Section 4.5.1, first sentence, change the "time" only for the proposal submission from on or before 12:00 a.m. to on or before 12:00 p.m. The proposal due date remains 20 December 2010. C. The following solicitation questions and answers are provided: Q1. The BAA states all proposals are due 12 am December 20th, given this is a Sunday at midnight is that the correct time expected? A1. The proposals are due by "Noon", 12 PM, on 20 December 2010. Q2. Is it possible to propose a small team of 3-4 PIs? Is it allowable to have a focused bid on a specific use of WNaN radios, and our team will have expertise in databases, wireless, and sensor networking? A2. There are no requirements about performer's organization or the size of the team. Q3. For universities-only bid, will there be a publication review process? I.e. all publications have to be subjected to a review period. A3. Yes, as stated in section 6.5 of the BAA, publication review is a requirement of any resulting contract. Q4. Are there any security clearance or nationality requirements for this project? A4. Per BAA Para 4.2, "Classified Proposals are not expected in response to this BAA. However, should a proposer choose to submit classified material, proposers may submit unclassified proposals, unclassified with a classified appendix, or entirely classified proposals.... Proposers must have existing and in-place prior to execution of an award, approved capabilities (personnel and facilities) to perform research and development at the classification level they propose." Per BAA Para 3.1, foreign participants and/or individuals may participate to the extent that such participants comply with any necessary Non-Disclosure Agreements, Security Regulations, Export Control Laws, and other governing statutes applicable under the circumstances. Q5. What is the processing power on the WNaN Radio today? A5. The WNaN radio today has two Texas Instruments Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP) processors that are clocked at 800 MHZ. At least one processor is available for sharing. The radio function will have priority over any other tasks. Proposers should assume that an average of 50% of this processor will be available to multitask. In addition, 256MB RAM memory is available for multitasking. Proposers may assume that an average of 50% of this RAM memory is available for application multitasking. Proposers may also assume that at least 1 GB of flash memory is available to application multi-tasking. Proposers should also assume that the standardized APIs will inform them exactly how much resource is available on each radio. Q6. Is there any plan to upgrade its processing power in the future? If so when will this become available to AWNS and how much would it be? If possible please provide the amount of resources available for third party technology developers. A6. Proposers should not expect or plan on additional processing resources in the WNaN radios available for wireless distributive computing (WDC) development. However, proposers are welcome to demonstrate thresholds of processor and memory performance which may enable dramatic differences in application performance or capability that would justify non-recurring and recurring cost impacts of additional performance. Accompanying this recommendation, please also indicate the consequent proposed impact to battery life. Q7. On the current WNaN radio, how many RF chains can be ganged together at the same time for MIMO applications? If the number is less than 4, then is there a plan to increase this to a maximum of 4? If so when will this be made available to AWNS? A7. Currently, proposers should assume that 2 channels may be ganged together for MIMO. Proposers wishing to gang more than 2 channels together for MIMO should explain the additional merits to the physical, MAC and network layer performance of the adhoc network as additional channels are ganged together. Q8. Can the current WNaN radio support 4 simultaneous links each at a different frequency? If not will this be a feature to be added in the future and made available to AWNs? If so when? A8. Proposers should define what radio functionality (addressing the multiple layers of a traditional radio protocol stack) needs to be able to be done simultaneously by 1, 2, 3 or 4 channels to support the features of their proposed technical concepts, and whether the channels are ganged together, fully independent, or some hybrid. Q9. Are applications other than soldier radios sought with this BAA? A9. At this time, DARPA is not seeking to demonstrate WNaN applications other than utilization in defense applications. Q10. Are there detailed physical layer/higher layer descriptions (specifications), as well as RF specifications that exist that are obtainable for the WNaN ? A10. As it says in the BAA, vendors may request the performance metrics document by submitting the request form to the DARPA-BAA-11-06 email address. The metrics document is available to contractors upon request. Winning performers will receive additional information about the standardized application programming interface (API) between the radio physical layer and the networking software. By matching the API interfaces, alternative networking software or alternative radio hardware can be introduced. Q11. What specific aspects of the Wireless Network after Next (WNaN) would be needed to be retained in the AWNS program? A11. Minimum performance indicated in the performance metrics documents need to be retained if hardware, software, or networking functionality is modified, or enhanced. Q12. Wireless Distributive Computing (WDC) is one of two major services described in Area 4 (Section 1.2.4), but "Wireless distributed computing (cloud) middleware)" is also mentioned as a Transformative Apps service to be proposed in Area 3. Is it ok to bid a solution to WDC that is independent of the Transformative Apps WDC service when responding to Area 4? A12. Proposers may propose to either or both solutions. Any alternative should include an API that the proposer plans to bring forward as an industry standard. Q13. Should Area 4 proposals cover allocation of all resources: processing, storage, AND network links, or is network management (link allocation) covered in other areas? (It's understood that allocations need to honor constraints of power, bandwidth, etc.) A13. If a proposer chooses to utilize an alternative solution, then his API should address and he will be responsible to manage all processing, link and network resources. Q14. When responding to Area 4, is there value in also proposing an application that exploits and highlights the benefits to the warfighters of the WDC and CBA services, or should we assume that existing applications will be used to demonstrate the Area 4 capabilities? A14. Yes, paragraph 1.2.4 of the BAA states, "DARPA is seeking innovative technology proposals demonstrating important capabilities and applications that can be enabled by utilizing remaining computational resources available with a squad of nine (9) or more WnaN radios.
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