RFP ANNOUNCEMENT: ADS-B Receiver Network

Request for Proposal (RFP) For

Air Traffic Low-Altitude Surveillance (ATLAS) ADS-B Receiver Network

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1 Announcement/Posting

2 Purpose

3 Concept of Operations

4 Area of Operations

Operational and Surveillance Volumes

5 System Capabilities

5.1 Overall System Requirements

5.2 ADS-B Surveillance System Requirements

6 Responses from Vendors

6.1 Submission Requirements

6.2 Projected Schedule of Events

6.3 AeroX Point of Contact

6.4 Company Points of Contact

6.5 Submission

6.6 Closing Date

6.7 Additional Information

1 Announcement/Posting

Request for Proposal (RFP) for Air Traffic Low-Altitude Surveillance (ATLAS) ADS-B Receiver Network

This is a public announcement from AeroX, a North Carolina non-profit corporation, to inform industry that AeroX is seeking the commercial procurement of an Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) ground receiver network to serve as the cooperative/secondary surveillance element of a larger, multi-sensor Ground Based Surveillance System (GBSS) for low-altitude aircraft surveillance.

The primary mission of this GBSS, Air Traffic Low-Altitude Surveillance (ATLAS), is to enable Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations in Winston Salem and Forsyth County, North Carolina. AeroX intends to award exactly 1 (ONE) contract to the vendor whose proposed solution is determined to be best suited to the needs of project ATLAS for ADS-B surveillance.

Potential vendors are advised that:

• This is a Request for Proposals (RFP);
• AeroX will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing the response to the RFP;
• Any costs associated with responding to this RFP are incurred solely at the Potential party’s expense;
• AeroX, at its sole discretion, may contact one, some, all, or none of the respondents to the RFP and ask for additional information;
• AeroX will conduct an evaluation of the vendor responses; vendor participation in any post-evaluation discussions or sessions is not a promise for future business with AeroX;
• Any proprietary information submitted must be adequately marked as proprietary and will be protected accordingly.

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2 Purpose

This announcement is to solicit proposals for the procurement of an Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) ground receiver network as part of the AeroX GBSS, project ATLAS.

The proposals received in response to this RFP must meet all the technical requirements stated in Section 5, and provide separate and detailed costs for the following elements of the ADS-B ground receiver network solution to be proposed by the vendor as part of the response to this RFP:

-???????ADS-B Ground receiver network design and siting locations in Forsyth County, NC to provide maximum ADS-B signal reception/coverage within the county limits

-???????Diagnostics and maintenance of the ADS-B ground receiver network

-???????Future scalability/network augmentation for detecting broadcast Remote ID (RID) signals being transmitted by UAS’ flying within the coverage envelope of the ADS-B ground receiver network

Responses to this RFP may result in an amended RFP with additional requirements, or a contractual agreement with a vendor within 60 calendar days of this announcement.

3 Concept of Operations

Under Project ATLAS, AeroX is looking to acquire a GBSS for low-altitude aircraft surveillance to enable UAS BVLOS operations that could be implemented using industry-developed Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) products without the need for substantial modification or engineering.

This system will provide non-cooperative aircraft surveillance data to accomplish three goals:

1.????Supply UAS operators with critical surveillance data to obtain FAA approval to operate BVLOS under Part 107, Part 135, and other authorizations;

2.????Allow UAS manufacturers, sensors manufacturers, and UAS operators to validate onboard Detect and Avoid (DAA) systems by using the surveillance data provided by AeroX as a truth source; and

3.????Capture and archive non-cooperative aircraft tracks for regional AAM forecasting and planning.

The solutions proposed in response to this RFP must be capable of providing targeted secondary surveillance for all ADS-B equipped aircraft operating within the specified area of operations. Scalability, ease of integration with other sources of surveillance data, and a high level of system reliability are essential attributes required of these proposed solutions. Additionally, in response to this solicitation, the respondent must provide evidence that the system(s) proposed meet the requirements specified in Section 5.

Project ATLAS will focus on beginning and expanding the following use cases that will benefit from BVLOS operations:

·??????Medical and Retail Package Delivery – Forsyth County is home to two large healthcare institutions that pioneered the use of UAS to enhance medical logistics within their healthcare systems. It is also home to multiple retail stores that have partnered with UAS operators for package delivery operations. All have partnered with UAS operators who currently operate under Part 135 or pursuing Part 135 certification.

·??????Infrastructure Inspection – “Drone-in-a-box” used for infrastructure and site monitoring has gained market traction. Several organizations with a presence in Forsyth County are interested in starting these operations, including operating the UAS from a remote location and with no one on-site. Several organizations are also interested in linear infrastructure inspection.

·??????Public Safety - Public safety agencies have benefited from using UAS to augment their missions. Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) launched North Carolina’s first Drone as First Responder (DFR) program

AeroX intends to use the suite of technologies and systems to serve as a Supplemental Data Service Provider (SDSP), as described in FAA’s UTM CONOPs, and provide low-altitude surveillance data to both, UAS operators and UAS Service Suppliers (USS).

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4 Area of Operations

The solutions proposed in response to this RFP must provide targeted surveillance capabilities for all aircraft operating within the specified area of operations. ?

Operational and Surveillance Volumes

The proposed Operational Volume (OV) for Project ATLAS captures many active and proposed UAS operations addressing different markets. The Surveillance Volume (SV) necessary to achieve the project ATLAS OV is depicted in the image below as a red ring with a 21 SM radius centered at Truist Field (ref. point at 36° 7'53.24"N / ?80°15'19.61"W) , extending from 200’ AGL to 2,000’ AGL. The yellow polygon depicts Forsyth County borders in the image below.

Figure 1. Surveillance Volume and Forsyth County Boundaries

Figure 2. View of downtown Winston-Salem

Additional Points of Interest:

·??????Well Fargo Building 460’ AGL - 36° 5'42.98"N / 80°14'38.31"W

·??????Atrium Forest Baptist Hospital Helipad - 36° 5'25.46"N / 80°16'14.64"W (Key site)

·??????NOVANT Hospital Helipad - 36° 4'39.67"N / 80°17'47.63"W

·??????Smith Reynolds Airport Reference Point (ARP) - 36° 8'1.20"N / 80°13'19.20"W (Key site)

Note: Key sites require surveillance coverage down to the lowest altitude the solution can provide.

5 System Capabilities

The following are the minimum requirements for the desired ADS-B ground receiver station network.?Final requirements for the system may be amended by AeroX prior to entering into an agreement with a vendor.?

5.1 Overall System Requirements

Requirement

Compliance (Y/N)

1.????The system shall provide secondary cooperative surveillance of all ADS-B equipped targets within the system’s defined coverage area.

2.????The system design shall be independent and employ open architecture principles to support integration with other systems. Interfaces between system components/architectural elements must be specified and documented through an Interface Control Document (ICD).

3.????The system shall be scalable and adaptable in order to support future needs.

4.????The system shall use commercial, standardized protocols for any interfaces implemented for information exchange. These include, but are not limited to: ASTERIX, JSON, and GeoJSON

5.????The system shall work and provide usable surveillance in all environmental and low visibility conditions where operations continue to be conducted; including but not limited to rain, snow, fog, wind, hail, sleet, dusk, dawn, day, and night.

6.????The system shall provide an engineering/maintenance display for the ADS-B ground station receiver network.

5.2 ADS-B Surveillance System Requirements

Requirement

Compliance ??(Y/N)

1.????ADS-B MOPS Requirements

The system shall conform to the following DO-260B MOPS sections for receiver performance.

·??????2.2.4.3.4.2 Narrow Pulse Discrimination

·??????2.2.4.3.4.5 Message Formats

·??????2.2.4.3.4.7.1 Criteria for ADS-B Message Transmission Pulse Detection

·??????2.2.4.3.5 ADS-B Receiver Duty Factor *for individual receivers

·??????2.2.4.4.3.1 Error Correction Requirements

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2.????Receiver Minimum Trigger Level

The system shall receive and decode at least 99% of all ADS-B messages received at an input signal level of -84 dBm at the RF input.

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3.????ADS-B Receiver Communication

The system shall provide an output data stream for downlinked track data for ADS-B equipped aircraft.

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4.????Brute Force Error Correction Latency

The system shall receive and decode brute force error corrected ADS-B messages with less than 10 ms relative to time of receipt of the end of the framing pulse.

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5.????ADS-B Track Position Validation

The system shall validate the encoded position of ADS-B airborne position messages and airborne velocity messages using a method independent from decoding ADS-B message contents.

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6.????Messaging for ADS-B Track Position Validation

The system shall provide a summary of position validation in its output data stream, including the following equivalent states of validation:

·??????Validated reception history

·??????Invalid validation history

·??????Unvalidated, insufficient receptions

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7.????De-Duplication of Multiple Receptions

The system shall de-duplicate receptions that are detected by multiple independent receiver components, if used.

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8.????Output Data Stream Latency

The system shall not exceed a latency of 50 ms (given by an update in the output data stream relative to its corresponding airborne position message, assuming successful decode).

Note: this requirement is suitable to compare the time of applicability of the received extended squitter message to the time of receipt of the corresponding update on the data stream interface.

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6 Responses from Vendors

Award will be made to the Offeror whose proposal conforms to the requirements of this RFP and provides the best overall value to AeroX. The best value approach provides the opportunity for technical and price trade-offs, and does not require that award be made to either the Offeror submitting the highest rated proposal or the Offeror submitting the lowest price, although the ultimate award may be to either one of those Offerors. AeroX reserves the right to make no award in response to this RFP if it deems no proposal represents the best value to the AeroX.

The response should not exceed 10 pages in length, which excludes any attachments.??Submissions should be in Times New Roman, Font 12, with one inch margins on the top and bottom of each page. Each page of the submission is to be numbered. The electronic submission must be in PDF format.?Facsimile submissions or oral submission will not be acceptable.

Responses must be received by the President, Basil Yap, by email at [email protected], with “Project ATLAS ADS-B RFP” in the subject line, no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on August 21, 2022. Late submissions will not be accepted.

All communications with the President must be in writing.

6.1 Submission Requirements

• The respondent must self-attest and provide clear evidence that their proposed solution meets all the technical performance requirements specified in section 5, titled “System Capabilities”. This self-attestation of technical capabilities will be included in any future contract with AeroX and any deficiencies in the attested capabilities will be considered a material breach of contract.
• Respondents must provide a detailed description of the system including, but not limited to current product specifications. The system must be installation-ready within a period of three (3) months from the publication of this announcement.
• Respondents must provide a past performance write-up that demonstrates capability and results in programs that involved substantially similar size, scope, and complexity that will be required to provide the services described in the Scope of Work and are currently ongoing or were recently completed. For these purposes, the following definitions apply:

???????Recently Completed or Ongoing Programs – ongoing programs must have completed a minimum of 12 months of performance and completed programs must have ended not later than three years prior to the date of proposal submission

• Scope – each Program must have performed (or be performing) a substantially similar nature of work to that described in the Scope of Work

·??????Respondents must provide a detailed cost breakdown of the proposed system.

6.2 Projected Schedule of Events

The following are important dates specific to this RFI:

Release of RFP?????????????????????????????????????

08/01/23

Respondent's response to RFP??????????????

08/21/23

Response evaluation(s) and follow-on discussions with respondents

09/15/23

Contract award????????????????????????????????????

09/30/23

6.3 AeroX Point of Contact

All inquiries regarding this Market Survey/RFI must be in writing to AeroX at [email protected] with “Project ATLAS ADS-B RFP” in the subject line.

6.4 Company Points of Contact

For informational purposes, respondents must include a Point of Contact(s) with phone number(s), email address, and mailing address.

6.5 Submission

Respondents must provide clear evidence of how their solution would satisfy AeroX’s need as expressed in the Concept of Operations and System Capabilities sections.?Responses containing only company brochures, catalogs or other types of generic information will not be considered as a response to this RFP.?

Submission Format?????????????????Email Address?????????????????????????Subject Line

Electronic submission??????????????[email protected]?????????????????Project ATLAS ADS-B RFP

6.6 Closing Date

All responses to this RFP must be submitted to the above points of contact no later than 5:00 p.m. (EDT) on 08/21/23.

6.7 Additional Information

This announcement is not intended to guarantee procurement of the services, and shall not be construed as a commitment by AeroX to enter into a contract.?Companies are advised that subcontracting/consulting/teaming arrangements are acceptable.?

AeroX is not liable for costs associated with the preparation, submittal of inquiries, or responses for this announcement and will not reimburse any firm for costs incurred in responding to this announcement.

END OF ANNOUNCEMENT