Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Contracts Management Office (CMO), 3701 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington VA 22203-1714

A -- HIGH CONFIDENCE GLOBAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS SOL BAA97-01 DUE 013097 POC Dr. Gary M. Koob, DARPA/ITO, Fax: (703) 522-7161. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) solicits proposals for research and technology development related to global mobile and distributed computing environments supporting the high confidence execution of Defense-critical applications. This BAA solicits research in eight specific technical areas. Technical areas (1)-(4) support the Global Mobile Information Systems Program (GloMo). The goal of GloMo is to dramatically enhance the capabilities of information systems operating in a mobile wireless environment. Of paramount consideration is the ability to adapt to an environment characterized by rapid changes in connectivity and bandwidth, maintaining connectivity and operational capability, despite environmental effects. Thus, the technologies and concepts being sought under this solicitation must be inherently robust, adaptable, secure, and survivable. Technical areas (5)-(8) represent critical systems software technologies necessary to support the Quorum and High Confidence Computing Systems (HCC) programs. The goal of Quorum is to develop a ''global operating system'' supporting the high confidence execution of Defense-critical applications on a large-scale shared pool of heterogeneous resources. The central concept in Quorum is negotiation and assurance of end-to-end quality-of-service through dynamic, coordinated adaptation at all system levels. 1) UNTETHERED NODE TECHNOLOGIES: Technology advancements are sought which enable wireless nodes to be small, light weight, low cost, and low power while offering a wide range of performance and versatility. Specifically, wireless nodes must employ technologies which enable high data rate communications while moving at vehicular speeds, support variable data rates, accommodate flexible operations, utilize advanced techniques for adaptive link control to stabilize quality of service, support sophisticated network management in a multihop environment, and support waveform diversity. Technical POC Robert Ruth 2) SECURE/SURVIVABLE MOBILE INFORMATION SYSTEMS: Develop and demonstrate technologies which improve the confidence (security, reliability, survivability) with which end-to-end information exchanges can be reliably completed among highly mobile users and from fixed to mobile users experiencing high rates of topology change with significant variability in quality of service at the link and network levels. Technical POC Robert Ruth 3) INTEGRATED MOBILE INFORMATION SYSTEMS CAPABILITIES: Develop and demonstrate technology enabling the integration of wireless mobile systems at all levels: wireless nodes, networking techniques, and application support. Specific objectives include the development and demonstration of integrated technologies which enable: continuous/efficient operations with frequent disconnects and temporary loss of service, multimedia information exchanges, continuous information exchange while moving within and across networks, and secure/survivable information exchanges in a mobile, hostile environment. Technical POC Robert Ruth 4) MODELING & SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT/TOOLS: Techniques and tools must be developed to enable the cost effective evaluation of large scale wireless and wireless to wireline end-to-end networks. Approaches must allow for evaluation of integrated technology sets as described in Area 3 above.Technical POC Robert Ruth. 5) REAL-TIME RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: Technologies are sought for end-to-end resource management in real-time distributed systems. Approaches should support negotiation and assurance of end-to-end real-time quality-of-service (QoS) including application-specific tradeoffs among real-time constraints, dependability, security, and result quality, dynamic adaptation, and mixed hard, soft, and non-real-time workloads. Technical POC Dr. Gary Koob. 6) SECURE DISTRIBUTED EXECUTION ENVIRONMENTS: Research and technologies are sought to enable the dynamic instantiation of virtual enclaves to support the end-to-end secure and reliable execution of distributed applications. Specific issues include: establishment of security associations, policy interoperability and composition, selection and composition of security services, integration of security and fault tolerance services, and assessment of composite security/survivability properties. Technical POC Dr. Gary Koob. 7) HIGH ASSURANCE, HIGH PERFORMANCE OPERATING SYSTEMS: Advanced operating systems technology is sought to support high performance, high assurance coupling of globally distributed applications to local resources. Of particular interest are approaches that support mixed workloads of hard, soft and non-real-time applications, support dynamic customization to application-negotiated QoS constraints and behavior, provide flexible, high assurance methods of access control and process containment to support the broadest possible range of security policies, and support the secure hosting and efficient execution of mobile code. Supporting technologies, including languages, compilers, and tools for the high assurance design of systems software are also of interest. Technical POC Dr. Gary Koob. 8) QUORUM CAPABILITY INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION: An integrator is sought to focus the diverse capabilities being developed under the Quorum program toward the development and distribution of complete reference prototypes, evaluate component and integrated technologies, and work with DARPA's Defense partners to insert Quorum technologies into advanced military demonstrations. In support of the integration effort, innovative tools and techniques for the validation of large-scale systems are sought. Approaches should emphasize validation of the security, fault-tolerance, and QoS assurance properties of the system. Technical POC Dr. Gary Koob. PROGRAM SCOPE: Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches and techniques that lead to or enable revolutionary advances in the state-of-the-art. Research should result in prototype hardware and software demonstrating integrated concepts and approaches on Defense-relevant applications. Specifically excluded is research which primarily results in evolutionary improvement to the existing state of practice or focuses on a specific system or hardware solution. Integrated solution sets embodying significant technological advances are strongly encouraged over narrowly defined research endeavors. Partnering arrangements among academic, industrial, and non-profit research organizations are strongly encouraged. GENERAL INFORMATION: A briefing for DARPA BAA 97-01 will be held from 1:00 PM-4:00 PM on Thursday, November 7, 1996, at the Holiday Inn Tysons Corner, 1960 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, VA. Information regarding registration may be obtained from the administrative contact below. The intent of this briefing is to provide information regarding the BAA and to answer clarifying questions. Clarifying questions can be submitted in advance to the administrative address provided below. Remarks and explanations provided at this meeting shall not qualify the terms of the BAA. The terms and specifications of the BAA remain unchanged unless the BAA is amended in writing by DARPA. A copy of the briefing presentation slides, summarized questions and answers resulting from the meeting, and a briefing attendee list will available after the briefing at http://www.ito.darpa.mil/Solicitations or by contacting the administrative contact. In order to minimize unnecessary effort in proposal preparation and review, proposers are strongly encouraged to submit brief proposal abstracts in advance of full proposals. An original and six copies of the proposal abstract must be submitted to DARPA/ITO, ATTN: BAA 97-01, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714, on or before 4:00 PM (ET), Wednesday, November 27, 1996, to guarantee review. Upon review, DARPA will provide written feedback on the likelihood of a full proposal being selected. Proposers must submit an original and six copies of full proposals by 4:00 PM (ET), Thursday, January 30, 1997, in order to be considered. Proposers must obtain a pamphlet, BAA 97-01 Proposer Information, which provides further information on the areas of interest, submission, evaluation, funding processes, proposal abstracts, and full proposal formats. This pamphlet may be obtained by fax, electronic mail, or mail request to the administrative contact address given below, as well as at URL address http://www.ito.darpa.mil/Solicitations.html. Proposals not meeting the format described in the pamphlet may not be reviewed. This Commerce Business Daily notice, in conjunction with the pamphlet BAA 97-01 Proposer Information, constitutes the total BAA. No additional information is available, nor will a formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement be issued.Requests for same will be disregarded. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal which shall be considered by DARPA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Institutions (MI) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals. However, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of information security research for exclusive competition among these entities. Evaluation of proposals will be accomplished through a scientific review of each proposal using the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of relative importance: (1) overall scientific and technical merit, (2) potential contribution and relevance to DARPA mission, (3) offeror's capabilities and related experience, (4) plans and capability to accomplish technology transition, and (5) cost realism. All administrative correspondence and questions on this solicitation, including requests for information on how to submit a proposal abstract or proposal to this BAA, must be directed to one of the administrative addresses below by 4:00 PM, January 23, 1997, e-mail or fax is preferred. DARPA intends to use electronic mail and fax for some of the correspondence regarding BAA 97-01. Proposals and proposal abstracts may not be submitted by fax, any so sent will be disregarded. The administrative addresses for this BAA are: Fax: 703-522-7161 Addressed to: DARPA/ITO, BAA 97-01, Electronic Mail: baa9701@darpa.mil, Electronic File Retrieval: http://www.ito.darpa.mil/Solicitations.html, Mail: DARPA/ITO, ATTN: BAA 97-01, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22203-1714. (0291)

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