The objective of the Special Systems Engineering Requirements task area is to provide engineering support for specialized environments currently within the DoD mission space. Notwithstanding these specialized requirements, the Contractor shall be able to perform systems engineering activities for all legacy, current, and future DoD IT missions. For any future DoD IT missions, the Contractor shall obtain any skills, knowledge and abilities needed to apply systems engineering expertise in support of those missions. Failure to do so may render the Contractor ineligible for Task Order awards requiring systems engineering support applied to the new DoD IT mission area.
Subtask 1 – Network Engineering
In support of this area, the Contractor shall provide engineering support for existing Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) terrestrial, satellite, and wireless transport infrastructures and their approved architectures. The objective is to ensure a secure and resilient network infrastructure in support of the DoD Enterprise Infrastructure by connecting deployed Warfighters to each other and to their sustaining bases; U.S. Forces to their coalition partners; and DoD to intelligence and federal, state, and local agencies.
In support of this area, the Contractor shall perform activities including, but not limited to:
- Transport Network Planning and Engineering (current infrastructure utilizes Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) as a primary technology, with optical channels at transmission speeds of 10 Gbps)
- Optimize DISN network architectural requirements
- Design, plan and engineer changes to transport bandwidth requirements
- Analyze existing DISN transport architectures and design, develop and deliver solutions to improve the architecture and resolve network transition issues
- Perform configuration management to control design changes associated with the DISN transport architecture
- Design, develop and deliver engineering plans and solutions for transport network architectures world- wide, including CONUS, Europe, Pacific (PAC) and Southwest Asia (SWA)
- Assess and provide recommendations for Theater-level DISN transport architectures
- Provide Internet Protocol (IP) engineering support for the Department of Defense Information Network (DoDIN), covering both non-classified IP router network (NIPRNet) and secret IP router network (SIPRNet)
- Develop, test, provide and execute implementation guides for initiatives to increase the security (harden the perimeter) of the NIPRNet
- Engineer solutions to improve the internet access point (IAP) network infrastructure, situated between the Internet and the DISN
- Engineer solutions to improve and integrate special initiatives into the SIPRNet, the DISN Test and Evaluation Network (DTEN), Unified Capabilities (UC), Enterprise Services, and the DISN Tactical Edge
- Support IPv6 integration testing and deployment
- Perform cryptographic systems engineering and integration
- Improve the information assurance (IA) posture of the transport network
- Provide certification and accreditation (C&A) support
Subtask 2 – Satellite Communications Engineering
In support of this area, the Contractor shall provide systems engineering support for enterprise, end-to-end Satellite Communications (SATCOM) system solutions. End-to-end SATCOM systems consist of ground, space, and control segments that allow geographically dispersed users to access services when the terrestrial infrastructure is not available or cost-effective. SATCOM systems include the following equipment and functions: Radio Frequency (RF), Baseband, Network Interface, Monitoring and Control (M&C) and Situational Awareness (SA) reporting. SATCOM services include voice, data, video, transport and applications over Military and Commercial satellites between the customer’s ground segment end points and control centers providing the services. The ground segment includes terrestrial, airborne and ship-based systems. A key part of the SATCOM ground segment is the Enterprise SATCOM Gateway, which will transition to JIE Large and Small Enterprise SATCOM Gateways.
In support of this area, the Contractor shall perform activities including, but not limited to:
- Analyze customer requirements for SATCOM solution suitability (i.e., requirements for throughput, reliability, latency, security and connectivity)
- Analyze, develop and document detailed system requirements for SATCOM
- Develop SATCOM system technical approaches
- Develop SATCOM analysis of alternative architectures, high level design, and risks
- Develop SATCOM system and sub-system performance specifications
- Provide support for SATCOM system acquisition and procurement
- Develop SATCOM integration and interoperability plans
- Conduct SATCOM network loading analysis and network engineering
- Conduct SATCOM system survivability assessments
- Create SATCOM developmental test plans, execute the tests, and report results
Subtask 3 – Spectrum Engineering
In support of this area, the Contractor shall enable the DoD’s effective and efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) in support of national security and military objectives. The Defense Spectrum Office (DSO) is responsible for a broad range of EMS services and capabilities, ranging from short notice on-the-ground operational support at the forward edge, to long range spectrum planning and policy support in pursuit of national strategic objectives. This support includes: Spectrum Support to Combatant Commands and Services, Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) and Spectrum Engineering, Strategic Spectrum Planning, Spectrum Enterprise Services and Tools.
In support of this area, the Contractor shall perform activities including, but not limited to:
- Spectrum support to Combatant Commands, Services and Agencies (CC/S/As)
- Provide training on various spectrum management capabilities
- Conduct Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) analyses and engineering studies and provide recommendations resulting from those analyses and studies
- Conduct electromagnetic propagation predictions, signal coverage plots, engineering analyses, and country studies
- Review and provide recommendations for improving spectrum plans, manuals and doctrines
- Provide technical engineering and field support for the Joint Spectrum Interference Resolution (JSIR) in accordance with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction (CJCSI/M) 02 series Research, analyze, organize and report on space systems activities and satellite technical information
- Improve spectrum operations business processes and analytics
- Provide engineering support to implement Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (JEMSO)
- Provide engineering support for the DoD’s E3 program, including the Joint Ordnance E3 program (which includes Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance (HERO) and the Joint Ordnance E3 Risk Assessment Database (JOERAD))
- Provide support for the Electromagnetic Compatibility Standardization (EMCS) program
- Provide integrated strategies, policies, processes and practices to achieve global spectrum access for national security obligations
- Provide technical support in response to various regulatory and legislative activities (i.e., Interdepartmental Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA))
- Provide technical support to reallocate spectrum in accordance with the National Broadband Plan
- Conduct spectrum sharing studies and develop technical papers for international working groups to ensure existing and planned DoD spectrum requirements are protected within the international framework
- Provide technical support to execute the DoD EMS Strategy
- Survey, identify, prioritize, and assess technologies that have potential impact on DoD spectrum access
- Provide engineering support to the Global Electromagnetic Spectrum Information System (GEMSIS) program, including design, development and delivery of new GEMSIS capabilities
- Develop, validate, support and execute various analytical tools and M&S capabilities to evaluate new spectrum management concepts, techniques, technologies and business practices
Subtask 4 – Cybersecurity Engineering
In support of this area, the Contractor shall support cybersecurity engineering, which includes policy development, planning, research, engineering, architecture, design, development, testing, performance analysis, acquisition, implementation, integration, and fielding for (but not limited to):
- Securing the DoDIN Joint Information Environment (JIE)
- Development of Defensive Cyber Operations concepts to enable Attack Detection, Diagnosis, and Response (A2DR) methodologies
- DoD Network Operations (NETOPS) sensors, collectors, correlation capabilities, and presentation systems
- Evolution of the DoD Public Key Infrastructure & Enablement Activities (PKI)
- Cross Domain Enterprise Services (CDES)
- Internet/DoDIN boundary and perimeter defense systems
- Enclave-based systems and current endpoint technologies
- Support of C&A in accordance with the Risk Management Framework (RMF), as well as any other Government-specified C&A policies and procedures
- Secure and support other networks as identified
In support of this area, the Contractor shall provide cybersecurity engineering support in accordance with DoD publications including, but not limited to:
- DoDD 8500.1: Information Assurance (IA)
- DoDI 8500.2: Information Assurance (IA) Implementation
- DoDI 8500.01: Cybersecurity
- DoDI 8520.2: Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Public Key Enabling
- DoDI 8580.1: Information Assurance (IA) in the Acquisition System
- DODI 8510.01: Risk Management Framework (RMF) for DoD Information Technology (IT)
- NIST 800-37
- NIST 800.60 Volumes I and II
- The NIST 800-53 and
- The NIST 800-53A
Subtask 5 – Cloud Engineering
In support of this area, the Contractor shall implement the cloud model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction for consumers and producers.
The cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics (On-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service). Although Cloud Computing has three primary service models (Cloud Software as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Platform as-a-Service (PaaS), Cloud Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS)), other service models are to be considered (X-as-a-Service). The Contractor shall support cloud-engineering deployments in at least four environments (Private cloud, Community cloud, Public cloud, and Hybrid cloud). Key enabling technologies in the cloud include: (1) fast wide-area networks, (2) powerful, inexpensive server computers, and (3) high-performance virtualization for commodity hardware.
In support of this area, the Contractor shall perform activities including, but not limited to:
- Develop and augment cloud computing technologies to optimize cost savings combined with increased IT agility
- Evaluate and recommend adoption of mature, well-documented, and industry-accepted open cloud computer standards and profiles to support development of interoperable cloud-based services within the DoD
- Engineer cloud solutions
- Develop and engineer secure and reliable IT computing services within the cloud environment
- Integrate new applications into cloud environments, and transition existing applications into cloud environments
- Engineer a solution to integrate various platforms and eliminate the need for multiple interfaces to manage cloud environments
- Integrate other components from other systems and/or cloud environments, including commercial products and systems
- Ensure compliance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines on cloud computing
- Apply security requirements across crosscutting layers of the solutions architecture of all layers in the cloud environment (i.e., end-to-end security that ranges from physical security to application security).
- Conduct risk assessment and viability studies for transitioning various applications into the cloud environment
Subtask 6 – Information and Knowledge Engineering
In support of this area, the Contractor shall provide support and services for the full range of information and knowledge engineering to include, but not limited to, the development of information flow across functional domains; functional data models; standardization and implementation of common data elements; prototyping, development and implementation of shared databases in standard, common, migration systems, data mining and analytics, improvements in cross-organizational knowledge sharing and interoperability of data; and the development of data migration strategies to identify the plans and processes for the transition of legacy data to shared data through the utilization of data standards.
In support of this area, the Contractor shall perform activities including, but not limited to:
- Studies and analyses of logistics/supportability, engineering, financial, operational, and business processes
- Evaluate the viability of potential solutions, alternatives to various technical issues and challenges, and emerging products or technology
- Develop pre-production, open source, or commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based prototypes to assess and identify risks in as yet unproven technology applications
- Design, develop and deliver new or modified existing information engineering products
- Perform business process improvement practices to re-engineer methodologies and improve business process modernization projects
- Perform data and visualization analytics on various products (i.e., Hadoop/Map Reduce, NoSQL and SQL databases, Microsoft Excel, cloud-based analytic platforms, machine learning, and visualization tools)
- Optimize application and system performance to meet customer needs and business objectives
Subtask 7 – Mobility
In support of this area, the Contractor shall deliver wireless DoD Information Enterprise Infrastructure and services to operate secure mobile enterprise services within the DoD. In support of this task the Contractor shall perform activities including, but not limited to:
- Support the institution of mobile device policies and standards for use across DoD
- Support the promotion of standard development and use of mobile and web applications across DoD
- Deliver systems engineering support and design artifacts for the Mobility Ecosystem at DISA or at DISA’s Mission Partners
- Support ensuring that cyber security policies and risk management is appropriately implemented in Mobility infrastructure, components and capabilities
- Develop and enforce systems engineering and configuration management processes across the Mobility Ecosystem
- Provide interface support to critical systems, such as the DISA Business and Fulfillment systems
- Support the analysis and integration as appropriate of emerging technologies and Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTDs). Develop, maintain and enforce Mobility policies and standards
- Make recommendations for unclassified Mobility devices and associated peripherals
- Deliver interim secure Mobility device solutions and associated peripherals, while transitioning to commercial use products
- Support ensuring mobility device communications; such as, Unified Communications, electronic voice- over-IP (eVoIP), Defense Collaboration Services (DCS), and Enterprise e-mail are available on all DISA Deliver necessary standard apps tools, framework, and MAS for use across DoD. Develop appropriate policies for device management.
- Support the integration and delivery of components and services necessary to support a comprehensive DoD Mobility Infrastructure specifically related to Mobile Device Management (MDM), Gateways, security services and PKI solutions
Subtask 8 – Cognitive Computing
In support of this area, the Contractor shall provide support and services for the full range of technology areas that are based on Artificial Intelligence and Signal Processing with the goal of duplicating human cognitive thought. The activities for this task include but are not limited to:
- Support the development of self-learning algorithms that use data mining, pattern recognition, natural language processing and other techniques
- Support the development of reasoning computing that utilizes a reasoning approach similar to the human reasoning and human decision-making process
- Support the development of natural language processing including, but not limited to, automatic summarization, conference resolution, discourse analysis, machine translation, morphological segmentation, named entity recognition, natural language generation, natural language understanding, optical character recognition, part of speech tagging, parsing, question answering, relationship extraction, sentence breaking, sentiment analysis, speech recognition, speech segmentation, topic segmentation and recognition, word segmentation, word sense disambiguation, information retrieval, and information extraction
- Support the development of cognitive computing vision including, but not limited to, visual attention, visual search, object and person tracking, object discovery, facial recognition, scene categorization, and localization and mapping
- Support the development of human-computer interaction interfaces
Subtask 9 – Emerging Technologies
In support of this area, the Contractor shall provide systems engineering support and services to the application of new technologies, which may not yet be mature at the time of Contract award, to improve and expand DISA services to meet future mission needs, emerging threats, and improve Warfighter capabilities. The activities for this task include but are not limited to:
- Support the organizational objectives to embrace principled and robust use of modern innovation tools for problem-solving and accelerating transitions of emerging technologies from lab to production
- Utilize design thinking to analyze the organizational and mission problems as they currently are and apply strategic foresight for the solutions to be agile and resilient to future organizational and mission problems
- Develop cost benefit analyses when proposing an emerging technology to include development and lifecycle costs
- Assess what the technology’s readiness level is in accordance with the current Department of Defense Technology Readiness assessment guidance and develop plans and timelines for maturation of the emerging technology
- Support the exploration of emerging technology’s impacts on the DoD operational environments; such that the utility and viability of emerging technologies are properly measured in their support of diverse classes of warfighters, mission areas, and support infrastructures