FAA asks industry for insights into OS upgrades for mobile border surveillance

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have released a market survey seeking information and comments from industry as the government explores upgrading the operating system (OS) of its Teledyne FLIR Lightweight Vehicle Surveillance Systems (LVSS) operating on the southern border of the United States. This system utilizes a comprehensive internal system control software in conjunction with a Windows 10 operating system and the DOT is interested in upgrading the OS to Windows 11.

In addition, the FAA seeks engineering support to connect the system to its network operations center and to integrate Cameleon software directly with the computer-aided software engineer (CACE) environment without the Syzygy simple network access point (SNAP) kit.

The FAA asks that potential contractors provide an itemized rough order of magnitude (ROM) to do that work, and notes that the following requirements be considered in developing that ROM:

-         Hardware selected to replace the existing MSC-L Client and Server

-          Must be ruggedized to meet temperature ranges of -40° C to 70° C.

The enclosure must be dust proof and avoid internal component failure due to vibration or temperature shifts. Recommendations to include but

are not limited to:

·       H x W x L to allow installation at existing location within the electronics enclosure of MSC-L. A redesign of the existing mounting bracket is likely required but not included in this SOW.

·       Intel Gen 9 or higher processor.

·       32 Gigabyte (GB) of Radom Access Memory (RAM) Minimum.

·       All Hard Drives will be system / subsystem design (SSD).

·       Consider access to the drive when installed in the vehicle.

·       Dual network interface controller (NIC) Cards.

·       WiFi (wireless fidelity) built in with Bluetooth.

·       Little or no detectable video compression latency with respect to live remote operation.

·       Design selection will be reviewed and approved by FAA.

·       Avoid PCI (peripheral component interconnect) or ribbon cables type connections that are vulnerable to disconnection (temperature, vibration, or other environment variables).

·       Non-proprietary solutions will be considered.

·       Replace MOXA devices with Cisco Router and Cisco Switch.

·       Provide mounting recommendations of the FAA provided network devices.

Microsoft operating system must be Windows 11 Enterprise Edition. The enterprise license will be provided by the FAA under a volume license service contract (VLSC). This will ensure future imaging efforts with CBP Office Information Technology (OIT), Mobile Program Office, and FAA will be possible without issues of the License Keys.  

Responses to this survey are due by 21 July 2023. Questions can be addressed to Jason Perry at [email protected].