FTI-2 Overview
Prepared for:
ITPA
Presented by:
Deborah Young,
FTI-2 PM
Date:
November 5, 2015
Federal Aviation
Administration
Topics
• FTI Program Overview
• FTI-2 Focus Areas/ Challenges
• FTI-2 Timeline
• FTI-2 Working Group
– Scope and Expected Outcomes of Committees
• FTI-2 External Facing Website
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FTI Program Overview
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FTI Program & Contract Overview
• FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) is a
performance-based services contract
through which the FAA acquires the majority of the
telecommunication services it requires
• Awarded in July 2002 to team led by Harris
Corporation
• 15-year period of performance, $3.5B ceiling
– 5-year base period to cover transition phase
– Ten 1-year options
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How Telecomm Supports the FAA’s ATC Domains
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Key Attributes of FTI
• Provides a long-term, stable infrastructure for meeting FAA
requirements for operational and agency communications
• Reduces dependence on FAA-owned equipment and provides
the flexibility to take advantage of improvements in technology
• Implements enterprise-wide solution to information security
assurance and other FAA-specific requirements
• Leverages commercial offerings and business practices
• Performance-based contract with a balance of positive and
negative incentives
– Award Fee to incentivize vendor to achieve FAA objectives
– Service Level Agreement (SLA) that provides financial credits if
services do not meet FAA requirements
• Defines mechanisms to ensure that the FAA pays marketcompetitive rates for the duration of the contract
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FTI Service Paradigm
• FAA focus is on defining the requirements for
telecommunications services provided by FTI Contractor
• The FAA does not own, operate, or maintain any of the
telecommunications equipment
• FTI Vendor is responsible for service provision including
design, engineering, implementation, operations,
maintenance, and network upgrades
• FTI Services Description Document (the FTI Spec)
currently defines 100+ service classes
– Distinguished by RMA level, latency level, physical interface and other
parameters
• Enhanced security features such as encryption and
firewalls can be ordered as optional features
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FTI Networks / Service Offerings
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FTI Networks
• The FTI Program includes two separate private
networks meeting different requirements:
– One to provide connectivity between National Airspace System
(NAS) Operational systems (TDM & IP), and
– One for agency / mission support applications (IP)
• The separation is required to comply with FAA
security policies to protect the NAS
• FTI provides a modern infrastructure that supports
all commercial standard protocols
• Responsibility for technology insertion and keeping
the network up-to-date lies with the contractor
– FAA not faced with technology obsolescence issues
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FTI Service Offerings
In addition to traditional point-to-point and IP-based
telecomm services, FTI provides:
• Enterprise Messaging Services
– Implemented to support the requirements of the System-Wide
Information Management (SWIM) program
• Infrastructure Services
– Network Boundary Protection Services (NBPS)
• NAS Enterprise Security Gateways (NESG) and dedicated NESG connectivity
– Network Time Protocol / Precision Time Protocol (NTP/PTP)
Domain Name Services (DNS)
– International User Portal (IUP)
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FTI Footprint
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FTI NAS Operational Network
• Completely private, highly secure network
• Provides service to 4,000+ sites, many in remote areas
• 24,000 individual telecomm services
• Provides enhanced security functions (e.g.,
encryption, firewalling, intrusion protection/detection)
• Implements a dual-core architecture for NAS OPIP
service to mitigate system-wide failures
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FAA Mission Support Network
• Provides service to 1,000+ FAA facilities
• Provides Internet Access Points for FAA network traffic
• Provides dedicated transport for data replication between
national data centers
• 30,000+ Virtual Private Network (VPN) accounts
• Supports bandwidth-intensive applications
– FAA administrative services including: phone, email, training,
payroll & internet access
– Client based Video & Web Conferencing
– Interactive web-based training
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FTI-2 Focus Areas / Challenges
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FTI-2 Focus Areas
• Ensuring a competitive landscape
• Leveraging technology and market place
innovation
• Defining a cost recovery model that
balances the risk between the FAA and the
service provider
• Clearly defining the FAA’s requirements
– Includes balancing the need for continued support of
the FAA’s legacy systems versus the needs of future
programs
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FTI-2 Challenges (1 of 2)
• Magnitude of the service inventory / number of sites affected
– Parallel operating costs while transitioning 25,000+ services
• Meeting FAA’s unique requirements
– Commercial service offerings currently do not meet the FAA’s
performance and security requirements
– Survivability protection from “6-sigma” events
• NAS systems require a diverse mix of services
– FAA is exploring options to reduce the number of unique interfaces to
simplify the FTI-2 transition and gain economies
of scale
• Meeting diversity and avoidance requirements for critical NAS
services
– Will the level of visibility and control continue to be available as
commercial services potentially migrate to network virtualization
technologies?
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FTI-2 Challenges (2 of 2)
• Transitioning “value-added” services
– Service providers may not support as standard service offerings
– This will likely influence the FAA’s acquisition strategy and the need to ensure
competitive environment
– Current value-added services include:
•
•
•
•
SOA based enterprise messaging services
Domain Name Services (DNS)
Network Time Protocol and Precision Time Protocol (NTP/PTP) services
Boundary Protection and enterprise security gateway services
• Phase-out of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)-based services
– Telecommunications carriers have petitioned the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) regarding their intent to completely discontinue services
based on TDM technology by 2020
– Wireless solutions not yet capable of meeting availability, latency, and timing
requirements
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TDM-to-IP Migration Challenges
• The 90% of National Airspace System telecomm services are TDMbased
• FAA may not influence carrier decisions on replacement
technologies (e.g., Carrier Ethernet (preferred) versus 4G Wireless)
or where carriers will migrate first
• FAA facing a potential increase to its telecomm operating costs
• FAA may be forced to transition to IP-based services prior to 2020
– Depends on geographical phase-out pursued by carriers
– Approach will likely vary across carriers
• Creates uncertainty in the FAA’s planning for the FTI-2 program
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FTI-2 Notional Timeline
ACT IAC
Industry
Kick-Off
Draft Industry
Report
Brief the JRC on
Recommendations
SIR
Release
AMS Process /Develop SIR
Sept 2015
Feb 2016
Jul 2016
FY2018
Engagement in Industry Forums
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Next Steps
• Work with the American Council for Technology Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) to exchange
information and collaborate on technology issues
related to FTI-2
• One-on-one meetings with interested stakeholders
• Web-based market research
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FTI-2 Industry Working Group
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FTI-2 Working Group
Co-chaired by:
–
–
Bob Woods, Topside Consulting
Deborah Young, FAA Program Manager
Mission and Purpose:
– Provide an ongoing forum for capturing industry and government comments,
feedback, and recommendations on relevant topics related to the FTI-2
program
Consists of four committees:
–
–
–
–
Acquisition Strategy
Technology & Performance
Implementation & Transition
Operations
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Acquisition Strategy (1of 2)
Chaired by:
Andrea Cohen (Verizon)
Purpose:
Address what services (scope) the FAA should acquire and how (one or more
contracts) we should acquire them
Expected Outputs:
Recommendations on:
– How could services currently acquired under FTI be grouped in the future
to maximize competition?
– Are there additional services that should be considered within the FTI-2
scope?
– Are there services that should not be considered within the scope of FTI2 competitive acquisition?
Continued 
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Acquisition Strategy (2 of 2)
Expected Outputs:
– Recommendations for competing services that could be acquired
separate from the core FTI-2 competition?
– How to minimize the operational impact if services are acquired from
different service providers rather than as an integrated delivery
model?
– What are some cost recovery models that balance the risk between
FAA and the service provider that the FAA should consider?
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Technology & Performance (1 of 3)
Chaired by:
Mike Peterson (CenturyLink)
Purpose:
Address how the changing telecommunications technology over the next
decade will affect the ability of FTI-2 to meet challenging NAS requirements
Expected Outputs:
Recommendations on:
– Network Virtualization: The virtualization of the networking
infrastructure with central control and functionality on-demand
– TDM-IP Transition: The replacement of traditional wireline
transmission with Ethernet service where available and wireless
services
Continued 
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Technology & Performance (2 of 3)
Expected Outputs:
– Availability and survivability: Can virtualized network architectures
provide the required availability and protection against system-wide
outages for the NAS?
– Use of Carrier Ethernet Technologies for NAS services:
Questions include availability of Carrier Ethernet in areas other than
major metropolitan areas and the potential increased cost of those
technologies if low bandwidth services are needed.
– Long Term Evolution (LTE) technologies: Today’s LTE services
cannot meet the requirements of fixed rate, dedicated access circuits.
What is the outlook for LTE to be able to provide mission critical
services?
– Security: What new security models exist to secure national
infrastructure type services?
Continued 
FTI-2 Overview
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Technology & Performance (3 of 3)
Expected Outputs:
– Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): The existing FTI contract has
an extensive SOA messaging infrastructure. What technology trends
may help the FAA improve, simplify, and encourage adoption of this
infrastructure?
– Cloud Services: What impact does the FAA having a separate
acquisition for Cloud services have on FTI-2? What considerations
are needed for FTI-2?
– Other Emerging Telecommunication/Networking Technologies:
What other emerging telecommunications/networking technologies
are on the horizon that may be beneficial to the FAA?
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Implementation & Transition (1 of 2)
Chaired by:
David Lantzy (AT&T)
Purpose:
Address possible FTI-2 implementation approaches and the
challenges associated with achieving a timely, smooth, and costeffective transition from FTI to FTI-2. Explore how implementation
approach and transition issues are inter-related.
Expected Outputs:
Recommendations on:
– Contrast the differences in implementation approach and transition
issues for the shift from today’s private FTI to a private FTI-2 versus
those associated with implementing a virtual private FTI-2.
Continued 
FTI-2 Overview
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Implementation & Transition (2 of 2)
Expected Outputs:
– Can the FAA continue to approve configuration changes of assets?
Can industry continue to meet such a requirement when FTI-2 is
implemented?
– If FTI-2 needs to have a dedicated optical backbone (as FTI has today)
to provide a comparable level of service, does that simplify or
complicate the transition from FTI to FTI-2?
– The Performance committee may identify candidate technologies for
use on FTI-2 that may present new implementation and transition
challenges. Assess and document those challenges and the
implications for the transition from FTI to FTI-2.
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Operations
Chaired by:
Dave AmRhein (Harris)
Purpose
Address a series of questions on monitoring and control of mission critical
infrastructures, visibility into service configuration and real-time operation of
the network, new concepts for meeting diversity and avoidance requirements,
achievable restoration times, and the ability of carriers to continue to support
the FAA’s “release of service” ConOps
Expected Outputs:
Recommendations on:
– FTI-2 ConOps Document that expands upon the basic construct of the
service provider’s end-to-end responsibility for the service while
providing the FAA with visibility into the configuration and performance
of the services
– Strategies for closing the gap between the FAA’s 3-hour restoral
requirement and the industry-average MTTR
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FTI-2 External Facing Website
• The FAA is in the process of establishing an externally
facing website for FTI-2
– Projected to be up by the end of November 2015
• The purpose is to ensure that all interested parties
have access to documents made available through the
ACT-IAC forum as well as other general information
related to the FAA’s planning for the FTI-2 program
• Initial launch will include a program overview, goals,
and timeline
• Discussion blog planned for Version 2.0
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Questions?
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