A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1546597
22 REGION X REGION X NATCA congratulates the 2026 recipient of the Region X Commitment to Safety Award, Mark Slover, the lead computer engineer in the National Airspace System (NAS) Communications Engineering Team out of the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, Okla. (NATCA Local EAC). Slover has been involved in several national technical challenges, including sustainment of the NAS through numerous equipment sunsetting and obsolescence issues like Bandwidth Manager, Fiber Optic Transmission Systems, and other legacy telecommunications equipment. Slover has also been instrumental in bringing new technologies into the NAS including Fiber Optic Transmission Systems that bridge legacy Time Division Multiplexed system interfaces to Internet Protocol (TDM-IP). Most recently, Slover has focused on the daunting challenge of participating in the requirements development, design, validation, and implementation of the Conversion Appliance System Service (CASS) suite of solutions into the NAS. CASS provides a comprehensive solution for converting TDM interfaces of more than 40 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) systems to various IP protocols for transport over modern telecommunications systems. The CASS effort began in 2018 as it became clear that a solution did not exist for FAA legacy serial interfaces to convert to IP. Hundreds of AWOS/ASOS (Automated Weather Observing System/Automated Surface Observing System) and VOR (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range) systems were being removed from service as telecommunications providers discontinued TDM services over existing copper cable infrastructure. Slover was instrumental in the qualification of LTE and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite systems to provide IP connectivity to remote facilities at a fraction of the cost of fiber construction projects ultimately avoiding more than $100 million in construction costs. This effort solved the issue of how to deliver IP service to facilities; however, it did not answer the question of how these legacy TDM interfaces could communicate using the IP transport. Solving this issue proved to be a daunting technical challenge and an even more daunting challenge to garner support throughout the FAA for the proposed system. Mark Slover EAC Mark Slover