"We've operated a very cost-effective, quality network by doing shared Ethernet to every desktop," says Joe Askins, director of data communications for ASU. "But switched Ethernet gives us better control and security over what users do with their Ethernet connections."

One big management challenge is keeping on top of the hop-count problems stemming from the grassroots "hublets" that students and faculty set up on their own for impromptu workgroups--something that's impossible to control or enforce given the autonomous nature of the university environment. The switches will minimize hop counts among those devices.

As for security, the 10/100 Ethernet switches minimize hackers' ability to "sniff" an Ethernet segment from the network's servers and workstations because the traffic is divvied up into separate segments per port, rather than one big shared segment. "All they can sniff now is the server, no other part of the network," Askins says.

The trade-off is that desktop switching adds to ASU's administrative duties. Having a segment on each port can mean more segments to monitor overall. "With shared Ethernet, you have to monitor just one location, and whatever happens to one node happens to all" on that segment, says Tom Bauer, a computer communications specialist for ASU. "With a switch, you look at managing all domains on every port." The advantage, of course, is that a problem on one port doesn't spread to devices on all the other ports, as happens in a shared Ethernet environment.

So far, ASU has installed 100 3Com 3300 Etherswitches in three buildings on its main campus; during the next two to three years, the university plans to install a total of about 800 across all its campuses.

Askins says ASU has avoided jumping prematurely into any new networking technologies, mostly because it monitors everything on its existing network, from an Ethernet collision domain to a frame relay circuit, with remote-monitoring tools. Those tools, such as Concord Communications' Network Health software, have helped ASU carefully allocate and plan its network. For instance, the university uses Network Health to track its Ethernet segments, which helped Askins and his staff move from shared to switched Ethernet when the time was right.

ASU plans to take it slow and easy. "We'll continue to grow in a very methodical, steady way, as needed," Askins says. "It's not very glamorous, but it's cost-effective."