With the new system, all users have their own bandwidth on which to transport information, and switches are used to send data directly to its intended recipient.
Switches, Davis says, are far more expensive than hubs, and when the change is complete, it will have cost Harvard millions of dollars.
But they are also more efficient and stable--and a system of switches enables the College to put roaming Ethernet into place at a low additional cost.
"The switches allow roaming, but roaming doesn't drive the switch deployments," Davis says.
In other words, the ongoing change to switches would have been made even if roaming weren't an issue, making roaming Ethernet something like icing on HASCS' cake.
"It's a free tangential benefit--or close to free," Davis says.
What's Next?
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