The goal of the online networking reshape is to provide a stable and well-understood networking environment with the possibility of future expansion to meet STAR’s foreseeable needs over time.  The physical layout needs to be well understood, with elements of redundancy and/or easily swapped parts on hand as much as possible.  The devices on the network should be known, including their location, what other systems they are expected to interact with and traffic volumes.  Significant networking errors should be detected at the switch level and allow for troubleshooting without significant disruption to large parts of the network. 

Along the way, it will be very useful to increase the availability of knowledge and sources of assistance related to the network.  Naturally this calls for a well documented network in any case.  Consolidating networking hardware into a common brand or line for the multiple online networks (which are currently a hodgepodge) may reduce the number of errors encountered, improve the ability of STAR's personnel to understand more fascets of the networking environment and allow for better monitoring of the network performance.  Our network should mesh well with existing ITD infrastructure so that their expertise can be brought to bear as needed.  However, ITD expertise cannot be the sole source of support for the online networks – at least two individuals in STAR (but not much more than that) should have broad access to realtime network data and configuration.  STAR’s 24-hour on-call experts (DAQ and online computing in particular) need to be able to respond quickly to incidents and gather clues and information from all sources.