Types of Area Networks (LAN, WAN, MAN)

Computer Network

When two or more computers/devices are connected to transfer files and data or to communicate to each other then the medium is referred to as a computer network.

In a computer network, each computer is called a node.

There are various types of computer networks depending on the speed of data transfer or the size of the area they cover to communicate with each other.

We will discuss the following three types of networks in this article:

1. LAN (Local Area Network)

2. MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)

3. WAN (Wide Area Network)

1) LAN

LAN stands for ‘Local Area Network’. When devices are connected in a limited geographical area like a few kilometers (5 to 10 km) then this type of area network is known as Local Area Network.

LAN is generally used in schools, colleges or offices where all the computers and devices are present in a limited area to transfer data or files.

Following are some advantages of LAN:

• The number of computers in a LAN can vary from two to a few thousand.
• The number of computers is limited in this network, so data transfer is quite faster.
• Speed of data transfer generally varies from 100 mbps to 1000 mbps, which is considered to be a strong network.
• Propagation delay is lesser in LAN, and fault tolerance is also higher.
• The medium can be wired or wireless, but generally, a wired medium is used to gain higher data speed and lower congestion. The switch is used to connect devices in LAN.
• LAN is generally a privately owned network. Maintenance cost of the LAN devices and servers are less costly, so it is used in homes also.
• Bandwidth is also high as data speed is high.
• In LAN, devices might be connected to each other using the ethernet cable, which is called a peer-to-peer connection or they may be connected to a centralized server, and their architecture is called client-server architecture.
• Topology is the term which defines how the devices are connected to the LAN. There are a lot of different network topologies used in LAN like STAR, RING, BUS, MESH, TREE etc.

2) MAN

MAN is called the Metropolitan Area Network. It is also the type of area network, but it covers the larger geographical area as compared to the Local Area Network (LAN).

Following are some advantages of MAN:

• MAN is the area network which consists of many Local Area Networks (LANs) and these LANs are interconnected using optical fiber.
• Generally, the MAN network is used by organizations or companies that want to share the files and data to their different buildings in the same city or cities.
• For MAN networks, many telecommunication companies provide their service for maintenance and managing the network. Also, the local city government provides MAN networks to the organizations on lease. This is called ‘dark fiber’.
• The reason MAN uses optical power cable because to transmit data between different buildings over the city or different cities in the highest speed due to wired medium.
• MAN is faster than WAN’s, and it is a highly secure network. It is also cost-effective and Routers, Switches are used to create the network.

3) WAN

WAN is known as Wide Area Network. This network is generally used to transmit files and data over large cities (over the globe). When you want to cover a large geographical area within a network, then WAN is used.

Following are some advantages of WAN:

• International organizations generally use the WAN network to transfer their data to anywhere in the world without any delay and without any problem.
• Generally, WAN networks are managed and owned by big telecommunication companies and they lease their networks to different business organizations or institutes to transfer data irrespective of their physical location.
• WANs are the most expensive and high-maintenance networks.
• The speed of the WAN network is nearly 100Gbps. For implementing the WANs, there are a lot of communication and networking technologies used like fiber optical communication, Cable Modem, Frame Relay, ISDN, leased lines etc.
• The most popular example of a WAN network is the Internet. Internet Service Provider provides access to its user to communicate over a large geographical area over the globe.
• WANs can be used for the local public (like the Internet) or WANs can be designed only for some big organizations only so that they can share their confidential information without the risk of data leak.