CETEGORIES OF NETWORKS

1. LAN (local area network)

• A computer network spanned inside a building and operated under single
administrative system is generally termed as Local Area Network (LAN).
• Usually, LAN covers an organization’ offices, schools, colleges or
universities.
• LAN provides a useful way of sharing the resources between end users.
• The resources such as printers, file servers, scanners, and internet are
easily sharable among computers.
• LANs are composed of inexpensive networking and routing equipment.
• It may contain local servers serving file storage and other locally shared
applications.
• It mostly operates on private IP addresses and does not involve heavy
routing.
• LAN works under its own local domain and controlled centrally.
• LAN can be wired, wireless, or in both forms at once.

Applications of LAN

• One of the computer in a network can become a server serving all the
remaining computers called clients. Software can be stored on the server and
it can be used by the remaining clients.
• Connecting Locally all the workstations in a building to let them communicate
with each other locally without any internet access.
• Sharing common resources like printers etc are some common applications of
LAN.

2.Metropolitan Area Network

• The Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) generally expands throughout a city
such as cable TV network.
• It can be in the form of Ethernet, Token-ring, ATM, or Fiber Distributed
Data Interface (FDDI).
• Metro Ethernet is a service which is provided by ISPs.
• This service enables its users to expand their Local Area Networks.
• For example, MAN can help an organization to connect all of its offices in a
city.
• Backbone of MAN is high-capacity and high-speed fiber optics.
• MAN works in between Local Area Network and Wide Area Network.
• MAN provides uplink for LANs to WANs or internet.

3. Wide Area Network

• As the name suggests the Wide Area Network (WAN) covers a wide area
which may span across state and even a whole country.
• Generally, telecommunication networks are Wide Area Network.
• These networks provide connectivity to MANs and LANs.
• Since they are equipped with very high speed backbone, WANs use very
expensive network equipment.
• WAN may use advanced technologies such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM), Frame Relay, and Synchronous Optical Network (SONET).
• WAN may be managed by multiple administration.

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