How are LAN, MAN, and WAN different?
- The main differentiation among these classifications is their area of coverage.
a) LOCAL AREA NETWORK (LAN)
b) METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK (MAN)
c) WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN)
b) METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK (MAN)
c) WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN)
- The simplest form of LAN is to connect two computers together or connection of the computers and devices in the office or home.
- A network which consists of less than 500 interconnected devices across several buildings, is still recognized as a LAN.
Characteristic of LAN :
- Network devices such as Workstations, printers, file servers which are normally accessed by all other computers.
- Network Communication Devices i.e., devices such as hub, routers, switches etc used for network connectivity.
- Network Interface Cards (NICs) for each network device required to access the network. It is the interface between the machine and the physical network.
- Cable as a physical transmission medium.
- Network Operating System, software applications required to control the use of network operation and administration.
Advantages:
- Easy to share devices (printers, scanners, external drives)
- Easy to share data (homework, pictures)
- Cost of LAN Setup is low.
- Sharing of resources such as printers hence cost effective.
Disadvantages:
- Power - a good LAN is required to be on all the times.
- Security - each computer and device become another point of entry for undesirables.
- If all computers running at once, can reduce speed for each.
- Area covered is limited.
- A MAN is optimized for a larger geographical area than a LAN, ranging from several blocks of buildings to entire cities.
- A MAN might be owned and operated by a single organization, but it usually will be used by many individuals and organizations.
- MAN can span up to 50km, devices used are modem and wire/cable.
- Example of MAN :
- Traffic Light Monitoring System
- Cable Network TV
- Surveillance System
- Building in a city
Characteristic of MAN :
- Efficiency and shared access.
- All the computer-owning residents of the area have equal ability to go on line.
Disadvantages:
- It can be costly (hardware, software, support, etc.)
- Security problems.
- As the network consists of many computers over the span of a city, the connection can lag or become quite slow.
- A WAN is a
network that covers a large geographic area (such as a city, country, or the
world) using a communications channel that combines many types of media such as
telephone lines, cables, and radio waves.
WANs have the following characteristics:
- They can cover a very large geographical area : states, countries ,continents.
- They usually communicate at slower speeds (compared to LANs and MAN).
- Communication medium used are satellite, public telephone networks which are connected by routers.
- Routers forward packets from one to another a route from the sender to the receiver
WANs have the following characteristics:
- They can cover a very large geographical area : states, countries ,continents.
- They usually communicate at slower speeds (compared to LANs and MAN).
- Communication medium used are satellite, public telephone networks which are connected by routers.
- Routers forward packets from one to another a route from the sender to the receiver
- Messages can be sent very quickly to anyone else on the network.
- Everyone on the network can use the same data. This avoids problems where some users may have older information than others.
- Share information/files over a larger area.
Disadvantages:
- Setting up a network can be an expensive and complicated experience.
- Security problems because exposed to viruses and hackers.
- Maintenance problems. Large enterprises will dedicate personnel to maintaining their WAN.
