Generally, networks aredistinguished based
on their geographical span. A network can
be as small as distance between your mobile
phone and its Bluetooth headphone and as
large as the internet itself, covering the
whole geographical world.
Computer Network types
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Personal Area Network
APersonal Area Network (PAN) is smallest network which is very personal to a
user. This may include Bluetooth enabled devices or infra-red enabled devices. PAN
has connectivity range up to 10 meters. PAN may include wireless computer
keyboard and mouse, Bluetooth enabled headphones, wireless printers and TV
remotes.
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Local Area Network
Acomputer 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. Number of systems connected in LAN may vary from as least as two to as
much as 16 million.
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 uses either Ethernet or Token-ring technology. Ethernet is most widely employed LAN technology
and uses Star topology, while Token-ring is rarely seen.
LAN can be wired, wireless, or in both forms at once.
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Metropolitan Area Network
TheMetropolitan 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.
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Metropolitan Area Network
TheMetropolitan 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.
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Wide Area Network
Asthe name suggests, the Wide Area Network (WAN) covers a wide area which may span
across provinces 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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Internetwork
A network ofnetworks is called an internetwork, or simply the internet. It is the
largest network in existence on this planet. The internet hugely connects all WANs
and it can have connection to LANs and Home networks. Internet uses TCP/IP
protocol suite and uses IP as its addressing protocol. Present day, Internet is
widely implemented using IPv4. Because of shortage of address spaces, it is
gradually migrating from IPv4 to IPv6.
Internet enables its users to share and access enormous amount of information
worldwide. It uses WWW, FTP, email services, audio and video streaming etc. At
huge level, internet works on Client-Server model.
Internet uses very highspeed backbone of fiber optics. To inter-connect various
continents, fibers are laid under sea known to us as submarine communication
cable. Internet is widely deployed on World Wide Web services using HTML linked
pages and is accessible by client software known as Web Browsers. When a user
requests a page using some web browser located on some Web Server anywhere
in the world, the Web Server responds with the proper HTML page. The
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Internetwork
Internet is servingmany proposes and is involved in many aspects of life. Some of them
are:
• Web sites
• E-mail Instant
• Messaging Blogging
• Social Media
• Marketing
• Networking
• Resource Sharing
• Audio and Video Streaming
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Before Exit
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