LAN VS WAN VS MAN



LAN stands for Local Area Network, WAN stands for Wide Area Network and MAN stands for Metropolitan Area Network. All the technologies are mainly used for data communication. Covers distance upto 100-1000meters. The figure-1 below depicts all the three network topologies viz. LAN, MAN and WAN.

LAN

  • LAN has smaller coverage range within the house or office premises or can at least connect from one building to the nearby building. 
  • Most of the LANs usually will have about 10 to 100 users. 
  • Multiple users in LAN time share the system. LAN has been developed to allow sharing of common resource such as printer,harddisk and modem to more than one PCs. 
  • In this scenario PC connected with common resource is called as controller through which all the users will access the resource. 
  • As the days evolve people started using LAN for e-mail system for corporate network, here one system is configured as server storing mail boxes of all the users.

Latest advancement in the LAN technology supports data rates which range from 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps till 1Gbps. LAN is designed initially as per 802 standards, later various wireless standards are evolved such as IEEE 802.11a, 11b, 11g and 11n. Currently research is to finalize products supporting IEEE 802.11ac and 802.11ad supporting very high data rates.

WAN

  • WAN has coverage larger than LAN and mainly used for cellular applications supporting both voice and data applications. 
  • Larger network covering entire country or state is referred as WANs. Most WANs are telephone systems. 
  • Various technologies are existing to support WAN such as WiMAX, GSM, CDMA, HSPA, LTE, fiber optics, ATM and more. 
  • Covers distance upto 1000-10 kilo-meters and also goes upto 100km.

MAN

  • MAN occupies coverage in between LANs and WANs. 
  • MAN has distance coverage and data rate higher than LAN, but less than WAN. This is the major difference between LAN and MAN. MAN overlaps to some extent to geographical coverage requirement of WAN. 
  • A typical example of MAN is Local Cable TV system. Here cable TV company picks up programs from satellite and delivers to individual homes via coaxial cable. Each home is a node in this network of nodes.

Comparison between LAN MAN and WAN
ParametersLANMANWAN
Full FormLocal Area NetworkMetropolitan Area NetworkWide Area Network
What is it?• Systems are close to each other in LAN
• contained in one office or building
• one organization can have several LANs		• Large network which connects different organizations• Two or more LANs connected
• Located over large geographical area 
Distance
coverage		Limited coverage, about upto 2 miles(or 2500 meters)Limited coverage, about upto 100 miles(or 200 km)Unlimited (usually in 1000Km) range, uses repeater and other connectivity for range extension
Speed of
operation		High, typically 10, 100 and 1000 MbpsHigh, typically 100 MbpsSlow, about 1.5 Mbps (May vary based on wireless technologies used)
Technologies
used for medium		Locally installed, twisted pair, fiber optic cable, wireless (e.g. WLAN, Zigbee)Locally installed and based on common carrier e.g. twisted pair, fiber optic cable etc.Locally installed and based on common carrier e.g. twisted pair wires, fiber, coaxial cable, wireless including wireless and cellular network based
ApplicationsUsed mainly by fixed desktop computers and portable computers (e.g. laptops) . Now-a-days it is used by smart phones due to emergence of WLAN networkUsed mainly by desktop and mini computers.Can be used by any devices, but desktop devices are mainly using this network type.

HELLO..


Comments

  1. jnie:)6 October 2017 at 16:54

    thanks for sharing. its very helpful. now i can add more knowledge about computer networks :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown6 October 2017 at 16:57

    Finally a post about computer network! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Safwan6 October 2017 at 17:32

    Good information..thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown6 October 2017 at 17:49

    The information is so good like the chocolates :3 Thankss

    ReplyDelete
  5. limitedcollen6 October 2017 at 18:18

    nice one..this is what ive been searching for..thanks for the information..very useful..keep publishing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ISMA HANISAH6 October 2017 at 18:19

    its really useful information and really nice theme you have here . thankyou :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. SherlisLinus8 October 2017 at 03:43

    Great work there! Exactly what i need for my assignment, thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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