local area network (LAN)

A local area network (LAN) is a group of computers and peripheral

devices that share a common communications line or wireless link to
a server within a distinct geographic area. A local area network may
serve as few as two or three users in a home-office or several
hundred users in a corporation’s central office. Home owners and
information technology (IT) administrators set up LANs so that
network nodes can share resources such as printers or network
storage.

LAN networking requires cables, switches, routers and other

components that let users connect to internal servers, websites and
other LANs that belong to the same wide area network (WAN).
Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the two primary ways to enable LAN
connections. Ethernet is a specification that enables computers to
communicate with each other. Wi-Fi uses radio waves to connect
computers to the LAN.

Other LAN technologies, including Token Ring, fiber distributed data

interface (FIDDI and ARCNET lost favor as Ethernet and Wi-Fi
speeds increased and connectivity costs decreased.

Understanding local area networking

Thomas Willingham and Christopher Chapman from Microsoft Virtual

Acadamy explain the fundamentals of a local area network.

In many situations, a wireless LAN, may be preferable to a wired LAN

connection because of its flexibility and cost. Companies assessing
WLANs as primary means of connectivity often have users who rely
exclusively on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to do
work.

The rise of virtualization has also fueled the development of virtual

LANs, which allows network administrators to logically group network
nodes and partition their networks without the need for major
infrastructure changes.

Setting up a basic local area network

Operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X have
networking capabilities incorporated into them. This means that as
long as the network administrator has a relatively up-to-date laptop or
desktop PC, it is fairly straightforward to network machines together.

To set up a wireless network, the administrator will need a wireless

router linked to a broadband connection and an Ethernet cable that
links the router to the main PC or server.

This will then allow other computing devices which already have
wireless networking equipment integrated or attached to them, to pick
up wireless signals and join the local area network.

Stands for "Local Area Network" and is pronounced "lan." A LAN is

a network of connected devices that exist within a specific location. LANs
may be found in homes, offices, educational institution, or other areas.

A LAN may be wired, wireless, or a combination of the two. A standard

wired LAN uses Ethernet to connect devices together. Wireless LANs are
typically created using a Wi-Fi signal. If a router supports both Ethernet and
Wi-Fi connections, it can be used to create a LAN with both wired and
wireless devices.

metropolitan area network

(MAN)
A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that interconnects
users with computer resources in a geographic area or region larger
than that covered by even a large local area network (LAN) but
smaller than the area covered by a wide area network (WAN). The
term is applied to the interconnection of networks in a city into a single
larger network (which may then also offer efficient connection to a
wide area network). It is also used to mean the interconnection of
several local area networks by bridging them with backbone lines.
The latter usage is also sometimes referred to as a campus network.

Examples of metropolitan area networks of various sizes can be

found in the metropolitan areas of London, England; Lodz, Poland;
and Geneva, Switzerland. Large universities also sometimes use the
term to describe their networks. A recent trend is the installation of
wireless MANs.

WAN (Wide Area Network)

A wide area network (WAN) is a geographically distributed private
telecommunications network that interconnects multiple local area
networks (LANs). A LAN is a group of computers and network devices
which are all connected to each other, typically from within a short
relative geographical distance. In an enterprise or business, a WAN
may consist of connections to a company's headquarters, branch
offices, colocation facilities, cloud services and other facilities.
Typically, a router or other multifunction device is used to connect a
LAN to a WAN. Enterprise WANs allow users to share access to
applications, services and other centrally located resources. This
eliminates the need to install the same application server, firewall or
other resources in multiple locations, for example.

WANs are not restricted to the same geographical location as a LAN

would be. A LAN can be set up in any number of geographical area
and be connected to a WAN—meaning a WAN is not constrained to
one specific location.

A virtual private network (VPN) facilitates connectivity and security

between WAN sites. Different VPNs can be utilized for different use
cases. An IPsec VPN is more commonly used in continuously open
site-to-site connections, such as those between branch offices and
headquarters locations. An SSL VPN is often the preferred choice for
enabling remote access for individual users because the data
transmitted from users across the WAN is encrypted. Direct fiber
optic links are also used to connect sites on a WAN – and they almost
always offer greater performance, reliability and security than VPNs,
but they are cost-prohibitive for most enterprises to procure and
operate.
Types of WAN connections and how WAN connections
work

WAN connections can include wired and wireless technologies. Wired

WAN services can consist of multiprotocol label switching,
T1s, Carrier Ethernet and commercial broadband internet
links. Wireless WAN technologies can include cellular data networks
like 4G LTE, as well as public Wi-Fi or satellite networks.

WANs over wired network connections remain the preferred medium

for most enterprises, but wireless WAN technologies, based on the
4G LTE standard, are gaining traction.

WAN infrastructure may be privately owned or leased as a service

from a third-party service provider, such as a telecommunications
carrier, internet service provider, private IP network operator or cable
company. The service itself may operate over a dedicated, private
connection -- often backed by a service-level agreement -- or over a
shared, public medium like the internet. Hybrid WANs employ a
combination of private and public network services.

Software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) is designed to make hybrid WAN

architectures easier for enterprises to deploy, operate and manage.
Using a combination of virtualization, application-level policies and
network overlays, on-site SD-WAN devices, software platforms or
customer premises equipment (CPE) perform two functions:

1. They aggregate multiple public and private WAN links.

2. They automatically select the most optimal path for traffic,
based on real-time conditions.

The latter function has historically required network managers to

manually reconfigure their networks any time they wanted to shape
the direction of traffic over multiple routes.

WAN optimization

Latency and bandwidth constraints often cause enterprise WANs to

suffer from performance issues. WAN optimization appliances use a
variety of techniques to counteract them,
including deduplication, compression, protocol optimization, traffic
shaping and local caching. SD-WAN CPE or platforms provide
another level of application performance control through the use of
lower-cost bandwidth connections, usually in the form of commercial
internet services, along with traffic shaping and quality of service tools
-- to increase reliability.

WAN security

The security if WAN should be expanded to wherever end users will

be utilizing their devices from, including users that work from a device
in their home. End users that utilize WAN should also use firewalls
and antivirus software to prevent unauthorized access or
compromises to their device.

The use of a VPN helps create connectivity in WAN, but also has the
added benefit of encrypting data. Users should be required to connect
to a WAN via a VPN, including network devices that are connected to
a WAN from a remote site. Additionally, SD-WAN has a key-exchange
function which is used to authenticate devices on different
endpoints.

Even though a WAN can be as secure, a WAN service provider

should not be assumed to give a certain amount of security. Even the
use of a VPN does not ensure the total security of a WAN system. In
the past, a hacker gained access to Microsoft through gaining access
to a users home device, which was able to follow the VPN back to
Microsoft.

Advantages and disadvantages of WAN

Advantages of WAN include:

 Can cover a large geographical area

 Centralized infrastructure
 Security
 Increased bandwidth with the use of leased lines as opposed to
broadband connections
Disadvantages of WAN include:

 High set up cost

 Possibility for security gaps
 Needs antivirus software and firewalls

personal area network (PAN)

1) A personal area network (PAN) is the interconnection of
information technology devices within the range of an individual
person, typically within a range of 10 meters. For example, a person
traveling with a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a
portable printer could interconnect them without having to plug
anything in, using some form of wireless technology. Typically, this
kind of personal area network could also be interconnected without
wires to the Internet or other networks.

Also see wireless personal area network (WPAN) which is virtually a

synonym since almost any personal area network would need to
function wirelessly. Conceptually, the difference between a PAN and
a wireless LAN is that the former tends to be centered around one
person while the latter is a local area network (LAN) that is connected
without wires and serving multiple users.

2) In another usage, a personal area network (PAN) is a technology

that could enable wearable computer devices to communicate with
other nearby computers and exchange digital information using the
electrical conductivity of the human body as a data network. For
example, two people each wearing business card-size transmitters
and receivers conceivably could exchange information by shaking
hands. The transference of data through intra-body contact, such as
handshakes, is known as linkup. The human body's natural salinity
makes it a good conductor of electricity. An electric field passes tiny
currents, known as Pico amps, through the body when the two people
shake hands. The handshake completes an electric circuit and each
person's data, such as e-mail addresses and phone numbers, are
transferred to the other person's laptop computer or a similar device.
A person's clothing also could act as a mechanism for transferring this
data.

The concept of a PAN first was developed by Thomas Zimmerman

and other researchers at M.I.T.'s Media Lab and later supported by
IBM's Almaden research lab. In a research paper, Zimmerman
explains why the concept might be useful: