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Local Area Network (LAN)
Definition:
A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that connects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, or office building. It is characterized by high data-transfer rates and relatively low latency.
Use Cases:
LANs are commonly used in offices to connect workstations and share resources like printers and internet access.
Key Features:
High-speed connectivity, limited geographical range, and typically owned and maintained by a single organization.
Wide Area Network (WAN)
Definition:
A Wide Area Network (WAN) covers a broad area, such as a city, country, or even global connections. WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networks together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations.
Use Cases:
Used by multinational companies to connect their offices across different countries.
Key Features:
Spans large geographical areas, slower than LANs due to long-distance data travel, often involves leased telecommunication lines.
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
Definition:
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).
Use Cases:
Typically used to connect several buildings within a city or large campus.
Key Features:
Covers a city or a large campus, higher speed than WAN, often owned by a single organization or a consortium.
Personal Area Network (PAN)
Definition:
A Personal Area Network (PAN) is a computer network for interconnecting electronic devices within an individual person's workspace. PANs can be used for communication among the personal devices themselves, or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet.
Use Cases:
Connecting devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops using Bluetooth or USB.
Key Features:
Short-range communication, typically involves Bluetooth or USB, designed for personal use.
Campus Area Network (CAN)
Definition:
A Campus Area Network (CAN) is a network of multiple interconnected local area networks (LANs) within a limited geographical area, such as a university campus or a corporate campus.
Use Cases:
Used to connect different buildings within a university or corporate campus.
Key Features:
Covers a campus area, often owned by a single organization, typically involves high-speed connections.
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Definition:
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.
Use Cases:
Used to securely access a company's internal network from remote locations.
Key Features:
Provides secure access over the internet, encrypts data, allows remote network access.
Storage Area Network (SAN)
Definition:
A Storage Area Network (SAN) is a specialized, high-speed network that provides block-level network access to storage. SANs are primarily used to enhance storage devices, such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes, accessible to servers so that the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system.
Use Cases:
Commonly used in data centers to enhance storage capacity and performance.
Key Features:
High-speed data transfer, centralized storage management, enhances performance and availability.
Enterprise Private Network
Definition:
An Enterprise Private Network is a network built by an enterprise to interconnect its various company sites (such as production sites, offices, and shops) in order to share computer resources.
Use Cases:
Used by large organizations to securely connect their various locations across the globe.
Key Features:
Private and secure, tailored to enterprise needs, often involves complex networking solutions.
