CLASSIFICATION OF NETWORKS

CLASSIFICATION OF NETWORK
LAN - Local Area Network
MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
WAN - Wide Area Network


LAN (LOCAL AREA NETWORK)
  1. A LAN is a network that connects computers and devices in a limited geographical area.
  2.  The simplest form of LAN is to connect two computers together or connection of the computers and device in the office or home.
  3. A network which consist of less  than 500 interconnected devices across several buildings, is still recognized as a LAN.

Example: 
  • home
  • school computer laboratory
  • office building or closely positioned group of buildings

CHARACTERISTICS

  • they are used within small areas (such as in an office building)
  • limited to specific geographical area less than 2km supporting high speed networks
  • they provide access for many devices.
  • they offer high-speed communication - typically 100Mbps or faster.
  • they use LAN specific equipment such as hubs, switches. and network interface cards.

FIVE COMPONENTS OF LAN

  1. network devices such as Workstations, printers, file servers which are normally accessed by other computers.
  2. Network Communication Device i.e,devices such as hub, routers, switches etc used fot network connectivity.
  3. Network Interface Cards (NICs) for each network device required to access the network. it is the interface between the machine and the physical network.
  4. cable as a physical transmission medium.
  5. Network Operatig 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 a s 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.

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MAN ( METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK)

  1.  A high-speed network that connects local area networks ( LAN) in a metropolitan are such as a city or town.
  2. Handle the bulk of communications activity across that region.
  3. A MAN is optimized for a larger geographical area than a LAN , ranging from blocks of buildings to entire cities.
  4. might be owned and operated by a single organization, but it usualy will be used by many individuals and organizations.
  5. MAN can span up to 50km, devices used are modem and wire/cable.
  6. example : Traffic Light Monitoring System, Cable Network TV, Surveillance System and building in acity.
CHARACTERISTICS

  •  It generally covers town and cities.
  • with the advent of MANs ,historically slow connections (56Kbps-1.5Mbps) have given way to communication at hundreds of megabits per second and even gigabit speeds.
  • Transmission medium used for MAN are optical fibers, cables etc.
  • They used devices such as routers, telephone switches, and microwave antennas as parts  of their communicatiob infrastructure.
ADVANTAGES

- 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.


WAN ( WIDE AREA NETWORK )

A WAN is a network that covers a large geographical area ( such as a city, country, or the world) using a variety of wired  and wireless transmission media.

The INTERNET is the world's largest WAN

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.
  • Cover a very large geographical area : states, countries, continents.
  • They usually communicate at slower speeds( compared to LANs )
  • Communication devices: satellite, public telephone networks which are connected by routers.
  • Routers forward packets fro one to another a route from the sender to the receiver.
ADVANTAGES 

- 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 uers may have older information that others.
- Share information/files over a larger area.

DISADVANTAGES

-Settings 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 maintaning their WAN.










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