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20 views6 pages

Categories of Networks

Ca

Uploaded by

Devika
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Categories/Types of Networks

Local Area Network


A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building,
school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building will contain a few
small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN will span a group of nearby buildings.
In TCP/IP networking, a LAN is often but not always implemented as a single IP subnet. In addition
to operating in a limited space, LANs are also typically owned, controlled, and managed by a single
person or organization. They also tend to use certain connectivity technologies, primarily Ethernet
and Token Ring.

Wireless Local Area Network


As the term implies, a WAN spans a large physical distance. The Internet is the largest WAN,
spanning the Earth. A WAN is a geographically-dispersed collection of LANs. A network device
called a router connects LANs to a WAN. In IP networking, the router maintains both a LAN
address and a WAN address.

A WAN differs from a LAN in several important ways. Most WANs (like the Internet) are not owned
by any one organization but rather exist under collective or distributed ownership and
management. WANs tend to use technology like ATM, Frame Relay and X.25 for connectivity over
the longer distances.
Wide Area Network
A WAN is a network that spans more than one geographical location often connecting separated
LANs. WANs are slower than LANs and often require additional and costly hardware such as
routers, dedicated leased lines, and complicated implementation procedures.

Metropolitan Area Network


A network spanning a physical area larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN, such as a city. A
MAN is typically owned an operated by a single entity such as a government body or large
corporation.
Personal Area Network
A Personal 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.
For example, Piconet is Bluetooth-enabled Personal Area Network which may
contain up to 8 devices connected together in a master-slave fashion.

Internetwork
A network of networks 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 high speed 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 communication delay is
very low.
Internet is serving many 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

Campus Area Network (CAN)


With a campus area network (CAN), universities, colleges, and corporate campuses
connect different LANs from various departments sharing a common area. This
transforms otherwise scattered networks into a collective network that provides
access to information at breathtaking speeds while ensuring the necessary
authentication to prevent privacy loopholes.

CANs are similar to LANs in operational approach, but differ in size to these types of
networks. Users who access a CAN with different devices often do so with Wi-Fi,
hotspots, and Ethernet technology.
Virtual Private Network (VPN)

With cyberattacks lurking in every click and the risk of having sensitive information mined, intercepted, or even
stolen, a virtual private network (VPN) offers users an encrypted connection that effectively hides data packets
while using the internet.

This is achieved with a VPN tunnel that’s created between two communicating devices, encapsulating and
encrypting the data transferred between the two devices. Typically a VPN is used when the two devices are
connected over a public network, such as the internet. The extra protection offered by the VPN tunnel prevents
sensitive information such as IP addresses, surfing history, communication with a corporate office, or even
travelling plans from being expoed online.

The level of security surrounding a data packet depends on the type of VPN tunnel used. Typical VPN tunnels
include point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP), Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), L2TP/IPsec, and
OpenVPN.

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) which uses the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protection typically does so
with AES-256 bit encryption, an advanced encryption standard considered to be the strongest available for all
types of network connections.

There are different types of VPNs, which can generally be split into two categories: remote access VPN and site-
to-site VPN. With remote access VPNs, users securely connect their devices to the corporate office. With site-so-
site VPN, connection is done from a corporate office to branch.

Storage Area Network (SAN)

Network storage is synonymous with business continuity in an increasingly competitive world. Businesses that
want to stay ahead, need to find ways to optimize data access and data storage, and ensure that important
backups are done on a regular basis. One way to achieve these aims and more is by using a storage area
network (SAN).
A storage area network (SAN), or network behind the servers, is a special purpose high-speed computer network
that provides any-to-any access to storage. The main purpose of a SAN is to transfer data between different
storage devices and between the computer network and storage devices.

Block-level I/O services are characteristic of most SANs. Different components used in a SAN may include fiber
channel technologies such as fiber channel host bus adapter (HBA) cards and fiber channel switches and other
technologies such as hosts, switches, and disk arrays.

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