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Types of Computer Networks

The document outlines various types of computer networks categorized by geographical span, including Personal Area Networks (PAN), Local Area Networks (LAN), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), and the Internet. Each network type is described in terms of its size, connectivity, technology used, and administrative control. The Internet is highlighted as the largest network, connecting multiple WANs and enabling global information sharing through various services.

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5 views6 pages

Types of Computer Networks

The document outlines various types of computer networks categorized by geographical span, including Personal Area Networks (PAN), Local Area Networks (LAN), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), and the Internet. Each network type is described in terms of its size, connectivity, technology used, and administrative control. The Internet is highlighted as the largest network, connecting multiple WANs and enabling global information sharing through various services.

Uploaded by

go0215
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Computer Network Types

Generally, networks are distinguished based on their geographical span. A network can be as small as
distance between your mobile phone and its Bluetooth headphone and as large as the internet itself,
covering the whole geographical world,

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.

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For example, Piconet is Bluetooth-enabled Personal Area Network which may contain up to 8 devices
connected together in a master-slave fashion.

Local Area Network

A computer network spanned inside a building and operated under single administrative system is
generally termed as Local Area Network (LAN). Usually,LAN covers an organization offices, schools,
colleges or universities. Number of systems connected in LAN may vary from as least as two to as
much as 16 million.

LAN provides a useful way of sharing the resources between end users.The resources such as
printers, file servers, scanners, and internet are easily sharable among computers.

LANs are composed of inexpensive networking and routing equipment. It may contains local servers
serving file storage and other locally shared applications. It mostly operates on private IP addresses
and does not involve heavy routing. LAN works under its own local domain and controlled centrally.

LAN uses either Ethernet or Token-ring technology. Ethernet is most widely employed LAN technology
and uses StarPowered
topology,
by: while Token-ring is rarely seen.

LAN can be wired,wireless, or in both forms at once.


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Metropolitan Area Network

The Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) generally expands throughout a city such as cable TV network.
It can be in the form of Ethernet,Token-ring, ATM, or Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI).

Metro Ethernet is a service which is provided by ISPs. This service enables its users to expand their
Local Area Networks. For example, MAN can help an organization to connect all of its offices in a city.

Backbone of MAN is high-capacity and high-speed fiber optics. MAN works in between Local Area
Network and Wide Area Network. MAN provides uplink for LANs to WANs or internet.

Wide Area Network


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As the name suggests,the Wide Area Network (WAN) covers a wide area which may span across
provinces and even a whole country. Generally, telecommunication networks are Wide Area Network.
These networks provide connectivity to MANs and LANs. Since they are equipped with very high
speed backbone, WANs use very expensive network equipment.
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WAN may use advanced technologies such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Frame Relay, and
Synchronous Optical Network (SONET). WAN may be managed by multiple administration.

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
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Instant Messaging

Blogging

Social Media
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Marketing

Networking

Resource Sharing

Audio and Video Streaming

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