Introduction
A Wide Area Network is geographically dispersed telecommunication network. The term distinguishes a broader telecommunication structure from a local area network. Wide area network may be privately owned or rented, but the term usually connotes the inclusion of public network. An intermediate form of network in terms of geography is a metropolitan area network. WAN is communication network that are regional or worldwide in geographic area, with a minimum distance typical of that between major metropolitan area. Smaller network include metropolitan and local area network. A communication network provide common transmission, and switching functions that enable user to transport data between many source and many destination. Under ideal circumstances, the data that arrive at the destination are identical to the data that were sent. The rate of arrival of the bits at any point in the network is said to be the data rate at that point and it is typically measured in bits per second. These bits may come from one source or from a multiple of source. The capacity of a network to transmit at a certain data rate is known as its bandwidth.
Figure 1 : The MESH connectivity of a WAN.
A typical network is shown in the figure above. WAN are commonly use the MESH connectivity network. The characteristic of the transmission facility lead to an emphasis on efficiency of communication technique in the design of WANs. Controlling the volume of traffic and avoiding excessive delay is important. Since the topology of WANs are likely to be more complex than those of LANs, routing algorithm also receive more emphasis. Many WANs also implement sophisticated monitoring procedure to account for which user consume the network resource. This i...
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...ny different people have the ability to use the information from other computer.
• Messages can be sent quickly to other people on the network. These message are data, pictures, sounds, or video included with them called attachment. • Once set up, maintaining a network is a full-time job which requires network supervisors and technicians to be employed.
• Volunerable to hackers or other outside threats
Conclusion
Wide Area Network is a collection of computer and network resource connected via a network over a geographic area. WAN are commonly connected either through the Internet or special arrangement made with phone companies or other service provider. A WAN is different from a MAN because of the distance between each of the networks. In a WAN, one network may be anywhere from several hundred miles away, to across the globe in a different country.
In conclusion, a local area network is made up of computers and a myriad of devices, such as routers, servers, switches, and firewalls. In order for it to connect to the Internet, a router must be installed. Servers provide special functions such as printing, file sharing, etc. Switches connect the computers together from different parts of the network. Firewalls prevent unauthorized access. There are a host of other devices that may be used as well. These devices are hubs, gateways, repeaters, wireless access points,
Historically WAN’s (Wide Area Networks) and LAN’s (Local Area Networks) have relied on independent technologies. At a physical layer WAN technologies today continue to be based largely on legacy TDM systems that were built initially to support voice, video and early data communications in a reliable fashion. WAN connectivity over distance often requires the use of regenerators and meet points between multiple Telco suppliers that may span the globe. Without strict adherence to standards, these connections would not function. WAN technologies depend on highly complex and expensive equipment, which can guarantee inter-operability and “five 9’s” reliability required to support the millions of paying customers utilizing the network.
Each workstation on the network is connected to two other workstations, forming a loop or ring. Conflicts in the transmission of data are avoided with token ring technology, which grants messages a "token" or permission to send. Each workstation receives, regenerates and retransmits a token signal until it reaches its destination. (Bloom, 1998).
Networks are designed in a number of ways, based on the geographical area, the technology used, user group specific, application based etc. But we can roughly categorize the communication networks in 2 broad categories, based on transmission: Connection-Oriented and Connectionless.
The purpose of this paper is give a summary of the function and use of Routers in today’s information age. To cover the complete subject of routers and routing, would be beyond the scope of this research paper. However the basic definition of a router is “ A device used to connect networks of different types, such as those using different architectures and protocols. Routers work at the Network layer of the OSI model. This means they can switch and route packets across multiple networks. They do this by exchanging protocol-specific information between separate networks. Routers determine the best path for sending data and filter broadcast traffic to the local segment.”
The definition of a switch or network switch is a small device that joins multiple computers together, working on layer two of the OSI, to form a local area network or LAN. Network switches are also known as smart hubs. Rather than simply dispersing the data evenly across a network the switch actually inspects the data packets for destination information, and then forwards the data to a specific location. By forwarding the data to its intended location bandwidth on the network is better controlled (Mitchell, 1999).
The company that will be getting the network designed for them is a textile manufacturing company. They have a small office occupying one floor of an adjacent office building to process all the information concerning the business such as inventory, sales, and payroll.
Local Area Networks also called LANs have been a major player in industrialization of computers. In the past 20 or so years the worlds industry has be invaded with new computer technology. It has made such an impact on the way we do business that it has become essential with an ever-growing need for improvement. LANs give an employer the ability to share information between computers with a simple relatively inexpensive system of network cards and software. It also lets the user or users share hardware such as Printers and scanners. The speed of access between the computers is lighting fast because the data has a short distance to cover. In most cases a LAN only occupies one or a group of buildings located next to each other. For larger area need there are several other types of networks such as the Internet.
USENET. Also Class A, B, & C network refer to the different types of subnet protocol.
Within the last five years, businesses have begun to need to share data across wide areas. This has prompted efforts to convert principally LAN-based protocols into WAN-friendly protocols. The result has spawned an entire industry of consultants who know how to manipulate routers; gateways and networks to force principally broadcast protocols across point-to-point links. Frequently the protocol of choice has been TCP/IP which is also the primary protocol run on the Internet. The emerging ubiquitous ness of TCP/IP allows companies to interconnect with each other via private networks as well as through public networks.
The Internet is a gigantic collection of millions of computers that are all linked together on a computer network.
A network is a set of communication devices that connected by wired or wireless to others
lines and radio waves; this is what we call a WAN (a system of LANs
It is a computer network that covers a wide geographical area, usually over telephone lines, as compared to a local area network, which operates in a single company or institution. The Internet is an interconnected web of WANs.
Compared to Local Area Network (LAN)and Wide Area Network(WAN), Global Area Network covers a large geographical area, because a Global Area Network(GAN) is used to support mobile communication over a number of wireless LAN’s, the challenge of any GAN is transferring user communication from one local area to the next local area.