Local Area (LAN) and Wide Area (WAN) Networks

LANs

• Local Area Networks (LAN's) link several computers in a building.
• The LAN can then itself be linked to other LAN's.
• The Internet is made up of thousands of LAN's.
• Provide the highest speed connections among computers
• Cannot span large distances
• Typical LAN spans small building and operates between 4 Mbps and 2 Gbps
• Usually bus based (Ethernet) networks.

Figure: Local Area Connect to Wide Area Networks

WANs

• Sometimes called long haul networks
• Allow endpoints arbitrarily far apart
• Intended for use over large distances
• Operate at speeds from 9.6 Kbps and 45 Mbps