Network categories:
Depending upon the size of the network, distance, and physical characteristics network is categorized into three types local area network(LAN), wide area network (WAN), and metropolitan area network(MAN).
Fig: Categories Of Networks
Local area network(LAN):
Local area network size is limited to few kilometers, which is mainly depends on privately-owned organizations. Based upon the requirements of the organization different types of technologies are used, LAN is very simple which will connect two personal computers within the same building, office, and home.
LAN can share some resources between two PC’s or workstations, these resources sharing may include hardware or software, or information. Let us consider some examples of LAN which may found in some engineering workstations or accounting Personal computers. One of them found in business environments, like linking a workgroup of task-related computers. The large capacity disk drive is considered as a server to clients, while the size of LAN may depend on licensing restrictions and the number of users per copy of the software. Its speed is 100 or 1000 Mbps. The most commonly used LAN topologies are ring, star, and bus.
Wide Area Network(WAN):
For transferring video, images, data, and audio information even for long-distance or across the country or all over the world we require a large network that may be a wide area network which will act as a backbone to connect the internet or simple dial-up line that connect a home computer to the internet. There are two types of WAN which are switched WAN and point to point WAN from this the switched WAN is connected to the end systems, which is usually considered as a router it will connect to another WAN or LAN. Point to point WAN is normally a line leased from a telephone or cable TV provider which is connected to a home computer or a small LAN to an internet service provider(ISP).
Let’s consider examples for both switched and point to point WAN, asynchronous transfer mode(ATM) network is an example of switched WAN it has fixed-size data packets called cells.
Metropolitan Area Network(MAN):
The size of the MAN network is in between LAN and WAN, which will cover the distance area inside a city or town. The best example of a MAN network is the part of the telephone company network that provides a high-speed DSL line to the customer.