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TYPES OF NETWORK
Dr. Neha Gulati
Assistant Professor
University Business School
Panjab University, Chandigarh
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Table of Contents
• Personal Area Network (PAN)………………………………………….4
• Local Area Network (LAN) ………………………………………..........5
• Wide Area Network (WAN) ……………………………………………..6
• Campus Area Network (CAN)…………………………………………..7
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)……………………………………..8
• Storage Area Network (SAN)…………………………………………...9
• Intranet……………………………………………………………………10
• Extranet…………………………………………………………………..11
• Structuring of Networks…………………………………………………12
• Server based Network…………………………………………………..13
• Peer-to-peer Network……………………………………………………14
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Keywords
• Firewire: It is a method of transferring information
between digital devices, especially audio and video
equipment.
• Ethernet: It is the standard way to connect computers on
a network over a wired connection. It provides a simple
interface and for connecting multiple devices, such
computers, routers, and switches.
• Fibre channel: It is a high-speed network technology
primarily used to connect computer data storage to
servers.
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Personal Area Network (PAN)
• A personal area network (PAN) is a computer
network organized around an individual
person, and that's set up for personal use
only.
• They typically involve a computer, phone,
printer, tablet and/or some other personal
devices.
• If the transfers are done over a wireless
network, it's technically called a WPAN, which
is a wireless personal area network.
• A printer in a small office or home that
connects to a nearby desktop, laptop or
phone is considered to exist within a PAN. Figure 1
• The range of PAN can be up to 10 metres.
• Example: Bluetooth, Firewire cable
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Local Area Network (LAN)
• A local area network is a type of
network that contains computers
that are relatively near each other
and are physically connected
using cables, infrared links, or
wireless media.
• LAN networks are useful for
sharing resources and data.
• Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the two
primary ways to enable LAN
connections.
• Example: Two office departments Figure 2
on same floor of the building.
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Wide Area Network (WAN)
• A wide area network is two or more LANs connected
together, generally across a wide geographical area.
• Each site needs resources, data and programs
locally, but it also needs to share data with the other
sites.
• These LANs are connected through a
telecommunication network or via Internet through
an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
• Example: Headquarters of a company in one city
and manufacturing plant in another city.
• Internet is also an example of WAN.
Figure 3
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Campus Area Network (CAN)
• A campus area network (CAN) follows same principles as
a local area network, only on a larger and more diversified
scale.
• With a CAN, different campus offices and organizations
can be linked together.
• For example, linking of various offices in a school or a
university. Dean of Student Affairs Office can share
information with Registrar Office through a CAN.
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Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
• Metropolitan area network is a large scale
network that connects multiple LANs together.
• It is larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN.
• MANs are usually not owned by a single
organization; their communication devices and
equipment are usually maintained by a group
or single network provider that sells its
networking services to corporate customers.
• Example: Telecommunication services,
television network services, internet service Figure 4
providers in large cities
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Storage Area Network
• This network connects servers directly to devices which store
amounts of data without relying on a LAN or WAN network to
do so.
• A SAN typically has its own network of storage devices that
are generally not accessible through the local area network
(LAN) by other devices.
• A SAN typically supports data storage, retrieval and replication
on business networks
• This involves another type of connection known as Fibre
Channel, which handles high-performance disk storage.
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Intranet
• The company’s internal version of internet is called
Intranet.
• An intranet uses the same Web server software that gives
the public access to Web sites over the Internet.
• Intranet resides completely within the company’s internal
network and is accessible only to people that are
members of the same company.
• The major difference is that an intranet usually limits
access to employees.
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Extranet
• An extranet is a partially accessible internal company
Web site for authorized users physically located outside
the organization.
• It helps in securely sharing part of a business's
information or operations with suppliers, vendors,
partners, customers, or other businesses over the
internet.
• An extranet provides various levels of accessibility to the
users.
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Structuring of Networks
Networks can be categorized by the roles the servers and
PCs play in terms of hierarchical and security interaction:
• Server based networks
• Client/Server networks
• Peer to peer networks
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Server based Network
• A server based network includes many nodes and one or
more servers, which control user access to the network’s
resources.
• A node is a processing location that can be a PC or some
other device such as a networked printer.
• The central computer is known as the file server, network
server, application server or just server.
• Files and programs used by more than one users (at
different nodes) are often stored on the server.
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Peer-to-Peer Network
• In a peer-to-peer network, also called work-group, all
nodes on the network have equal relationship to all
others, and all have similar types of software that support
the sharing of resources.
• Each node has access to at least some of the resources
on all other nodes.
• Instead of having a central server to act as a shared
drive, each computer acts as the server for the files stored
upon it.
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Figure 5
