What Is A Wide Area Network?

The English term Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that differs from a Local Area Network (LAN) or Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), as this extends over an extensive geographical area instead of only operates locally or in a city.

The designation Wide Area Network (WAN) is a system of computers networked with one another over very long distances.

The connected computers match the highest of the Internet Protocols Version 4 (IPv4) and Version 6 (IPv6).

Who Uses Wide Area Networks?

The WANs extend over the respective countries and continents and connect different LANs and individual computers. WANs belong to specific organizations and are only used by them. WANs are also used to establish or expand other Internet service providers to provide access to the Internet.

The intermediate systems of WAN

A WAN aims at the physical layer and the data link layer of the OSI reference model. Due to many connected computers, the unaddressed sending of information (broadcasting) to all computers is not efficient.

This is why the data is only sent to the recipient. For this reason, only a uniform addressing pattern is required. In addition, there should be intermediate systems that transmit data packets sent to the correct address. The intermediate systems are then switches, packet switches, bridges and routers.

The techniques of WAN

WAN technologies include IP / MPLS and Ethernet, but also technologies such as Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) and the older Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and X.25 technologies.