Question

Explain how you would link together the two campuses of AIT (Sea View and Knowledge City), discussing the choice of technologies to be used based on the distance between the two campuses and category of network size it falls under. Justify your choices.

Answer 1

Computer Networks fall into three classes regarding the size, distance and the structure namely: LAN (Local Area Network), MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network).

LAN (Local Area Network)

A Local Area Network is a privately owned computer network covering a small Networks geographical area, like a home, office, or groups of buildings e.g. a school Network. A LAN is used to connect the computers and other network devices so that the devices can communicate with each other to share the resources. The resources to be shared can be a hardware device like printer, software like an application program or data. The size of LAN is usually small. The various devices in LAN are connected to central devices called Hub or Switch using a cable.

Now-a-days LANs are being installed using wireless technologies. Such a system makes use of access point or APs to transmit and receive data. One of the computers in a network can become a server serving all the remaining computers called Clients.

MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks)

MAN stands for Metropolitan Area Networks is one of a number of types of networks. A MAN is a relatively new class of network. MAN is larger than a local area network and as its name implies, covers the area of a single city. MANs rarely extend beyond 100 KM and frequently comprise a combination of different hardware and transmission media. It can be single network such as a cable TV network, or it is a means of connecting a number of LANs into a larger network so that resources can be shared LAN to LAN as well as device to device.

A MAN can be created as a single network such as Cable TV Network, covering the entire city or a group of several Local Area Networks (LANs). It this way resource can be shared from LAN to LAN and from computer to computer also. MANs are usually owned by large organizations to interconnect its various branches across a city.

WAN (Wide Area Networks)

A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunication network. A wide area network is simply a LAN of LANs or Network of Networks. WANs connect LANs that may be on opposite sides of a building, across the country or around the world. WANS are characterized by the slowest data communication rates and the largest distances. WANs can be of two types: an enterprise WAN and Global WAN.

Computers connected to a Wide Area Networks are often connected through public networks, such as the telephone system. They can also be connected through leased lines or satellites. The largest WAN in existence is the Internet. Some segments of the Internet, like VPN based extranets, are also WANs in themselves. Finally, many WANs are corporate or research networks that utilize leased lines.

Numerous WANs have been constructed, including public packet networks, large corporate networks, military networks, banking networks, stock brokerage networks, and airline reservation networks.