Friday, March 14, 2014

TYPES OF NETWORK

The networks can be classified into three; local area network (LAN), metropolitan area
network (MAN) and wide area network (WAN). They are explained in the following sections:

Wide Area Network (WAN)

WAN is made up of number of autonomous computers distributed over a wide
geographical area. WANs were originally developed in the late 1960s to enable communication
between computer centers and sharing of hardware, software and other communication facilities.
WAN can be implemented using private or public networks. In a private network an
organization takes on lease telephone lines to connect such sites into a network. It is also
possible to connect computers in different locations using microwave or satellite transmission.
Public networks are installed by the Government owned telecommunication agencies. WAN
spans large geographic distances. It is also called long-haul network. WAN is usually operated
at lower speeds then MAN and involves delay.
Most organizations use private networks for communication. Society for Worldwide
Inter bank Financial Transactions (SWIFT), a non-profit organization of banks, owns a private
 network. The network exchanges financial transactions between the participating financial
institutions, about 3000 in number in over 60 countries. The terminals of these participating
banks are hooked with SWIFT’s access centers. The network offers data communication service
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
INDONET, NICNET, SBINET and WELCOMENET are some of the private network in
India. CMC’s INDONET offers e-mail service to customers for a fee. NICNET is a network of
National Informatics Center that connects all the district headquarters in the country. SBINET is
a private network of State Bank of India and connects its branches across the country.
WELCOMNET connects the hotels of the Welcome Group.

Features of Wide Area Network

A wide area network (WAN) is used to connect LANs and nodes that are separated by
great physical distance. Generally speaking it is larger version of LAN with several differences:
1. It operates by means of the international telephone network
2. Unlike LANs which owned by their users, WANs operate on public and leased
telephone lines provided by licensed common carriers, or by other means such satellite
and microwave, which are regulated by government agencies.
3. Data transmission is somewhere slower.
4. The WAN compose any of the following system configurations:
5. Single nodes
6. Clusters
7. LANs
Suppose a company has its central headquarters in Coimbatore and the Coimbatore site
contains all departments and equipment for product manufacturing prod distribution, accounting,
and sales. The information pertaining to these operations is tracked by a single centralized
database system. As the company becomes more profitable and expands, it established additional
sales offices on Mumbai and Delhi. Each sales office maintains its own system to record and
track customer orders for its region. At the same time the two sites are linked to the mode at
corporate headquarters and relay each order shipment and inventory and invoice processing.

Advantages of WAN

The integration of the local nodes into the distributed database linked by the WAN
provides the following advantages:
1. The WAN allows access to database at remote sites, enabling exchange of data.
2. If a remote node fails, remaining nodes on the network can still exchange data.
3. If the network fails, the local mode can still access its own database.
4. The data used on daily basis by the sales offices resides at the local site, making it easier to
retrieve quickly.
5. The local offices can maintain the data more effectively. The corporate office can access the
data as needed.
6. As a site's database grows larger, its system's storage capacity can be easily upgraded without
affecting the transfer of data between other nodes on network.
One of the most significant aspects of a wide area network when comparing it with
freedom of a local area network is the involvement of a public telecommunications authority.
Regardless of whether the network is made up from system, the controlling authority is almost
always the public authority. In order to protect their equipment and employees, the authority lays
down rules, which must be observed by anyone connecting to their lines. In most countries
stringent requirements are also imposed on the characteristics of the data transmissions.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

Metropolitan area network covers a wider area than a local area network. Usually MAN
covers a large metropolitan city and is a scaled down version of wide area network. It operates
at high speeds over distances sufficient for a metropolitan area.

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