Network Classification by Geography; Network Classification by Component Role

Network Classification by Geography

LAN — Local Area Network

• Network in a small geographical area (room, building or campus)
• Short distances — up to 100 meters
• Designed to provide local interconnectivity
• Can be wired (twisted pair, coax, fiber) or wireless
• Used for communicating among devices within an office building or home

Characteristics:

LAN Technologies:

• Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) — wired LAN; 10/100/1000 Mbps
• Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) — wireless LAN; 11 Mbps to 9.6 Gbps

MAN — Metropolitan Area Network

• Spans the distance of a typical metropolitan city (campus, city, nearby cities)
• More than 100 meters; larger than LAN
• Cost of installation and operation is higher
• Uses high-speed connections such as fiber optics
• Provides connectivity over areas such as a city or campus
• Designed to handle data communication for multiple organizations in a city

Example: Cable television network, city-wide Wi-Fi, metro broadband

Characteristics:

WAN — Wide Area Network

• Network spread geographically (country or across globe)
• More than 1000 meters — long distances
• Contains two main components:
  • Transmission lines (copper, fiber, microwave)
  • Switches (electronics, optics) — routers and switches
• Use store-and-forward or packet-switched subnet
• Use long-distance telecommunication networks — higher cost
• The Internet is the best example of a WAN

WAN Technologies:

Characteristics:

Other Network Types

Network Summary Comparison

Network Classification by Component Role

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Network

Classification by roles that networked computers play in network operation.

Peer-to-Peer:

• All computers have equal status
• Each computer can act as both client and server
• No dedicated server

Advantages:

• Easy to set up and configure
• Low cost — no dedicated server hardware needed
• Fault tolerant — no central point of failure

Disadvantages:

• Difficult to manage security consistently
• Performance degrades as network grows
• No centralized data storage or backup

Examples: File sharing (BitTorrent), Blockchain, early Napster

Server-Based (Client-Server) Network

• Dedicated server provides services
• Clients request services from server

Centralized management and control

Types of Servers:

Advantages:

• Centralized management and security
• Easy backup and recovery
• Better performance for large networks
• User authentication and access control

Disadvantages:

• Single point of failure (if server goes down)
• Higher cost (dedicated server hardware)
• Requires skilled administrators