A computer network known as a wide area network (WAN) spans a substantial geographic area, such as an entire country, continent, or even the entire world. The technologies used by WAN allow data, pictures, audio, and video to be transmitted over vast distances and between various LANs and MANs.
The renowned type of wide area network is the internet WAN which connects millions of computers worldwide. It consists of many interconnected networks that are linked by routers.
A router is an internetworking device that forwards packets based on their destination address and subnet mask. Routers are located at the borders between local area networks (LANs) and WANs. They send data packets to other routers through their interfaces.
A computer network known as a wide area network (WAN) spans a substantial geographic area, such as an entire country, continent, or even the entire world. In WAN, there are technologies for sending data, images, audio, and video over vast distances and between various LANs and MANs.
A WAN typically includes a number of interconnected LANs or MANs located in different geographical locations. It may include private or public telephone networks, cellular networks, and satellite communications systems. In addition to transferring data, it can be used for communications between remote offices or branch offices of the same organization.
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Features of WAN
Some of the features of WAN are discussed below
World wide accesses
The standard Internet protocol suite, a set of communications protocols, is used by the Internet, a worldwide system of interconnected computer networks, to provide services to its billions of users. The internet carries a vast and various band of information. It can be accessed by anyone with a computer or other device connected to the network.
Wide area networks are networks for data communications that cover a broad region, generally an entire city, state, or nation. A WAN enables networked computers to communicate with one another as if they were on the same LAN.
No congestion
With the development of the Internet, one can connect to the Internet almost anywhere and anytime. Along with the convenience and efficiency of network communication, it allows us to share information and data in one network.
The speed of data transmission is always fast. Even when many users are connecting to one network at the same time, there will not be any congestion in the network.
Vast range
The Internet WAN network has a vast range that allows it to transfer data worldwide. The WAN has a poor data rate compared to the local area network’s data transmission rate. The WAN networks are used for long-distance communication.
The WAN network has a large coverage area. It can be used to transmit voice, data, and video across both private and public networks. WAN, or the Wide Area Network, is a network that connects many different LANs.
WANs are used for sharing data and applications between multiple LANs. This means that if you have a large company with offices in different states, you can use WAN to share files between those offices.
WAN also provides the facility of an update with the new data from the server. Then the whole device is connected to the network to get updates. In WAN, you can share applications and other resources with other users on the Internet like LANs.