One way to categorize the different types of computer network designs is by their scope or scale. For historical reasons, the networking industry refers to nearly every type of design as some kind of area network. Common types of area networks are:
PAN - Personal Area Network
LAN - Local Area Network
MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
WAN - Wide Area Network
Personal Area Network (PAN)
A personal area network (PAN) is the interconnection of information technology devices within the range of an individual person, typically within a range of 10 meters. For example, a person traveling with a laptop, a Personal Digital Assistant PDA, and a portable printer could interconnect them without having to plug anything in, using some form of wireless technology. Typically, this kind of personal area network could also be interconnected without wires to the Internet or other networks.
Also see wireless personal area network WPAN which is virtually a synonym since almost any personal area network would need to function wirelessly. Conceptually, the difference between a PAN and a wireless LAN is that the former tends to be centered around one person while the latter is a local area network (LAN) that is connected without wires and serving multiple users.
Local Area Network (LAN)
A local area network may serve as few as two or three users (for example, in a small-office network) or several hundred users in a larger office. LAN networking comprises cables, switches, routers and other components that let users connect to internal servers, websites and other LANs via wide area networks.
Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the two primary ways to enable LAN connections. Ethernet is a specification that enables computers to communicate with each other. Wi-Fi uses radio waves to connect computers to the LAN. Other LAN technologies, including Token Ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface and ARCNET, have lost favor as Ethernet and Wi-Fi speeds have increased. The rise of virtualization has fueled the development of virtual LANs, which allows network administrators to logically group network nodes and partition their networks without the need for major infrastructure changes.
Metropolitan Area Network (Man)
A metropolitan area network (MAN) is a network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographic area or region larger than that covered by even a large local area network LAN but smaller than the area covered by a wide area network WAN. The term is applied to the interconnection of networks in a city into a single larger network (which may then also offer efficient connection to a wide area network). It is also used to mean the interconnection of several local area networks by bridging them with backbone lines. The latter usage is also sometimes referred to as a campus network.
Wide Area Network (WAN)
A wide area network (WAN) is a geographically distributed private telecommunicationsnetwork that interconnects multiple local area networks LANs. In an enterprise, a WAN may consist of connections to a company's headquarters, branch offices, colocation facilities, cloud services and other facilities. Typically, a router or other multifunction device is used to connect a LAN to a WAN. Enterprise WANs allow users to share access to applications, services and other centrally located resources. This eliminates the need to install the same application server, firewall or other resource in multiple locations, for example.
