WAN

=WAN= Creator: Daniel Bomber WAN stands for Wide Area Network. The most well known WAN is the internet. WAN network together large areas like states, provinces or countries. These networks provide a free exchange of information and data. Their are four main platforms of which WANs are composed of leased lines, circuit switching, packet switching, and cell relay. Leased lines are expensive but are relatively safe and fast. Circuit switching is cheap and creates a connection between users one of the main examples of this is dial-up internet. Packet Switching is best used for media sharing and uses delayed packets of data, network this data is shared point to point is very affective on smaller slower networks like the ones in South America because it is able to fully utilize the networks bandwidth. Cell Relay uses fixed packet (cells) to connect computers by sending these cells over a virtual circuit, this is commonly used in Home DSL networks. Wide Area Networks are a great resource and have been widely adopted and can be found in most of the world.


 * Model for a Wide Area Network**




 * From: http://www.edrawsoft.com/images/network/WAN%20Diagram_Full.png**


 * References**