What are the Types of Computer Network

Personal Area Network (PAN)

A personal area network (PAN) is theinterconnection 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. 

Local Area Network (LAN)

A local-area network (LAN) is a computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most often, a LAN is confined to a single room, building or group of buildings, however, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves.A system of LANs connected in this way is called a wide-area network (WAN). The difference between a LAN and WAN is that the wide-area network spans a relatively large geographical area. Typically, a WAN consists of two or more local-area networks (LANs) and are often connected through public networks. 

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

A metropolitan area network (MAN) is similar to a local area network (LAN) but spans an entire city or campus. MANs are formed by connecting multiple LANs. Thus, MANs are larger than LANs but smaller than wide area networks (WAN).MANs are extremely efficient and provide fast communication via high-speed carriers, such as fiber optic cables.A MAN is ideal for many kinds of network users because it is a medium-size network. MANs are used to build networks with high data connection speeds for cities and towns. The working mechanism of a MAN is similar to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), but a MAN is not owned by a single organization. Like a WAN, a MAN provides shared network connections to its users. A MAN mostly works on the data link layer, which is Layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model.Distributed Queue Dual Bus (DQDB) is the MAN standard specified by the Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as IEEE 802.6. Using this standard, a MAN extends up to 30-40 km, or 20-25 miles.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

A wide area network (WAN) is a network that exists over a large-scale geographical area. A WAN connects different smaller networks, including local area networks (LANs) and metro area networks (MANs). This ensures that computers and users in one location can communicate with computers and users in other locations. WAN implementation can be done either with the help of the public transmission system or a private network.A WAN connects more than one LAN and is used for larger geographical areas. WANs are similar to a banking system, where hundreds of branches in different cities are connected with each other in order to share their official data.

A WAN works in a similar fashion to a LAN, just on a larger scale. Typically, TCP/IP is the protocol used for a WAN in combination with devices such as routers, switches, firewalls and modems.