WAN

A Wide Area Network (WAN) is a telecommunications network or computer network that extends over a large geographical distance. Wide area networks often are established with leased telecommunication circuits.

Business, education and government entities use wide area networks to relay data among staff, students, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations. In essence, this mode of telecommunication allows a business to effectively carry out its daily function regardless of location. The Internet may be considered a WAN.

Related terms for other types of networks are personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area respectively.

Many technologies are available for wide area network links. Examples include circuit switched telephone lines, radio wave transmission, and optic fiber. New developments in technologies have successively increased transmission rates. In ca. 1960, a 110 bit/s (bits per second) line was normal on the edge of the WAN, while core links of 56 kbit/s to 64 kbit/s were considered fast. As of 2014, households are connected to the Internet with ADSL, Cable, Wimax, 4G or fiber at speeds ranging from 1 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s and the connections in the core of a WAN can range from 1 Gbit/s to 100 Gbit/s