An Overview: Metropolitan Area Network
A MAN or metropolitan area network is a network with a size greater than Local Area Network (LAN), but smaller than a Wide Area Network (WAN). It includes networked interconnections within a city that provide a connection to the internet.
Top Features of MAN
- Network size ranges from 5 to 50 km. It might be as small as a group of buildings in a campus to as large as covering the entire city.
- Data rates of MAN are moderate to high.
- A MAN can be either owned by a user group or a provider of a network who provides service to users instead of a single organization as in LAN.
- It offers to share of regional resources.
- It provides uplinks to connect LANs to WANs and the Internet.
Some of the examples of MAN metropolitan area network are cable TV network, telephone networks that offer high-speed DSL lines, and IEEE 802.16 or WiMAX that offers high-speed broadband access with the internet connectivity to customer areas.
In general, MAN is similar to a local area network but spans an overall city or campus, or some other public or organization territory. Metropolitan area networks are created by connecting several LANs. They are larger than LANs but smaller than WANs that cover geographical areas, sometimes directly connecting users throughout the world. They are highly efficient and provide fast communication through high-speed carriers, including fiber optic cables. The advancement in wireless technology means a proliferation of modalities to get signals around a greater MAN area.
A MAN is suitable for several types of network users as it is a medium-size network. MANs can be used to create networks with high data connection speeds for cities as well as towns. The mechanism of a MAN is quite similar to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). However, a MAN is not owned by a single company. Like a WAN, a metropolitan area network offers shared network connections to its users. In addition, it works on the data link layer that is Layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection model.
Benefits
Metropolitan area networks (MANs) may provide some benefits, including firewall centralization. With the help of a central gatekeeping point for the internet can reduce malware and other threats. MANs can also provide more efficient forms of administration as well as data entry.