MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
A metropolitan area network (MAN) is usually defined as a network larger in geographical scope than a local area network, but generally within a range of less than 30 miles or 50 kilometers. A MAN would be used to connect several buildings in an area together or, perhaps, connect a company’s buildings in a city or region together. Some communities have built or plan to build MANs, both for their own use, and as a service utility for their residents and businesses.
A company generally requires services from a service provider (SP) or other public carrier, and the infrastructure of the MAN begins to resemble that of a wide area network. A service provider is a company that provides the equivalent of a link or links between nodes that are not directly accessible to simple forms of connection, like wire or fiber optic cable. A connection to a provider occurs at an access point on the customer’s premises. The access point is usually connected to the company networks with a switch, a router, or a gateway, depending on the type of connection. The connection is often referred to as an edge connection, because it sits at the ‘‘edge’’ of the local network. Thus, a router at the access point would be called an edge router. Figure 12.28 illustrates the features of a medium-sized MAN.
Some network specialists also define a network type between LAN and MAN, which they call a campus area network (CAN). A campus area network consists of a number of interconnected local area networks operating over a limited geographic region consisting of several buildings clustered together, such as would be found on a college campus, military base, or multi-building company setting. Campus area networks are commonly implemented as backbone-based networks with high-speed optical fiber interconnections that are topologically similar toMANs, but without the requirements of a service provider. One or more edge gateways or routers connect the campus area network to the Internet and perhaps to other facilities, as well. Connections to other facilities would, of course,create a more MAN- or LAN-like configuration.
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