Standards for Physical Networking Far Away

Standards for Physical Networking Far Away

The term wide-area network (WAN) defines a type of network, or part of a network, in which the devices are relatively far apart. The distance is relative, but for the sake of discussion, consider a WAN to be a network, or part of a network, for which the cabling must pass outside the property of one company. The distance might only be a few miles, or it might be thousands of miles!

For instance, imagine that Fred's company wants to have a connection between one office in Snellville, Georgia and the home office in Mason, Ohio (about 500 miles away). The problem is that Fred cannot just run a cable between the two offices. So, Fred finds a telephone company that gives him a leased line. That leased line helps Fred create a WAN, connecting the two sites, as seen in Figure 3-8.