Wide Area Network

(networking)

(WAN) A network, usually constructed with serial lines, extending over distances greater than one kilometre.

Compare local area network, metropolitan area network.

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WAN

(Wide Area Network) A long-distance communications network that covers a wide geographic area, such as a state or country. The telephone companies and cellular carriers deploy WANs to service large regional areas or the entire nation. Large enterprises have their own private WANs to link remote offices, or they use the Internet for connectivity. Of course, the Internet is the world's largest WAN.

WANs, LANs and MANs
A LAN (local area network) is contained within a building or complex. A MAN (metropolitan area network) generally covers a city or suburb. Following is a bandwidth comparison between major LAN and WAN technologies. See LAN, MAN and personal area network.

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References in periodicals archive

With the presence of a few major players, the global software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) market concentrated.

Global Software-defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) Market Forecast and Analysis Report 2019-2023 Featuring Cisco Systems, Nokia, Riverbed Technology Silver Peak Systems, & VMware

Specifically, it integrates a wide area network by ensuring common handling of information for controlling diverse networks, such as optical, wireless and packet communications (network configuration information, communications status information, etc.), and develops platforms to flexibly and promptly perform control.

O3 Project Launched for Achieving the World's First Wide Area SDN

IoTCAN is working with several key partners to provide carrier grade and fully integrated customizable solutions, encompassing different parts of the IoT value chain in the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) segment of the market including user devices, network and application layers.

IoTCAN chooses TekTelic Communications for LoRaWAN IoT Network

But what some might consider "normal" levels of packet loss are simply not acceptable when it comes to storage applications over wide area networks.

Maintaining quality of service for WAN storage over IP

At the same time as the version 10.01i implementation, IBS is expanding and upgrading Pantzer Properties' existing wide area network.

Pantzer Properties, tech pioneer

These global organizations now wish to implement wide area network (WAN) based storage consolidation, to reduce storage resource management costs while also enabling remote employees to collaborate on projects just as if they were all on a local network.

File sharing over the WAN. (Storage Networking)

Ethernet is the most common form of connectivity allowing people, households, businesses and corporations to form a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) to communicate, share information and provide resources to one another.

Communication systems make the world go around

FREQUENTLY-REQUESTED WEB PAGES can be stored on a local area network (LAN)--reducing multiple wide area network (WAN) connections and accelerating access to websites--with the SuperStack 3 Webcache.

Web caching

Targeted businesses have access to multiple wide-area network connections delivered over fiber, including multiprotocol label switching virtual private network (MPLS-VPN), metro Ethernet and the latest software-defined wide area network (CenturyLink SD-WAN) solution.

100,000 businesses in 600 cities have access to CenturyLink fiber-ready services

While the enhanced capability of a consolidated local area and wide area network is striking, the reliability of a voiceover internet protocol (VOIP) system, which converts voice or PBX signals to data carried over a local area network (LAN), remains questionable to many.

Corporate users still tentative about voice data systems