LAN

In short: Local Area Network — a local network that connects devices within a limited area, such as a home, an office, a school or a company site.

In more detail: A LAN is owned and managed by a single person or organisation. Devices connect by cable (Ethernet) to a switch or over Wi-Fi to an access point. The router connects the LAN to the internet.

In Depth

Typical characteristics

• Range: a few metres up to a few hundred metres, around one kilometre on a larger site.
• Speed: usually 100 Mbit/s to 10 Gbit/s, more in a data centre.
• Addresses: inside the LAN, private IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.1.x) are used, handed out by a DHCP service.
• Cost and management: cheap, because the cables belong to the operator.

Compared with other network sizes

Larger than a LAN are the MAN (a city) and the WAN (countries and continents). Smaller is a PAN (personal area network), e.g. Bluetooth between a phone and headphones.

See also: MAN, WAN, network topologies, VLAN