WAN

WAN is the abbreviation of Wide Area Network. Wide area network could connect computers between two cities, regions or countries. Wide area networks are constructed for organizational uses. Wide Area Network is built on leased lines which are quite expensive. The leased lines are connected to routers which connects LAN and Hubs. Another economic method of constructing wide area network is through circuit switching or packet switching methods. Cell Relay is another means of wide area network connections. The rate of data transfer is normally between 1200 bits per second to 24 megabits per second. Telephone lines, Microwave links and satellite channels are used for transfer of detail.

Multinational companies keep their branch offices connected with WAN network. Internet is an example of WAN. WAN is a huge network which is built with groups of small network. Point to Point Protocol, High Level Data Link Control, Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Synchronous Optical Network are involved in Wide Area Network.

Switching in WAN

Any PC in any country could access information from another computer to set the business running smoothly owing to the benefits of WAN. The shuffling of this information whose appearance is as complicated as spaghetti is done through different types of switching technologies. Switching provides a temporary connection which provides the effect of permanent connection by using transmission resources is a more diligent and economic manner. Circuit switching lasts only till both the sides need to be connected. Though it is important that both the sides should have the same data transfer rate circuit switching allows the user to determine the rate of transmission.

Message Switching does not have a direct connection between the users. One of them triggers transmission which passes through stations and reaches a center where the message and address are scrutinized to reach the destination. The messages could be held before reaching destinations. In the case of packet switching, transmission is broken into units called packets and dispatched in their designation. Packets are carried by virtual circuits which are which are temporary allocations of band widths. These virtual circuits agree to packet size, flow and error control. 

WAN Optimization

WAN optimization is a technique which helps the user to have more business applications in less band width cost. Packet delivery issues are avoided in shared WAN environments. Productivity is improved by Wide area network optimizations. File sharing, web, email and voice video are enhanced by this optimized effects. The data is protected effortlessly in a relatively lower cost.

Questions:

• Explain message switching in WAN.
• What is WAN optimization?