WAN Networks - II
The Internet’s significant growth has spawned diverse businesses based on the cyber model. In the past few decades, IT-based enterprises have mushroomed, forcing traditional “brick and mortar” businesses to adopt an ebusiness component to their business armory. Dependence on the Internet for everyday commerce, wide-scale business operations, communication purposes (from the corporate level to individual level), information, education, entertainment, and so on is growing exponentially. The ubiquitous usage of the Internet or WAN networks necessitates a robust and secure WAN infrastructure that is capable of high availability.
A Wide Area Network (WAN) is the most popular telecommunications network, which is geographically dispersed. WAN networks transmit data through telecommunication carrier devices including fiber lines, wireless, telephone lines, microwave links, and satellite channels. Networks are basically distinguished based on the type of networks, design, mode of connection, and topology. WAN networks are most popularly recognized through the Internet, which is the largest Wide Area Network. Other types of networks include Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Campus Area Network (CAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), and Global Area Network (GAN).
WAN networks operate on the lower three layers of the OSI reference model, namely, physical layer, data link layer, and network layer. Connectivity can be established for WAN networks based on the following options: Leased Line, Circuit Switching, Packet Switching, and Frame Relay. Wide Area Networks connect LANs and other types of networks together. This enables end users at various locations to communicate with each other. Some organizations have secure, private WAN networks specifically for business purposes. The WAN networks set up by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) link the LANs of organizations to the Internet. Leased lines, although expensive, are most often used for building WAN networks. Other methods make use of methods such as switching or packet switching. While TCP/IP network protocols are utilized for rendering functions such as transport and addressing, ISPs use protocols such as Packet over SONET/SDH, MPLS, ATM and Frame relay to convey the links that WANs use.
The performance of WAN networks is critical for business across the globe. Business continuity, the core of business operations, is reliant on high data throughput and optimized WAN performance and continuous WAN availability. Delay in transmission can result in low throughput, which in turn has a profound impact on productivity and profitability for enterprises. A major impediment to WAN network performance is latency. High application performance can be achieved only if applications over the WAN are not subject to inordinate delay. Businesses constantly opt for advanced technology solutions to strengthen their WAN networks, which determine their continuity in business operations.
Evolution of WAN networks resulted in Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN). A form of wireless network, WWAN utilizes cellular network technologies for data transmission. WWANs provide secure network access through integrating methods such as encryption and authentication.
On a business continuity perspective, the emergence of WAN networks brought about a radical change towards business on the Web. The purpose of a Wide Area Network is to enable an organization to share data between its different locations and with the Internet. A WAN network, in order to effectuate business continuity, works on the following key points:
- Productivity
- Communications
- Information management
- Time-sensitive schedules
- Standard software/hardware application
Given the indispensable use of Wide Area Networks in everyday business, it is crucial to secure and stabilize the network for effective communication to take place.
