Definition

WAN (Wide Area Network)

What is a WAN?
A wide area network (WAN) is a geographically dispersed telecommunications network. The term distinguishes a broader telecommunication structure from a local area network (LAN). A wide area network may be privately owned or rented, but the term usually connotes the inclusion of public (shared user) networks. An intermediate form of network in terms of geography is a metropolitan area network (MAN).

Related glossary terms: GB billing, Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP), bandwidth, tunneling or port forwarding, bottleneck, Network Address Translation (NAT), managed service provider (MSP), virtual routing and forwarding (VRF), WAN interface card (WIC), extranet

This was last updated in April 2007

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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