WAN Technologies

Introduction

            What is a WAN? WAN is an abbreviation for Wide Area Network. According to the definitions of books, WAN refers to the network spanning large geographical locations. The network is usually an interconnection of several Local Area Networks (LANs). WAN is practically defined as a network which passes over public networks or commercial carrier using the popular WAN technologies. Consider the connection between two buildings using an Ethernet considering Ethernet is the medium of transmission. This would be considered as LAN. However, this consideration is because of the technology which has been used and not the distance between the two buildings. If the same two buildings were connected using dedicated T1 line and the T1 being the transmission medium, it would be considered as a WAN (Pitt, 2015).

Types of WAN Connections

            WANs are categorized into three separate types of connections. The three types of WAN connections are (Tittel, 2015):

(i)     Point-to-Point WAN Technologies

(ii)   Circuit-switched WAN Technologies

(iii) Packet-switched WAN Technologies

Point-to-Point WAN Technologies

            Point-to-Point WAN technologies are referred to as dedicated or leased lines. Additionally, point-to-point WAN technologies are the most expensive of the circuit-switched and packet-switched to implement. The reason point-to-point WAN technologies are also known as leased is that they are leased from the provider of such services. They also provide users with bandwidth guarantee from one place to another. They are hence referred to as point-to-point. The cost of implementing a point-to-point type of connection depends on the distance between the two points and the amount of bandwidth needed to be allocated to the two points.

            Point-to-point connection type does not require call-setup. Its connection is also on all the time. Below are the examples of point-to-point technologies:

(i)     T1 lines

(ii)   T3 lines

T1 and T3 differ in the amount of bandwidth limitations. T1 has a bit rate capacity of 51.84 Mbps while T3 has a bit rate capacity of 44.736 Mbps.

Circuit-switched WAN Technologies

            Circuit-switched is the most popular WAN technology used while building a communication network. This WAN technology is used in making normal telephone calls. It does so by allowing users to share communications equipment and circuits. Each user within the network accesses the circuit solely when they are using the network. A circuit equivalently functions as a pair of copper wires. B good example is the communication between point A and point E within a network. The connection between point B and point E will be provided using shared links between the other two pieces of equipment C and D. 

            In comparison, circuit-switched lines have a lower speed than point-to-point lines. Below are the examples of circuit-switched WAN technologies (Rouse, 2016):

(i)     Dial-up

(ii)   ISDN

A telephone system is an example of the system that works by circuit switching. A person is called, and they answer. In that process a circuit connection is established, and data can be passed between the two persons in a steady stream if the two persons desire. The circuit-switched technology uses full duplex transmission technology because it transmits data in the two directions simultaneously. Circuit-switched does not have a bandwidth limitation. The technology statistically partitions the available bandwidth among all the applications. Therefore, each involved application accesses bandwidth according to the allocations only.

Packet-Switched WAN Technologies

            Packet-switched refers to WAN technologies which share a common communication infrastructure between all the subscribers of the service providers. Therefore, the service provider does not guarantee the users bandwidth. However, the available bandwidth is allocated to the subscribers on the basis of best effort. Packet-switched WAN technologies are not suitable for the applications that need a consistent flow of bandwidth. However, they are not as expensive as dedicated point-to-point lines. Some examples of packet-switched WAN technologies are:

(i)     X25

(ii)   Frame-Relay

            Packet-switched technologies are also referred to as cloud, and their connectivity is suitable for organizations and companies having “bursty” WAN traffic or which are naturally variable and which does not need dedicated bandwidth. It means that it does not bandwidth limitations. Packet-switched technologies transmit data using synchronous transmission. It sends data in continuous blocks of characters referred to as frames or packets. The packets are spaced a certain amount of time at fixed intervals (Fairhurst, 2001).

Conclusion

            This paper researched on WAN technologies. It specifically researched on point-to-point technology also referred to as dedicated or leased. Additionally, it researched on circuit-switched and packet-switched WAN protocol. The paper comprehensively defined each protocol and described the data transmission techniques associated with each protocol. Additionally, it included the bandwidth limitations of each type of WAN technology and protocol. As much as the paper has highlighted some information about the WAN technologies, what appears herein is not the entire information. There is more to the technologies which need to be unearthed for the purpose of further research and comprehensive understanding of the features discussed.

References

Fairhurst, G. (2001, October 1). Circuit Switching. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from               

            Datagrams and Datagrams Networks

Pitt, L. D., DeLapp, D. D., & Lawrence, S. J. (2015). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/638,629.

Rouse, M. (2016). Half-duplex. Retrieved September 23, 2016, from Tech Target:                        

       Tittel, E. (2015). WAN technologies summarized. Retrieved September 23, 2016,                         

        

             

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in affordable term papers if you need a similar paper you can place your order for essay writer services.