It 242 Week One Discussion Questions

DQ One What is a WAN Locate an example of a typical WAN setup and describe the components. Provide a picture, chart, or image if possible. Respond to your classmates and discuss how your examples differ. Answer WAN stands for Wide Area Network. It spans a large geographical area, for instance a state or even a country. It is a physical extension of a Local Area Network (LAN). Since WANs can cover such a large area, installation can be quite expensive and the transmission speeds may be lower since they have a further distance to travel. There are different kinds of WANs, those which include Leased Line - these use point to point connections from the WAN hub to LAN ports, connected the LAN ports together. Circuit Switching - these use physical circuit paths between two points, like a dial-up connection. Packet Switching - these use dynamic circuit paths that connect a single point to multiple points. The data being transmitted is sliced into smaller packets so the data can be transmitted. Cell Relay - similar to packet switching, but instead of multiple size packets, they are equally-sized. Wireless WAN - transmits data through a wireless telecommunication mode and is