Local area network

A local area network (usually abbreviated to LAN) is a data network with restricted geographical scope (usually a single building, or a small group) which operates at high speed (originally in the range of 1 mega-bit/second, although speeds of 1 giga-bit/second and up are now common).

Close cousins are the so-called metropolitan area networks (MANs) which can provide this sort of speed over an entire city (although for technical reasons, not every subscriber in that are would be connected to the same physical network).

See also

• Wide area network

External links

• The Prototype Pierce Loop in 1973-74 - an interesting very early Local Area Network