A local area network (LAN) is a collection of devices connected together in one real location, such as a building, office, or home. A LAN is a network contained within a small geographic area, usually within the same building.
Regardless of size, a LAN's single defining characteristic is that it connects devices that are in a single, limited area. In contrast, a wide area network (WAN) or metropolitan area network (MAN) covers larger geographic areas. Some WAN and MAN connect many LAN jointly.
A LAN comprises cables, access points, switches, routers, and other components that enable devices to connect to internal servers, web servers, and other LAN via wide area networks.
The rise of enterprise-level has also fueled the development of virtual LAN, which enable network administrators to logically group network nodes and partition their networks without a need for major infrastructure changes.
For example, in an office with common departments, such as accounting, IT support, and administration, each department's computers could be logically connected to the same switch but segmented to behave as if they are separate.
LANs connect to the Internet at a central point: a router. Home LANs often use a single router, while LAN's in larger spaces may additionally use network switches for more efficient packet delivery.
LANs almost always use Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or both in order to concatenate devices within the network. Ethernet is a protocol for real network connections that requires the use of Ethernet cables. Wi-Fi is a protocol for joining to a network via radio waves.
A variety of devices can join to LAN's, including servers, desktop computers, laptops, printers, IoT devices, and even game consoles. In offices, LAN's are often used to provide shared access to internal employees to joined printers or servers.
The merits of a LAN are the same as those for any group of devices networked together. The devices can use a single Internet relationship, share files with one another, print to shared printers, and be accessed and even controlled by one another.
Local Area Networks were developed in the 1960s for use by colleges, universities, and research facilities (such as NASA), primarily to connect computers to other computers. It wasn't until the development of Ethernet technology (1973, at Xerox PARC), its commercialization (1980), and its standardization (1983) that LANs started to be used widely.
In general, there are two types of Local Area Networks: client/server LANs and peer-to-peer LANs.
A client/server Local Area Networks consists of several devices (the clients) connected to a central server. The server manages file storage, application entrance, device entrance, and network traffic. A client can be any joined device that runs or accesses applications or the Internet. The clients join to the server either with cables or through wireless connections.
Typically, suites of applications can be kept on the LAN server. Users can enter databases, email, document sharing, printing, and other services through applications running on the LAN server, with read and write access maintained by a network or IT administrator. Most midsize to large business, government, research, and education networks are client/server-based LANs.
A peer-to-peer LAN doesn't have a central server and cannot handle heavy workloads like a client/server LAN can, and so they're typically smaller. On a peer-to-peer Local Area Network, each device shares equally in the functioning of the network. The devices share resources and data through wired or wireless connections to a switch or router. Most local networks are peer-to-peer.
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