What is MAN in Information Security?


MAN stands for the Metropolitan Area Network. It is represented as the computer network that joins the metropolitan areas. MAN works either through wires or modem. Telephone company network is an instance of MAN as they support highspeed DSL line to the consumers.

The features of MAN is that it is the interconnection between several connection in a metropolitan area. Point-to-point connections are used in MAN. The network size of MAN ranges from 5-50 Kms.

MANs are completely efficient and can support fast communication via high-speed carriers, including fiber optic cables. The rise of wireless and successive networking technologies, though, means a conception of modalities for receiving signals around a larger MAN area.

The objective of MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) is to support the link to the internet in the long run. MAN network supports internet connectivity for LANs in a metropolitan region, and linked them to wider area networks like the Internet.

The basic use of metropolitan area networks is the user that has high-capacity required in a metropolitan area. A MAN is designed to support the required capacity at a lower cost and higher efficiency than obtaining a same service from the local telephone company

The regional authority are shared in MAN. It is curious that MAN is either owned by a set or by a network provider. Hence, the metropolitan area network is not that costly. The setup is quite easy, and the internet speed is associatively high. Therefore, the implementation cost is stored in MAN.

MAN is ideal for the people of an associatively large area who need to share data or information. It supports fast connection via high-speed carriers or transmission media including copper, fiber optics, and microwaves. The frequently used protocols for MAN are X.25, Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line), ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line), etc.

A MAN is a relatively new class of networks. It serves a role the same as an ISP, but for corporate users with large LANs. It is a network that interconnects users with computer resources in a geographical area higher than that covered by even a large local area network (LAN) but smaller than the area enclosed by a wide area network (WAN).

The method is used to the interconnection of networks in a city into a single higher network (which can also provide efficient connection to a wide area network). It can also be used to mean the interconnection of multiple local area networks by bridging them with backbone lines. This is defined as a campus network. Large universities also consistently use the term to define their networks. A current trend is the establishment of wireless MANs.

Updated on: 04-Mar-2022

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