What is Metropolitan Area Network – MAN?

MAN - Metropolitan Area Network is generally meant for connecting computers in a particular area. However; MAN can connect computers in a wide range of area as compared to LAN – Local Area Network. Usually, a Local Area Network connects computers within a specific building or department of an office. A Metropolitan Area Network is installed when there is a need to connect computers of two or more buildings in an area of a city. In other words MAN can connect two or more LANs located in a particular city or area.

 Metropolitan Area Network Example

Computers within a selective area can share data and information by connecting through MAN. Some important examples to understand the uses of Metropolitan Area Network are given below:

Example 1: A popular and well established organization can have different branches spread in a particular city. The employees of the branches must have to be in touch with each other to share data and concise information so that there won't be any variance in their final product. For that purpose, it is necessary to connect these branches over a network which is possible only with a Metropolitan Area Network.

Example 2: Like a company, a famous educational institution also requires a network to connect its various campuses located at various areas. Communication is essential among the supervisors of these campuses so that the schedule of exams and other extracurricular activities can be planned accurately.

Advantages of MAN Network

Due to wide area coverage, MAN - Metropolitan Area Network has lots of advantages over LAN a few of which have been described below:

MAN covers a larger area than LAN

As LAN - Local Area Network is limited to connect computers of a definite building or place only, people working in different branches of a particular organization cannot take advantage of this network for communication. Only those persons, who are working in the same building or same room, can share their data with each other. Thus a Metropolitan Area Network is more preferable when it comes to communicate across a particular building or department.

MAN provides higher data speed than LAN

A Local Area Network provides fast speed data transmission. However, data in a Local Area Network cannot travel as fast as in a Metropolitan Area Network. The speed of Metropolitan Area Network is much faster in comparison with a LAN – Local Area Network.

Disadvantages of MAN Network

Though MAN is a fast speed and reliable network but it has some disadvantages as well such as it is quite complicated task to manage a metropolitan area network if this type of network gets larger. 2 major disadvantages of MAN network have been described below:

MAN is Costly than LAN

As MAN can connect a large number of computers covering a wide range of area than Local Area Network; thus it would be more expensive to set up a Metropolitan Area Network.

Maintenance of MAN

MAN – Metropolitan Area Network is quite difficult to maintain as it has to cover a wide range of area than LAN. Special training is required for setting up these types of computer network.