Types of Networks

• Personal Area Network – Often used at home, this network is more on connections between a computer and another gadget such as a telephone or a modem.

• Local Area Network – A connection that’s used for groups of computers. This is common in small offices and internet cafes. This is where everyone can share files basically, and is also known to be a good way to connect between computers whenever they want to share an internet connection, or whenever they want to play games with each other.

• Metropolitan Area Network – A more powerful version of the local area network where it can cover up the whole city in terms of connection. A huge server is usually used for this type of connection.

• Wide Area Network – This is a common type of network nowadays that’s made possible by wireless technology. Usually, a credential or service from a certain company is needed to enter a connection in this type of network, but there are others that can be used for free. This is good for internet connection. The internet is a well-known version of this one.

• Storage Area Network – A type of network that specializes in file sharing and other matters in storing various software within a group of computers.

• Enterprise Private Network – This is a software network that’s often used in businesses so that they can have privacy over files and interactions between computers.

• Virtual Private Network – This is a software that’s capable of setting up a network where everyone registered in the network using a credential will be able to access each other through other registered computers.

Optical network uses light frequency spectra and it´s wavelengths for transmission and not electrical current. Optical networks can be designed as multi channel networks using different wavelength of light as channel carrier. Such networks are designed with optical filters to distinguish between different wavelengths and related amplifiers to compensate for attenuation in the frequency spectrum. Often the media used for transmission are multi fiber cables where each fiber can have many carrier channels.