Personal and Metropolitan Networks
Compare tiny PANs like Bluetooth with city-wide MANs.
More Than LAN and WAN
LANs and WANs are the best-known network sizes, but two others fill the gaps. The tiny PAN (Personal Area Network) surrounds a single person, while the city-sized MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) spans a town or metro area. Learning these completes the picture of how networks are classified by scale, from a wristwatch to a whole city.
What a PAN Is
A PAN (Personal Area Network) is the smallest network type, connecting devices around one person, typically within a few meters. Your phone linked to wireless earbuds and a smartwatch forms a PAN. The defining trait is its tiny, personal range. PANs let your own gadgets cooperate without any wider network, often for convenience and personal use.
All lessons in this course
- Local Area Networks at Home and Work
- Wide Area Networks Across Distances
- Personal and Metropolitan Networks
- Client-Server vs Peer-to-Peer Setups