WLANs, WPANs, and WMANs...Oh My!
Actually, there's a lot more variety to wireless networking than you might imagine. The primary focus of this book is the construction, care, and maintenance of home and small business wireless networks; however it doesn't exclude other types of wireless environments.
When you think of a wireless network, you probably are imagining a WLAN (pronounced "Wye-lan") or Wireless Local Area Network. You are familiar with a wired network or LAN already since you doubtlessly work in a business that is networked and perhaps even have a small LAN at home. WLANs are the same thing except...you guessed it, no wires.
LANs and WLANs are usually contained within a home, an office suite or a building. They network a collection of computers together and allow the sharing of resources but in and of themselves, they don't communicate with other networks or the Internet.
A WPAN ("Wye-pan") isn't some esoteric cooking implement. WPANs or Wireless Personal Area Networks are WLANs on a very small scale. Instead of wirelessly connecting different computers and people in a house or office, you use a WPAN to connect an individual and their various computing devices to each other. Usually, you synchronize your PDA to the calendar on your PC, transfer images from your digital camera and perform other similar functions in a WPAN.
A WMAN ("Wye-man") is almost the opposite concept. WMANs or Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks connect thousands of computers together in a city-wide area network. You've probably heard of (or maybe live in) a city that has a WMAN available or is in the process of building one. For example, London, England already has a WMAN set up for its citizens and one is in the planning stages for San Francisco. A WMAN lets you take a wireless laptop and connect to the Internet from any place in the city where you live.
| WANs or Wide Area Networks usually encompass much larger geographic areas such as states or countries or the entire planet. The Internet is the ultimate WAN. WLANs and WMANs can connect to WANs including the Internet allowing wireless and mobile users to do the same tasks as people working in LANs. |