What is a LAN?
A network covering a small geographical area, typically a single building or campus. All devices are close together, usually within the same location.
Key Characteristics:
- Geographic spread: Single building, office, school campus, or home
- Coverage area: Typically up to 1km radius
- Ownership: Privately owned by one organization or individual
- Infrastructure: Organization provides own hardware (cables, switches, routers, WiFi)
- Speed: Very fast - typically 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps (Gigabit Ethernet common)
- Connection: Wired (Ethernet cables) or wireless (WiFi)
- Latency: Very low (< 1ms typically) - data travels short distances
Common LAN Examples:
- Home network: Your WiFi router connecting laptops, phones, smart TV, printer
- School network: All computers in computer labs, library, staff rooms connected
- Office network: Company computers, printers, servers in one building
- Internet café: Customer computers sharing a local connection
- University campus: Multiple buildings connected with fiber optic cables
Typical LAN Components:
- Network cables: Ethernet (Cat5e, Cat6) for wired connections
- Switches: Connect multiple devices together in star topology
- Router: Connects LAN to external networks (WAN/Internet)
- Wireless Access Points (WAPs): Provide WiFi coverage
- NICs: Network Interface Cards in each device
This key facts covers LAN - Local Area Network within LAN and WAN for GCSE Computer Science. Revise LAN and WAN in 3.5 Fundamentals of Computer Networks for GCSE Computer Science with 18 exam-style questions and 16 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 4 of 11 in this topic. Use this key facts to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Practice questions for LAN and WAN
What does LAN stand for?
State three differences between a LAN and a WAN. [3 marks]