kids encyclopedia robot

Metropolitan area network facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

A Metropolitan area network (often shortened to MAN) is a computer network that connects several other Local area networks (LANs). An example of where MANs are used, are the networks on a campus of a university. MANs use different technologies than LANs. Today, most MANs are done using fibre optic cabling. Protocol suites used in MANs include Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Switched Multimegabit Data Service, and Distributed-queue dual-bus. MANs can reach distances of up to 100km.

Images for kids

  • AlumRockViewSiliconValley w

    Looking west over northern San Jose and other parts of Silicon Valley technology hub. Between 2002 and 2003 the Sprint Corporation built five Metro Ethernet rings to connect the metropolitan areas.

  • Fiber-Optic Installation in New York City

    Stealth Fiber Crew installing a 432-count dark fibre cable underneath the streets of New York City.

  • AMS-IX optical patch panel

    An optical fiber photonic switch at the AMS-IX

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Red de área metropolitana para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Metropolitan area network Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.