What is the difference between LAN and CAN?


Let us understand what LAN is.

LAN

Wireless LAN is one of the fastest-developing technologies. Wireless LAN can be organized on college campuses, in office buildings, in hospitals, stock exchanges, and in several public areas. It has become famous because of the ease of installation and location freedom with the advancing popularity of computers.

Wi-Fi is one of the major forms of communication for several devices, and with home automation boosting, even more devices are using it. Home WI-Fi is a major area of usage of technology, with most homes that use broadband connections to the web using Wi-Fi access as an essential means of communication.

The heart of any Wi-Fi system is referred to as the Access Point, AP. The Wi-Fi access point is essentially the base station that connects with the Wi-Fi allowed devices - data can be routed onto a local area network, generally via Ethernet, and frequently links onto the Internet.

Advantages of Wireless LAN

There are various advantages of WLAN which are as follows −

  • Fast Installation and Simplicity − Installing a wireless LAN system can be fast and simple and can remove the need to pull cables through walls, floors, and ceilings.

  • Increased productivity for the mobile employee − The telephone user whose primary computer is a portable computer can change area and continually remain connected to the network. This allows the phone user to travel to several places, let it be meeting rooms, hallways, lobbies, cafeterias, classrooms, etc.

  • Reduced Cost − The original investment needed for wireless LAN hardware is greater than the cost of wired LAN hardware. However, the complete installation expenses and life cycle costs are essentially lower. Long-term cost benefits are largest in powerful environments, requiring frequent progress and changes.

  • Mobility and collaboration − It can stay linked while moving throughout your worksite. It can create up-to-the-minute communications and all documents and applications on the web, anywhere, anytime

  • Accessibility − It can support network access across your organization, even in areas that have been challenging to reach with the wired network, so your whole team can stay in touch.

  • Expandability − It can be used to increase your network efficiently, inserting new users and areas without needing to run cables and wires.

  • Guest access − It can provide secure network access to guest clients, including clients and business partners while maintaining your network resources protected.

CAN

CAN stands for campus area network. It is a network of several interconnected local area networks (LAN) in a limited geographical location. It is smaller than a wide area network (WAN) or metropolitan area network (MAN).

In this type of networking, similar technology along with the hardware is used in multiple buildings of one campus or one corporation. They follow similar terminologies like the local area networks but the difference is that they are interconnected among the various buildings at the specific location.

Campus Area Networks (CAN) are economical, useful, and simple to implement in the specific kilometres of the locality. It is very useful for universities and other corporate organizations to operate from any block and receive a similar speed of data transfer.

Updated on: 18-Nov-2021

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