Computer users can interact with one and another through some type of network. There are many types of network and we name the network depending upon how long distance the network covers. If the network is within the room or couple of rooms then we name it local area network (LAN) and if the network is all over the world then we name it wide area network (WAN). LAN and WAN are two main types of networks. With the new era of technology, we have categorized the network into more types such as campus area network, metropolitan area network, storage area network and others.
Today I am going to tell you about the campus area network. The type of computer network which connects different departments of the university, school, and the organization is known as campus area network (CAN). CAN is also known as corporate area network because it also connects departments of a large corporate organization. CAN covers area of 1km to 5km. CAN is smaller than metropolitan area network (MAN). MAN makes a network that can cover the whole city. CAN or campus area network is made by combining different LAN’s through routers, switches, hubs, copper wires or optical fibre.
In the CAN, computers are connected by wired and wireless connections. The purpose of the CAN is to share computer resources with each other and to make private network among the organization. Data transfer rate of the CAN is fast as compared to WAN. To make the connection between different branches of university or organization, we use large bandwidth optical fibre also known as backbone trunk.
If the university is using CAN to communicate within university then chances of hacking are less but if the CAN is also connected to the internet than security problem may occur. University data can be stolen if the main servers of the university are connected to the internet because hackers can break the security in the network and access private data. To solve this issue the university has to keep an updated version of all the software used in the computers.
By using CAN, the organization has to not install any software to all the computers but users can access and use the software through the network.
Example of campus area network (CAN)
Example of the CAN is the networking between school, library and hostel. School management can access to library and hostel data through the network. Any student with login access can search the book by connecting its computer with the library. Similarly, school staff can check hostel data through their computers.