A WAN is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries [1]). Or less formally a network that uses routers and public communication links [1]. Contrast with personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) that are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city) respectively. The largest and most well known example of this type of networking is the Internet or the World Wide Web.
WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networking systems together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations. Many WANs are built for one particular organization and are private to that organization.
Others, built by Internet service providers, provide connections from an organization's LAN to the Internet. WANs are often built using leased lines from a carrier such as AT&T, Verizon, BT, etc. At each end of the leased line, a router connects to the LAN (local area network) on one side and a hub within the WAN on the other. Leased lines or circuits can be very expensive. Instead of using leased lines, WANs can also be built using less costly circuit switching or packet switching methods.
Network protocols including TCP/IP deliver transport and addressing functions. Protocols including Packet over SONET/SDH, MPLS, ATM and Frame relays are often used by service providers to deliver the circuits that are used in WANs. X.25 was an important early WANSACHMO protocol, and is often considered to be the "grandfather" of Frame Relay as many of the underlying protocols and functions of X.25 are still in use today (with upgrades) by Frame Relay.
Wikipedia definition of MPLS: In computer networking and telecommunications, Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a data-carrying mechanism that belongs to the family of packet-switched networks. MPLS operates at an OSI Model layer that is generally considered to lie between traditional definitions of Layer 2 (data link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer), and thus is often referred to as a "Layer 2.5" protocol. It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients that provide a datagram service model. It can be used to carry many different kinds of traffic, including IP packets, as well as native ATM, SONET, and Ethernet frames.
MPLS or Multi Protocol Label Switching is an IETF–defined protocol that is used in IP traffic management. Basically, it provides a means for one router to pass on its routing priorities to another router by means of a label and without having to examine the packet and its header, thus saving the time required for the latter device to look up the address for the next node. It can also facilitate Quality of Service (QoS). QoS provides some guarantee of performance such as traffic delivery priority, speed, latency, or latency variation. Delivery of good-quality audio or video streams typically requires QoS capabilities. Now that the MPLS technology and networking systems have matured from their initial release approximately 3 years ago, it has become a very cost effective solution to replace existing frame relay and Internet based VPN networks.
The cost of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and video conferencing continues to drop and is becoming more affordable for even small businesses. MPLS creates a perfect fit to enable mission critical applications such as VoIP to run across the enterprise with the reliability. QoS (Quality of Service) inherent with the MPLS Network ensures the delivery of latency sensitive protocols such as VoIP and Citrix etc.
Now enterprises can begin to take full advantage of these applications with piece of mind MPLS offers many advantages over existing Wide Area Networking technologies. Listed below are many of the key reasons why MPLS is fast becoming the Wide Area Networking technology of choice.
For these reasons, many businesses are quickly embracing MPLS as the WAN technology of choice. The flexibility and simplicity of the MPLS WANs allows the IT staff to focus on projects that increase productivity and the bottom line.
Ok, well it sounds interesting but I think we need to dive into this definition in more detail to truly understand what this means and how it effects you. As you already know, wide area networks are generally extremely slow links (compared to LAN speeds) and connections that interconnect branch offices, vendors, partners as well as mobile workers and telecommunters. Even with bandwidth costs dropping on a daily basis, these links and connections are extremely expensive.
As corporate applications become more and more critical to the survival and growth of the business' bottom line, IT departments face tough decisions about how to deliver more applications with better performance to all of the end users across the wide area networked system. These concerns have slowly grown to be huge challenges for IT managers and directors over the past 2 years. This is why WAN optimization and application acceleration is so critical to the future of wide area networks.
In the past, the myth that "ordering more bandwidth will solve my problems" was the general response when a business was facing slow application performance across the wide area networked system. This response was due in part because there were limited options for IT staff to try and improve application performance without increasing bandwidth. This problem has created the opportunity for someone to develop an alternative solution to improve application performance and enhance the use of the current WAN bandwidth without increasing bandwidth.
Check out the videos below to learn more about how Wide Area Networking Data Services or WAN Acceleration works....
For more information on WANs or MPLS or WAN Acceleration solutions or if you would like to evaluate Riverbed's WAN optimizers in your production environment free of charge, contact us.
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OS X Console Log Monitoring
MacOSX 2009/06/29 I hadn't looked at my Mac log files for quite some time. That's probably not an unusual habit for most users - heck, I bet most Windows users NEVER look at log files. It is more unusual for me; Unixy people tend to look at logs more often and that habit should have come with me to OS X. But it hadn't. When I finally did start Console and take a peek , I was annoyed to see hundreds of errors from Launchd trying to start daemons for programs that I had removed f Posted on 30 June 2009 | 2:03 am |
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Configuring Cisco AVVID
Product Description AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video, and Integrated Data) is a network architecture made up of hardware and software that transmits a company’s data such as e-mail, web traffic, file transfers, voice traffic, and video traffic over the same physical computer network. Imagine taking the three networks your company currently has and combining them into a single or converged infrastructure? Wouldn’t that make managing, budgeting, and staffing easier? Configuring Cisco AVVID w Posted on 26 June 2009 | 8:04 am |
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More details on VMware’s Fault Tolerance feature
This week’s VMTN Community Roundtable podcast was about Fault Tolerance (FT). Henry Robinson and Karen Ritter of VMware joined to provide information about the development and future of FT. Here’s a summary of some interesting details from the podcast, but if you haven’t listened to it yet, I recommend that you check out the recording as it provides a lot of valuable technical information. VMware spent a lot of time working with Intel/AMD to refine their physical processors so VMware coul Posted on 25 June 2009 | 8:35 am |
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Basic Networking Terminology
Computer networking, like most industries, has its own jargon, which includes technical terms, abbreviations, and acronyms. Without a good grasp of the terminology, it will be difficult to understand the concepts and processes involved in networking. The following list of terms and their definitions is intended to be a quick reference that defines some of the most important words, phrases, and acronyms related to computer networking: A network interface card (NIC), pronounced “nick,” is a Posted on 24 June 2009 | 9:05 am |
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Home Automation Networking Through Home Electronic System
June 23rd, 2009 Goto commentsLeave a comment The international standard, although relatively slow, has a large participation in the trade of ideas between developers of home automation around the world. The application models specifications promotes the interoperability of the products. This is considered worthwhile then focusing on the latest protocols. There are reports written to lead energy utility corporations to develop new consumer services which utilize networks for home automation. T Posted on 23 June 2009 | 7:31 pm |
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Juniper's 100 GbE Underscores Internal Cloud Driving External 10GbE
Nemertes Impact Analysis: Juniper's 100 GbE Underscores Internal Cloud Driving External 10GbE By December, Juniper's (NADSAQ:JNPR) T1600 Core Router will support 100 Gigabit/s Ethernet (100 GbE). Verizon (NYSE:VZ) plans to upgrade its network to support 100 GbE in 2010. Other service providers and product vendors with commitments to 100 GbE. include ATT (NYSE:ATT), Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD), Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSK). The move to 100 GbE is predicated on enterp Posted on 22 June 2009 | 7:51 am |
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Exploring Windows Server 2008's Active Directory Sites and Services
Windows Server 2008 has many of the same utilities as Windows Server 2003, but there are some changes. Here’s a look at what you’ll find in Windows Server 2008’s version of Active Directory Sites and Services. ——————————————————————————————- If you’re in charge of a small or midsize IT department, the chances are pretty good that you’ve given only a cursory glance to the Active Directory Sites and Services console, which is installed on each of your domain controllers. For the most part, on Posted on 19 June 2009 | 1:49 pm |
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VOIP For Your Business
VOIP For Your Business Many businesses are considering VOIP for their telephone businees needs. Many don’t know exactly when they should consider it an option for them. Many do not understand how it differs from regular telephone service and how the two differ. Many companies are now beginning to look into alternatives to high priced telephone systems currently in use. They are realizing that there are huge benefits financially to those switching over to VOIP. They are realizing there is gre Posted on 16 June 2009 | 2:41 pm |
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It's cell phones vs guns
That from GuamGuy at Twitter and I've been using Twitterfall to keep track of the events in Iran at #iraneclection, Tehran and Mousavi. I am not a regular Twitter user, needless to say, and only got cellphones a couple of days ago as emergency use supplies. And I do have some criticism of the technology, but that is not important. These last five days have been monumental in breaking the way news is reported and does point to the change that technology is bringing on a global basis. Th Posted on 16 June 2009 | 5:58 am |
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Case Study - Golder Associates
Want to better support global collaboration within your organization? In this case study, you'll discover how Golder Associates deployed a centralized Intranet portal with a wide-area acceleration solution that delivered LAN-like speed across the WAN. By deploying Riverbed Steelhead appliances into their existing Cisco-based network, they ensured their vast mobile workface access to the same resources workers had at headquarters. Download this case study today to deliver big productivity gains Posted on 15 June 2009 | 7:57 am |