Difference between a LAN and a WAN

The next task is to distinguish between LANs and WANs. LANs are different in the following important respects.
>• The distance between the nodes is limited. There is an upper limit of approx. 10 km, and a lower limit of 1 m.
>* While WAN usually operate at speeds of less than 1 mbps (one mega bits per second), LANs normally operate at between 1 and 10 mbps. Using optical fiber technology, it is possible to achieve speeds of the order of hundreds of mbps.
>¦ Because of the short distances involved, the error rates in LANs are much lower than in WANs. LANs error rate is 1000 times lower than in WANs so are normal.
>¦ The distance limitations involved in LANs normally mean that the entire network is under the ownership and control of a single organization. This is in sharp contrast to WANs, where the network is normally operated by the countries post and telecommunications authorities rather than by its users.
It can be seen from the above, the LANs, differ from other types of network in that the area they cover is limited. This means they can operate at high speeds and with very low error rates