A local area network (LAN) is a communications network that interconnects a variety of data communications devices within a small geographic area and broadcasts data at high data transfer rates. Expand on this definition by explaining the various terminology used.?
What will be an ideal response?
Several points in this definition merit a closer look. The phrase "data communications devices" covers computers such as personal computers, computer workstations, and mainframe computers, as well as peripheral devices such as disk drives, printers, and modems. Data communications devices could also include items such as motion, smoke, and heat sensors; fire alarms; ventilation systems; and motor speed controls. These latter devices are often found in businesses and manufacturing environments where assembly lines and robots are commonly used.
The next piece of the definition, "within a small geographic area" usually implies that a local area network can be as small as one room, or can extend over multiple rooms, over multiple floors within a building, and even over multiple buildings within a single campus-area. The most common geographic areas, however, are a room or multiple rooms within a single building. Local area networks differ from many other types of networks in that most broadcast their data to many or all of the workstations connected to the network. Thus, if one workstation has data to send to a secondworkstation, that data is transmitted to other workstations on the network. When data that was not requested arrives at a workstation, it is simply discarded. As you will see a little later, it is now quite common to design a local area network so that all data is not transmitted to all workstations-an enhancement that reduces the amount of traffic on the network.
Lastly, the final phrase of the definition states that local area networks are capable of transmitting data
at "high data transfer rates". While early local area networks transmitted data at only 10 million bits
per second, the newest local area networks can transmit data at 10 billion bits per second.?
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