Metropolitan area network (MAN)

From the standpoint of coverage, the MAN is bigger than the LAN and smaller than the WAN, whilst from the viewpoint of data transmission speeds, the MAN is faster than both the LAN and WAN. As it was with the PAN and LAN, the reason for the MAN's existence is the need for sharing and accessing the resources in the city or metro. From that, a MAN represents a group of LANs interconnected within the geographical boundary of a town or city, as in Figure 1.3: