WAN
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | Wide area network |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
WAN stands for Wide area network, a networking abbreviation.
Spans large geographic distances, linking LANs in different cities or countries over leased lines, MPLS circuits, the internet or satellite links. The internet itself is the largest WAN. On a home router, the WAN port is the one that connects to the modem or ISP.
Example: Branch offices reach the data center over the WAN, so large file copies are noticeably slower.
Usage notes
Traditionally built from telephone-company circuits such as T1 lines and frame relay; businesses now often use SD-WAN to steer traffic across several cheaper internet links. WAN bandwidth costs far more than LAN bandwidth, which shapes decisions about caching and where to host data. Pronounced as a word, "wan".
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- UPnP – Universal Plug and Play
- UTP – Unshielded twisted pair
- VLAN – Virtual LAN
- VNC – Virtual Network Computing
- VPN – Virtual private network
- VXLAN – Virtual Extensible LAN
- WAP – Wireless access point
- WEP – Wired Equivalent Privacy
- WLAN – Wireless local area network
- WPA – Wi-Fi Protected Access
- WPA2 – Wi-Fi Protected Access 2
- WPA3 – Wi-Fi Protected Access 3