Metropolitan area network

A Metropolitan area network (often shortened to MAN) is a computer network that connects several other Local area networks (LANs). An example of where MANs are used, are the networks on a campus of a university. MANs use different technologies than LANs. Today, most MANs are done using fibre optic cabling. Protocol suites used in MANs include Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Switched Multimegabit Data Service, and Distributed-queue dual-bus. MANs can reach distances of up to 100km.