6 Advantages and Disadvantages of MAN | Limitations & Benefits of MAN

What is MAN ?

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is a type of network which usually covers areas of large geographical range. Generally in MAN, two LANs are interconnected to each other through point to point connection. A typical MAN infrastructure relies upon various technologies. Some of them are Switched Multi Megabyte Server (SMDS), Fiber Distribution Data Interface (FDDI), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).

Who uses MAN ?

It is most preferred by the users who normally needs high speed connectivity and posses endpoints spread throughout a geographical area. Such an example is the telephone network. Although MAN provides such benefits to the user, it aren't flawless. MAN does have its own cons that needs to be considered before implementing the network.

 
In this article, I am going to explain about 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of MAN | Limitations & Benefits of MAN. From this post, you will know the pros and cons of using MAN network.

Let's get started,

 

Advantages of MAN

1. Cost

MAN utilizes very less number of resources compared to WAN. Hence, implementation costs are greatly reduced. Moreover combining both MAN and WAN network is less expensive. 

 

Besides all the data on the MAN network has been managed very efficiently in a centralized way. Therefore, MAN is highly cost effective.


2. Email Service

Sending massages through email is quite efficient in MAN. Every Email that is being sent through MAN is of free charge and of high speed.


3. Speed

MAN often uses fiber optics cables for its data transmission. Fiber optics cable are capable of offering speed up to 1000Mbps. Hence, data and information can be transferred at a faster rate.


4. Internet Sharing

Using MAN, users can share their internet connections with other users. By this way all the MAN users can experience high speed internet connectivity.


5. Network Conversion

As mentioned earlier MAN is a mixture of two or more LAN networks. Since LAN has fast configuration of links, two LAN networks can be connected quickly.

 

 

Disadvantages of MAN

1. Maintenance

MAN generally is difficult to manage especially when it becomes large. This is mainly due to safety issues and other additional configurations.


2. Security

The probability of hackers attacking a MAN network is very high comparing to LAN. Thus, data has the tendency to get hacked easily. In order for securing the data, well trained staffs and safety equipments are needed.


3. Technical Assistance

For installing a MAN network without any faults, it requires technical people with experience. The technical assistance needs to be from network administrators and troubleshooters. This can overall increase the installation cost.


4. Wire Requirement

Comparing to LAN and WAN, MAN requires additional wires for its operations. This is mainly due to the connection of two LAN networks. When there is a need of more wires, then there will be more cost in the network as well.


5. Internet Speed

In order for its operations, MAN requires fiber optics cables which is quite expensive. It cannot operate on traditional copper wires that is normally present on a telephone. Despite of this if the MAN is installed, users have to experience very slow internet speeds.