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Acampus network,campus area network,corporate area network orCAN is acomputer network made up of an interconnection oflocal area networks (LANs) within a limited geographical area.[1][2] The networking equipments (switches,routers) and transmission media (optical fiber, copper plant,Cat5 cabling etc.) are almost entirely owned by thecampus tenant / owner: an enterprise, university, government etc.[3] A campus area network is larger than a local area network but smaller than ametropolitan area network (MAN) orwide area network (WAN).
College or university campus area networks often interconnect a variety of buildings, including administrative buildings, academic buildings, laboratories, university libraries, or student centers,residence halls,gymnasiums, and other outlying structures, likeconference centers, technology centers, and training institutes.
Early examples include theStanford University Network atStanford University,[4]Project Athena atMIT,[5] and theAndrew Project atCarnegie Mellon University.[6]
Much like a university campus network, a corporate campus network serves to connect buildings. Examples of such are the networks atGoogleplex andMicrosoft's campus. Campus networks are normally interconnected with high speedEthernet links operating overoptical fiber such asgigabit Ethernet and10 Gigabit Ethernet.
The range of CAN is 1 to 5 km (1 to 3 mi). If two buildings have the same domain and they are connected with a network, then it will be considered as CAN only. Though the CAN is mainly used for corporate campuses so the link will be high speed.[citation needed]