ABSTRACT
A metropolitan area network (MAN) generally spans within a network radius of 10 to 120 kilometers, and the typical network topology that it adopts can be point to point, ring, or mesh. MANs are used to extend distances outside the range of local area networks (LANs) where there is no need for the long-haul distances characterized by wide area networks (WANs). A MAN is usually segmented into three tiers: core, aggregation, and access, as shown in Figure 1.1. The term last mile (or first mile), which is considered by many to be the bandwidth bottleneck, refers to the connection between the core and access networks (inclusive of the aggregation).
