DEFINITION FO WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN) Data and voice communication network that extends beyond the geographical

limitations of a local area network (LAN). In a typical configuration, a WAN consists of severalLANs at dispersed locations interconnected via gateways over leased or dedicated telephone and/or wireless links. Airlineand hotel reservation services comprise of WANs, and the internet is the world's largest WAN. Intranets,extranets, and virtual private networks are all WANs simulated over internet connections. A wide area network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries).] This is in contrast with personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs),campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area [e,g. a city] respectively. WAN DESIGNING OPTIONS WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networks together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations. Many WANs are built for one particular organization and are private. Others, built by Internet service providers, provide connections from an organization's LAN to the Internet. WANs are often built using leased lines. At each end of the leased line, a router connects to the LAN on one side and a hub within the WAN on the other. Leased lines can be very expensive. Instead of using leased lines, WANs can also be built using less costly circuit switching or packet switching methods. Network protocols including TCP/IPdeliver transport and addressing functions. Protocols including Packet over SONET/SDH, MPLS, ATM and Frame relay are often used by service providers to deliver the links that are used in WANs. X.25 was an important early WAN protocol, and is often considered to be the "grandfather" of Frame Relay as many of the underlying protocols and functions of X.25 are still in use today (with upgrades) by Frame Relay. Academic research into wide area networks can be broken down into three areas: Mathematical models, network emulation and network simulation. Performance improvements are sometimes delivered via WAFS or WAN optimization. WAN CONNECTION TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS There are also several ways to connect Nonstop S-series servers to WANs, including via the Server Net Wide Area Network (SWAN) or SWAN 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 concentrators, which provides WAN client connectivity to servers that have Ethernet ports and appropriate communications software. You can also use

the Asynchronous Wide Area Network (AWAN) access server, which offers economical asynchronous-only WAN access. Several options are available for WAN connectivity: Transmission rates usually range from 1200 bit/s to 24 Mbit/s, although some connections such as ATM and Leased lines can reach speeds greater than 156 Mbit/s. typical communication links used in WANs are telephone lines, microwave links & satellite channels. Recently with the proliferation of low cost of Internet connectivity many companies and organizations have turned to VPN to interconnect their networks, creating a WAN in that way. Companies such as Cisco, New Edge Networks and Check Point offer solutions to create VPN networks. WAN Technology comparisons Technology Speed Characteristics Switched 56 56Kbps Switched line, not dedicated Packet switching, error correction, store and X.25 64Kbps foreward, with round trip delay 56Kbps to Varying length frames with permanent virtual Frame Relay 1.544Mbps circuit SMDS 1.533 to 45Mbps Fixed cell length with no error checking T1 1.544Mbps 24 Multiplexed channels T3 44.736Mbps 672 Multiplexed channels SONET 51.8Mbps (OC-1) OC2 is 2X OC1, OC3 is 3X OC1 155Mbps to 622 Fixed length packets. Works on SONET and T ATM Mbps carrier lines. Uses virtual circuits Terms Circuit switching - Physical switched connection. Message switching - A store and forward mechanism where messages are treated as individual units. Packet switching - Messages are broken down into smaller packets with individual destination information. Independent routing is used which allows the packets to use any route between the source and destination. Much RAM and processing power is required to support this switching type. Datagram packet switching - Uses independent paths. Virtual circuit packet switching - This is used for audio and video streaming. A set path is established between the source and destination and a connection oriented service is made. TO SET UP A WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN) OR WIRELESS ENVIRONMENT Main site: Windows 2003/2008 Server - Note: Citrix Met Frame is an enhancement to Windows Terminal Services and can be implemented using these Operating Systems

High speed connection to the Internet using a STATIC IP Address such as DSL, Cable, Satellite, etc.. (use of VPN - Virtual Private Network - is highly recommended for security and necessary for any TWAIN functionality such as Document or Scan Advantage) Router for the WAN's external connection and Switches or hubs for the internal LAN (Routers with built-in firewall such as Sonic wall is recommended. It is also recommended to use a switch and not a Hub to boost performance on the LAN) Remote site: FAT Client workstations using 98/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7 (Terminal Server Licensing may be required) Thin Clients (This type of connection does not support many TWAIN compliant peripherals that are used with Advantage software remote connection) Connection to Internet using Dynamic or Static IP address (Firewall routers such as Sonic wall is recommended) Static IP is required for most VPN connections A direct mapped drive to the server's share from the remote site using a VPN to facilitate the transfer of TWAIN compliant devices data, i.e. scanner and cameras Wireless: Does not require a VPN since all connections are local Does not require a static Internet address A direct mapped drive to the server's If you are using a powerful Windows XP as your server and would like to run multiple connection or a wireless environment, some third-party companies such as Elusiva*, may allow this type of connection without using the Microsoft's Server operating system. Miscellaneous Info: Utilizing a Virtual Private Network provides better security by blocking external TCP/UDP ports, such as RDP 3389, which would need to be forwarded for remote access capability. The use of the Sybase Advantage DataBase (SQL) Server is mandatory for all clients utilizing Remote Desktop and/or wireless. Recommended bandwidth per user: 30 kbps (note: up to 50/70 kbps may be required if the TWAINWAN solution is implemented) The number of users will decrease based on the number remote users and the size of the data and also the transfer of pictures/documents to the main location. As for redundancy, generally every office is different. Most offices are not able to obtain a redundant connection due to logistics and costs. A dialup Remote Access Service will provide minimal access to the patient data at the main location. Any other alternate redundant connectivity over

and above that is the clients prerogative. The general memory recommendation for servers running terminal services is a minimum of 50MB of memory per session. This requirement does not include any other application or the operating systems general memory requirements. All sessions require a unique USER environmental variable for CBS and CBSWAN variables (where applicable). Windows XP Professional and Vista Business have Terminal Server capabilities and can be used in certain environments. The local user will not be able to use the station while a remote connection is active. Remote Access can also be set up by using a DNS service and forwarding the RDP port (generally TCP 3389) to any local computer with RDP capability. There are limitations to this type of connection. One local workstation is tied up as long as the remote user is in a session and connected. A third-party software, such as Elusiva*, can also be used to access Advantage software remotely. Some USB printers are not compatible with Remote/Terminal Server printing. Upgrading to Microsoft's latest RDP client is highly recommended for clients with remote printing issues. (this web site contains many articles regarding terminal server printing. Use the search tool to locate these documents) For Security enhancements a VPN can be implemented. VPN creates a Point to Point tunneling which utilizes encrypted transmission between the two sites and is strongly recommended by Compulink and will make the wide area network HIPPA compliant. A VPN is required for transferring TWAIN images to the main site. SOME FEATURES OF WIDE AREA NETWORK A Wide Area Network is a type of a computer network which covers a large area. By large area, it is meant that the area may expand beyond metropolitan, regional or even national boundaries. Wide Network in very simple language, connects two or more Local Area Networks via devices, which are routers or function like routers. The users at many different locations of a Wide Area Network are connected to each other via one central server. This server can alone serve all the computers on a network. All the computers in a Wide Network are connected to the central database management system of a server. With the help of this central database system, all the computers in the Wide Area Network save data at real time and then send input results to the central server to receive output results at that very moment. There are four types of Wide-Area-Network connection options: leased-line connection, circuit-switching connection, packet-switching connection or cellrelay. The leased line is the most classic type of Wide Area Network, where there

is a point-to-point connection between two computers. It is mostly used for small scale companies and colleges. Circuit-switching is another type of Wide-Area-Network. In this type, a circuit is created between end-points and an example of this is a dial up connection. Another feature of Broad Network is packet-switching, where multiple sets of data are sent and received simultaneously. With the help of Wide-Area-Network, common resources are used by one company. For example, if a person buys prescription drugs from one store in the UK, his entry is done in a computer and after that, he/she may buy that drug from any branch of that chain of pharmacies in the UK. Similar is the case of banks where people used to cash money previously only from their designated bank branches. However, now, they can cash their money from any branch of that bank with the help of online banking. Wide-Area-Network has made life and communication very easy. Distances have been reduced to a great extent. Moreover, due to the VPN technology (which has been built on the basis of the principle of Wide Area Network), the employees can take their work home and can even store and share it online. Having said this, it must also be known that Wide-Area-Networks have some negative aspects as well. Security is one of the major risks for people and companies using Wide-Area-Networks. Anyone can access your computer with the help of your IP. Moreover, installing Wide Area Networks in places such as institutions and business companies require money, resources and frequent maintenance services. To conclude, Wide Area Networks has brought revolution in our lives. It has helped the world to communicate faster and efficiently; and has also made the life of people in general, easy by providing online facilities which no one ever thought of 30 years back. THE GENERAL ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF WIDE AREA NETWORK. Internet was never possible without the invention of intelligent switches, satellites, fibre optic cables and LAN cards. Those who find it difficult to get idea of wide area network, internet is one live example of it. Before we look into Wide Area Network (WAN), we must have an understanding of what is Local Area Network (LAN). Local Area Network, as the name suggests, is a network built in a limited area by using LAN cables, switches and LAN cards. One example is a network of a university or a business office at one location. The computers on a Local Area Network are connected to a network switch. You can either make this network a workgroup (share limited resources) or domain (share all kind of resources and services). On domain, you have the privilege to grant permissions to users to share resources or limit them to use certain services. As LAN can only work within a certain distance, we need WAN to connect institutions and offices at different locations. WAN connects two or more LANs, and this is possible with the use of devices like routers. There are many ways to build a Wide area network. You can either lay down your own cables between two or more locations or you can use leased

lines. Most companies use leased lines as very limited companies can bear the cost of thousands pounds for it. The businesses and institutions get leased lines from different service providers and pay them on monthly basis. Today, many companies are establishing Virtual Private Network (VAN) by using leased lines. A VAN can be established by buying Live IPs from the service provider, at two or more different locations. To secure this network, the Network Administrator uses routers and firewalls to secure the network. On WAN, the users at different locations are connected to a central server. The name of this computer is server because it is there to serve all the computers on the network. All the computers on the network are connected to central database on the server. These computers save data at real time, send queries to server and fetch reports at the same time. The banking system is a very good example of a WAN network. The benefits of a Wide area network are unlimited. You sit in one country, and the office in the other country is just like a room next door. You can share documents, reports, prints, query databases, search through thousands of records in just quick seconds, monitor distant location offices by using digital cameras and do much more. The advantages of a Wide area network are infinite; it is up to you what benefits you want to get using this technology; the sophistication obviously increases with the cost factor. With many advantages of Wide area network, there are also some disadvantages associated, which though can be addressed by using latest technologies. On WAN, the security is a big factor. When you connect on the internet using Live IPs, anyone can intrude in and hack your system. For this purpose, firewalls and routers securities are implemented, which definitely come with on the expense of thousands pounds. The latency period on WAN is high, but it can also be addressed by taking high speed internet connections. To establish a Wide Area Network, the businesses and institutions need a lot of money, as technologies that make your network secures as well as serve your needs is very costly. The Importance of Keeping up with WAN Optimization Techniques To understand the different techniques used by appliances offering WAN optimization, it's important to first define exactly what exactly a 'WAN' is. WAN stands for 'wide area network' and refers to any network that covers a very large geographic area. By contrast, a LAN, or local area network, refers to networks that provide internal communication in a home or small office. The internet as a whole can be defined as a WAN and is obviously a public network, while an example of a private WAN could be a corporation with offices in San Francisco, San Jose, Austin, Boston, and New York. Each individual office would have a LAN set up internally, but could also use DSL or MPLS connections to form a WAN to share information between offices. There are a number of performance-related issues that typically occur with WANs, which has led to the development of various WAN optimization techniques. These issues can include redundant transmissions, 'chatty' protocols,

and packet delivery issues. Some of the common techniques used to achieve WAN optimization include: Bandwidth Management; Caching; and Protocol Optimization. Multiple vendors offer WAN optimization appliances that use a number of these techniques to process the IP traffic traveling between the sites over the company's WAN. Not every solution uses the same techniques, thus the benefits can vary, which is important to understand when researching a vendor or supplier. Bandwidth Management allows applications to have set limits and minimums with regard to how much bandwidth they use. For example, this technique would allow you to put a limit on the amount of bandwidth an especially avaricious application can use. Conversely, bandwidth management can ensure that less-used applications always have a guaranteed amount of bandwidth allocated to them. Caching allows several copies of important files, especially larger ones, to be stored in multiple locations. This prevents users from having to download files as large as 20MB or 100MB across a WAN connection every time they need to view or make edits to it. Additionally, whenever modifications are made to one of these cached files, the network doesn't have to transmit the entire updated file to every one of its multiple locations. One the portions of the file that have been edited are sent. Communication protocols for digital computer network communication have features intended to ensure reliable interchange of data over an imperfect communication channel. It is basically a way of following certain rules so that a system works properly. Protocol optimization restricts the amount of electronic chit-chat that occurs between sites when communication protocols send their necessary back and forth confirmation messages. The implementation of these various techniques by using WAN optimization appliances has been said to reduce the usage of bandwidth by as much as 50-95% between offices communicating over the WAN. For many companies this means thousands of dollars of savings, particularly when costly solutions like multiple MPLS networks are being to ensure network reliability. For others, the value of WAN optimization is that global collaboration allows the company to undertake tasks that it previously couldn't. Regardless of the benefit or the need, understanding the latest in WAN Optimization techniques can have a substantial benefit on the performance of a modern corporation. DESIGNING A WAN INFRASTRUCTURE The wide area network is the single biggest contributor to a corporate network's cost of ownership. Therefore, this is the area where the costversus-performance tradeoff is most critical. This tip, reposted from most pronounced and SearchNetworking.com, explores the various alternatives that must be evaluated when choosing and designing a WAN infrastructure. The different topological and technological options are discussed in terms of how they relate to the fundamental WAN design goals. Traditional technological alternatives that include synchronous serial lines, frame relay and ATM are discussed along with more state-ofthe-art options such as DSL and MPLS.

Network hardware gets more complicated every day. Our resources will help you evaluate and select routers and switches for the WAN, WAN optimization and acceleration gear, and remote office network equipment. Learn about the features and functions available from the major network equipment vendors and how to decide what's best for your network. WAN Optimization The Riverbed Technology WAN optimization solution accelerates data and applications across your entire network at the data center, in the cloud, at branch offices, and even for mobile workers. It also enhances visibility into applications over the WAN. Your business runs faster and more efficiently, saving time and cutting the cost of IT infrastructure. In fact, customers see payback in about six months, on average. Companies around the world in every industry are turning to WAN optimization to accelerate business operations and improve productivity, while cutting costs. And when they do, they turn to Riverbed. Riverbed is the pioneer in WAN optimization. Our market-leading solution not only provides the best WAN optimization available today, but also improves the throughput of your applications because its more than just limited network bandwidth that slows down your applications. Most vendors focused on WAN optimization do not offer true application acceleration, which is a different and distinct challenge. Riverbed leads the pack on both. Our comprehensive solution: Accelerates applications across the WAN, typically by 5-50 times and, in some cases, by up to 100 times Cuts the use of WAN bandwidth by 65-95 percent, and relieves network congestion Delivers LAN-like performance to mobile workers and employees around the world Enables IT consolidation and virtualization Optimizes business continuity and disaster recovery Enhances visibility and simplifies management Integrates quickly and easily with network and system products from any combination of vendors Lowers IT and operational costs, and improves productivity at the same time With Riverbed WAN optimization, you can leverage your networks, infrastructure, and applications in ways never before possible. BUSINESS OVERVIEW The Riverbed WAN optimization solution can change the way your business works by improving and accelerating application performance across the WAN. Using WAN optimization, IT can provide LAN-like access to data and applications throughout the enterprise anytime, anywhere. Its the only solution to span mobile workers, branch offices, and data centers, allowing your distributed workforce to collaborate in real time. And it does all this while streamlining operations, improving visibility, and reducing the costs of IT infrastructure.

Are you ready to transform your business? Boost Productivity & Improve Business Processes Speed up applications, raise productivity, and eliminate the impact of distance between branch offices, mobile workers, the data center, and business headquarters. Improve the performance of many of the most commonly used applications across the network, typically by 5-50 times and, in some cases, by up to 100 times. Accelerate operations by reducing the time required to complete repetitive operations. Ensure fast, reliable access to data and applications for employees around the globe. Achieve LAN-like performance for mobile employees, no matter where they are. Promote real-time collaboration, enable distributed collaboration and outsourcing, and streamline communications. Enhance follow-the-sun operational models quickly transfer data and complete transactions, even in remote locations. Tightly integrate resource planning (ERP) systems and product lifecycle (PLM) platforms with distributed employees including mobile workers while opening these systems and platforms to suppliers and partners. Take full advantage of systems youve already purchased or have in place but havent able to use because of performance issues. Tap global markets for less by harnessing the power of your people and infrastructure as if they were all in one location. Save Money & Achieve Measurable ROI Deliver strategic value while helping your IT team cut unnecessary costs out of your operations. Reduce the use of WAN bandwidth by 65-95 percent, and relieve network congestion. Cut server costs and routine IT maintenance. Consolidate servers into data centers more effectively and enable virtualization, without impacting performance. Push out costly network upgrades by two years or more, according to several analyst firms. Accommodate more growth and more users without investing in additional networking infrastructure. Accomplish Key Business Initiatives Take advantage of dramatic gains in IT performance to enable real change. Use powerful performance analysis tools to get to the heart of a problem quickly. Use these tools to adapt your IT strategy to your business strategy. Consolidation and Virtualization Centralize your IT infrastructure to lower costs, simplify management, improve security, and ease regulatory compliance, without clogging networks, sacrificing performance, or frustrating users. Accomplish all this through transparent integration with your current application, network, and storage technology. Collaboration Allow your workers across the globe to share applications, documents, email, design files, and software as if they were all operating from the same location. Improve time to market, enable follow-the-sun development models, enhance workload balancing, and gain flexibility for your business.

Cloud Acceleration Go beyond just accelerating your data centers to accelerate public and private cloud implementations as well. Leverage the latest cost-cutting technology while delivering higher-performing applications to your users. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Cut RPO by 90 percent and radically reduce RTO by optimizing backup across the current WAN and VPN. Protect servers, SANs, NAS, and even end-user machines. Recover data on virtual machines up to 50 times faster. Make sure workers can continue to operate at full capacity in the event of major or minor disruptions. Visibility proactively optimize and control the performance of applications, servers, and the network, all from a single web interface. Gain insight into potential problem areas and better understand where IT limitations are actually causing business limitations. Agility Respond to changing business needs quickly, without ballooning your budget. Make your IT infrastructure much more nimble. Locate data centers anywhere and move them in a fraction of the time. Roll out applications and upgrades quickly and efficiently. Contact a Sales Rep In todays business technology environment, theres more more data in more places, more distance between worker and office, more regulations, and more demands on IT. But at the same time, theres less less time and less money for IT resources and infrastructure. The Riverbed WAN optimization solution gives you the tools you need to meet these challenges. With Riverbed, you can accelerate your network, optimize your infrastructure, and simplify management, while scaling to meet the needs of even the most complex IT environment. How can Riverbed help you do more with less? Enhance Performance Realize dramatic performance improvements across the broad range of applications enterprises care about most. Accelerate application performance, typically by 5-50 times and, in some cases, by up to 100 times. Get more out of the applications your business relies on every day, including file sharing, email, backup, SSL, document management systems, IT tools, Share Point, SAP, and ERP and CRM solutions. Ensure fast, reliable access to data and applications for employees around the globe. Achieve LAN-like performance for mobile employees, no matter where they are. Drive faster performance to primary and secondary data centers for DR processes. Meet the ongoing challenges of enterprise application performance. Enhance visibility into all key applications that cross the WAN. Quickly identify and resolve problems, eliminate pain points, validate that problems were resolved successfully, create global controls, and optimize applications for future business needs. Address application- and TCP-level protocol chattiness to eliminate inefficient behavior and drastically reduce redundant roundtrips.

Optimize WAN Bandwidth & Avoid Costly Upgrades Reduce network traffic; relieve network congestion, and lower costs. Cut bandwidth utilization, typically by 60-95 percent, using data deduplication across all TCP-based applications. Data is analyzed at the byte level, ensuring that the maximum amount of redundant data is eliminated before it crosses the network. Free up bandwidth for other applications, like VoIP or Citrix, so they can perform better. Minimize the need for expensive WAN upgrades in an office served by a T1 (1.5 Mbps), you can deliver bandwidth equivalent of up to between 3-30 Mbps just by adding Steelhead appliances to your WAN link. Streamline IT Operations & Infrastructure Optimize your existing environment, reduce IT overhead, and align IT investments with the business. Use the infrastructure you already have more efficiently, and cut the use of bandwidth, routers, and switches. Deploy in a matter of minutes by following a virtually plug-and-play process. Configure, update, and monitor performance through a single web-based interface, the Riverbed Central Management Console (CMC) Easily scale to hundreds or thousands of branch offices and mobile workers. Integrate with Cisco and other networks, alongside VoIP, video conferencing, and QoS. Enhance visibility into your infrastructure and analyze how IT resources are being used. Use this knowledge to accelerate key applications, fine-tune systems, and allocate resources to best meet enterprise needs. Visibility and analytics go well beyond simple reporting that confirms whether the infrastructure is up and running. True optimization-oriented visibility breaks down data into a deeper understanding of how applications are performing, analytics that set alerts when anomalous performance is detected, and details on which sites can benefit most from further optimization. This type of visibility can impact many different initiatives, including: Implementing and managing service level agreements (SLAs) Accelerating troubleshooting and mean time to respond (MTTR) to incidents Determining the impact of application acceleration and WAN optimization Analyzing future IT investments in relation to business priorities Consolidate IT Infrastructure without Sacrificing Performance Lower costs, improve security, and ease regulatory compliance. Consolidate multiple global and regional data centers no need to constantly build, maintain, monitor, patch, upgrade, and mirror numerous data centers to achieve acceptable application performance. Improve data consistency and performance. Roll out new applications and upgrades quickly and efficiently. Achieve and prove compliance more easily. Consolidate file servers, email servers, SAN and NAS devices, and remote tape backup libraries by addressing bandwidth, TCP behavior, and latency. Eliminate

underutilized, hard-to-manage servers in remote locations. Reduce capital expenditures and improve maintenance cycles. Consolidate at the edge while still delivering essential local services, like print, DNS, and DHCP, to all your branch offices. Use the serverless branch office model to simplify management, lower costs, use resources more efficiently, and protect data more effectively. Consolidate backup data into the data center, where its more accessible and secure. Lower backup and service costs, simplify off-site media management and storage, reduce time spent on manual backup processes, and speed data recovery. Ensure business continuity if data is lost from the primary location. Try and Evaluate View Steelhead Demo View Cascade Demo Gartner Magic Quadrant X-Factor Estimator ROI Calculator