A campus area network (CAN) is a computer network that covers a limited geographic area. CANs interconnect multiple local area networks (LANs) on an educational or corporate campus. Most CANs connect to the public Internet.
CANs are smaller than metropolitan area networks (MANs) and wide area networks (WANs), which extend over large geographic areas. Typically, the organization that owns the campus also owns and manages all the network equipment and infrastructure for the CAN. In contrast, MAN and WAN may combine infrastructure managed by several different providers.
In colleges, universities and other educational institutions, CANs provide Internet access for students and faculty. CANs also allow connected users to quickly share files and data across the network: because data does not have to leave the CAN, users experience much less latency than when sending and receiving data within a MAN or WAN. Suppose that the English department of a university requests digital copies of several books from the university library. Since these digital copies of the books only have to travel the distance between the English building and the library building (assuming both buildings have their own servers), the English department receives them much faster than if the library had to send the files over the public Internet.
Corporate facilities large enough to be considered a “campus” can also use CAN for the same purposes.
What are the security benefits of CAN?
Typically, a CAN network is managed entirely by an in-house IT team, giving them a high degree of control over the network. IT teams can enforce security policies on the network much more easily than if the campus were using multiple disconnected networks. For example, IT can install and manage firewalls to protect data on the CAN. IT can also manage network access by setting login requirements, blocking unsafe devices, and configuring other access controls.