Wide Area Networks or WANs come in many different colors.

If you do a Google search for WAN the first recommendation that they give you is Wanda Sykes, or Wanda Syke’s wife.  If you’ve never seen or heard a comedy bit from her, it’s worth while – she is very funny!  I just found out that there is also a World Association of Newspapers or WAN that was founded in 1948.  Wikipedia says “that this WAN is a non-profit, non-governmental organization made up of 76 national newspaper associations, 12 news agencies, 10 regional press organizations and individual newspaper executives in 100 countries”.  Now I’m thinking back to the many cocktail parties and networking functions that I’ve attended over the last 20 years wondering if any of the individuals I met thought that I was in that association.  My normal explanation of what I did might have included helping customers with their WANs.  I’ll have to be careful next time!

Wide Area Networks of WANs in our world is more commonly mentioned as the way in which companies connect their different offices, or LANs (Local Area Networks).  Frame Relay was the first widely used, cloud based technology for WAN.  I’m surprised when I come across customers that are still using this, but in some more remote areas it is still the best cost option for transmitting data back and forth.

On a local level many have gone to T-1 point to points.  If the majority of your branches, stores or facilities are within the same LATA, this is the most cost efficient way to run your WAN.  If you need more bandwidth you can double or triple your bandwidth by bonding T-1s with the use of your routers to get 3.0 or 4.5 Mb between locations.  The LECs (Local Exchange Carriers – Qwest, AT&T, Verizon) have made the cost for point to point T-1s so attractive that this is what many customers end up doing.

If your locations are more geographically dispersed and spread out over a larger area, say in 2 or 50 states, you might entertain an MPLS T-1 WAN.  MPLS, of multi protocol label switching is a way to prioritize traffic.  If you want to run voice over your WAN having an MPLS network is critical.  Many businesses today want all of their offices to get dial tone and voice mail access off the main PBX – these customers are having dynamic discussions about their WAN and their WAN operability.  If things aren’t set up properly on the front end, nothing will work correctly.

Within the last 4-5 years the new game for WAN is ethernet.  Without a doubt this is the best way to establish a WAN if you can make it work in your budget.  Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet product has had huge success.  With this offering you can connect your offices nationwide via ports that range from 5 Mb all the way up to 1 Gb (or 1,000 Mb).  The beauty of ethernet is that you’re not putting the burden on the routers like you would if you bonded T’s.  If you’re looking for screaming Internet access check out ELA or Ethernet Lan Access – this is Internet over the QMOE network.  For all things Internet check out my posting from last week.

Both Verizon and AT&T have similar ethernet offerings to Qwest in their respective regions, but carriers like TW Telecom, XO, Integra, and Paetec are beginning to come to life with their EoC or Ethernet over copper products.  If your company is a bit more cost conscious you may want to check out these offerings.  I’ve found a great deal of competence with this technology at the Tier II level.

I have a feeling that ethernet will be the dominant WAN for a great many years to come.  With offerings up to 1 GB on fiber provisions it’s difficult to see what applications will eat into that large bandwidth.  But as time has shown, we’ll create apps that will eat it all up (eventually).