Wireless WAN

Wireless wide area network(WWAN), is a form ofwireless network. The larger size of awide area networkcompared to alocal area networkrequires differences in technology. Wireless networks of different sizes deliver data in the form of telephone calls, web pages, and video streaming.

A WWAN often differs fromwireless local area network(WLAN) by usingmobile telecommunicationcellular networktechnologies such as2G,3G,4GLTE,and5Gto transfer data. It is sometimes referred asMobile Broadband.These technologies are offered regionally, nationwide, or even globally and are provided by awireless service provider.WWAN connectivity allows a user with a laptop and a WWAN card to surf the web, check email, or connect to avirtual private network(VPN) from anywhere within the regional boundaries of cellular service. Various computers can have integrated WWAN capabilities.

A WWAN may also be a closed network that covers a large geographic area. For example, amesh networkorMANETwith nodes on buildings, towers, trucks, and planes could also be considered a WWAN.

A WWAN may also be a low-power, low-bit-rate wireless WAN, (LPWAN), intended to carry small packets of information betweenthings,often in the form of battery operated sensors.

Sinceradiocommunications systems do not provide a physically secure connection path, WWANs typically incorporate encryption andauthenticationmethods to make them more secure. Some of the early GSM encryption techniques were flawed, and security experts have issued warnings that cellular communication, including WWAN, is no longer secure.UMTS (3G) encryption was developed later and has yet to be broken.

See also

• Private Shared Wireless Network
• Wide area network
• Wireless LAN
• Wi-Fi
• Satellite Internet access