Personal Area Network (PAN) is a computer network that enables communication between computer devices near a person. PANs can be wired, such as USB or FireWire, or they can be wireless, such as infrared, ZigBee, Bluetooth and ultra-wideband, or UWB. The range of a PAN typically is a few meters.
The difference between PANs and other network types like local area networks, wireless local area networks, wide area networks, and metropolitan area networks is that they transmit information between devices that are nearby instead of sending that same data through a LAN or WAN before it reaches something that’s already within reach.
You can use these networks to transfer files, including email, calendar appointments, photos, and music. If you do the transfers wirelessly. Example, using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it’s technically called a WPAN, which is a wireless personal area network.
Technologies Used to Build a PAN:
Personal area networks can be wireless or constructed with cables. USB and FireWire often link together a wired PAN, while WPANs typically use Bluetooth or sometimes infrared connections. An example of a WPAN is using a Bluetooth keyboard you’ve connected to a tablet to control the interface for a nearby smart light bulb.
A printer in a small office or home that connects to a nearby desktop, laptop, or phone is also part of a PAN. The same is true for keyboards and other devices that use IrDA (Infrared Data Association).
A PAN might also contain small, wearable, or embedded devices that can communicate upon nearby contact with other wireless devices. A chip beneath the skin of a finger, for example, that contains your medical data can connect to a computer or chip reader to transmit this information to a doctor.
Advantages of personal area network:
- PAN no extra space requires.
- No need of extra cable and wire.
- Easy connect too many devices at a time.
- Affordable Cost.
- PAN is easy to use.
- It is very reliable.
- This Network is fully secure.
- We can use in office meetings.
- It is use in TV remotes, AC remotes etc.
- Data can synchronize between different devices.
- Easily Portable.
Disadvantages of personal area network:
- Its range is less.
- It interfere is with radio signals.
- Transfer of data is slow.
- It create Health problem.
- Cost is high in terms of communication devices.
- Infrared signals travel only in a straight line
How PAN Work?
Wireless personal area networks cover a range of a few centimetres up to around 10 meters (33 feet). These networks are a particular type of local area networks that support one person instead of a group. Secondary devices in a PAN can connect to and run data through a primary machine. With Bluetooth, such a setup could be as large as 100 meters (330 feet).
PANs can still access the internet under certain conditions. For example, a device within a PAN can connect to a LAN which has access to the internet, which is itself a WAN. In order, each network type is smaller than the next, but all of them can connect.
