What Does 'Public WAN (Wide Area Network)' Mean?

A public wide area network (WAN) is a type of telecommunications network that is designed to connect multiple locations together over a large geographical area, such as a state or country. These networks typically use the public internet or a combination of the public internet and private connections to transmit data between locations.

Public WANs can be used to connect a company’s different offices, retail locations, or other facilities and are often used to support remote workers, telecommuting, and other forms of mobile or distributed work. Because they rely on the public internet, public WANs are usually less secure than private WANs, which use dedicated connections to transmit data.

More information

A key benefit of using a public WAN is its ease of deployment, making it a convenient solution for connecting remote locations. Because they rely on the public internet, public WANs do not require the deployment of specialized infrastructure, like leased lines or private fiber networks, which can be expensive and time-consuming to install. Additionally, public WANs are normally less expensive than private WANs since the organization does not have to pay for dedicated telecommunications connections.

However, public WANs also have some disadvantages. One is that they can be less secure than private WANs, since data transmitted over the public internet is vulnerable to eavesdropping, hacking, and other forms of malicious activity. To mitigate this, many organizations will use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or other forms of encryption and authentication to secure the data that is transmitted over a public WAN.

Another disadvantage is that public WANs can be less reliable than private WANs since the quality of the public internet can vary greatly depending on the location and time of day. This means that the performance and availability of a public WAN can be more unpredictable than those of a private WAN. To minimize these issues, organizations frequently use Quality of Service (QoS) protocols to prioritize certain categories of traffic, such as voice or video, over others.

Conclusion

Public WANs are generally used by organizations that have multiple locations and need to connect them in order to share data and resources. They can be used to connect a company’s main office with branch offices, remote workers, or other facilities.