When discussing home networks personal area network is one of the type of networks. Which is also called PAN. The name only indicates that it is used in an area that is personal or near. The networks that are used within the home or nearer to the device.
This can be derived in another way as,
It is a computer network used for communication among computer devices.
The computer devices can be any devices which may be a phone or tabs like any electronic device one can use. But these electronic devices need to be virtual to one device.
The reach of PAN is only limited to a couple of meters. The gadgets linked to the master device should be closer. PAN can be a wireless or wired connection.
If this is a wired connection then PAN with a wired form is with computer buses which can be USB or Firewire.
For a wireless connection, it is a WPAN (wireless personal area network). It made it possible for network technology. With the help of this network technology the Bluetooth and Irda ( Infrared data association ).
In wireless PAN, we are using IEEE 802.15.
This IEEE 802.15 is the 15th group working in IEEE 802. Which is specialized in wireless PAN standards.
PAN works in an enclosed network or a close area there are applicants as wireless headphone, wireless mouse, laptop, and a phone with the cellular network for WAN access. These applicants are connected with the help of Bluetooth as a common connection. This Bluetooth needs to be active when one wants to make the connection possible such as a laptop with a wireless mouse, cellphone with a wireless headset, etc.
Some task groups of PAN include:
Task group1, consists of a wireless personal area network and Bluetooth. which is having physical layer specifications that are adapted from Bluetooth 1.1 and also a medium access control.
The coexistence, which deals with the coexist of WLAN and WPAN and this is also meant to be task group2.
Task group3 is subdivided into two groups that are WPAN high rate and WPAN alternate high rate. These both are dealing with high rate WPAN standards having 20Mbps or much higher.
WPAN low rate is the task group4 consisting of low rate with long-lasting battery life either in months or in one year.
Define a PAN?
The network which setups to connect with applicants like computer or peripherals and telecom devices with or without any wired connection among them that exists in a short range of communication.
This can also be managed to connect one smartphone with www.
With or without any cabling or infrastructure cost the WPAN ease the point to point connection or direct connection with the devices.
Examples of Personal Area Network (PAN)
When a person moves all alone by himself or herself with a created connection along with him or her and can be traveled anywhere with that connected network is nothing but a body area network. Which means the network moves with a person.
The network does not connect with any internet access like Wi-fi and the network created in a small environment like a house where a printer and multiple such devices get connected is known as a house network or an offline network.
The small home office network will be used to connect various such devices for office motive or work purposes to the internet and these cooperate using a VPN.
How does PAN work?
Let us consider a wireless client device like a computer or laptop and the peripheral with a printer which is wireless enabled. These both are connected in the form of Bluetooth within the 1-meter distance by making use of NFC ( near field communication).
And another way of connection can be possible with 10 meters, with the help of smart speakers like Alexa.
With the support of Alexa, numerous devices can get connected. For eg., devices like LED, kindle, headset, keyboard, and a wireless mouse. So, the connection is made possible up to 1 to 10 meters or 30 feet.
Some of the protocols are associated with WPAN technology are Bluetooth and Zigbee. The data transfer speeds in the range of 1-3 Mbps or even higher.
IEEE 802.15.4:
IEEE 802.15.4 is a low rate WPAN (LR-WPAN) having a bandwidth of 2.4 GHz often so it is having 5 MHz channels. From 250kbps, only 50kbps application data rate was reached. 64 bits extended unique ID is associated with every node (EUI-64). The 64 bits are in the form of, 1bit for unicast or multicast, 1 bit for global or local, 22 bits for OUI (organizationally unique identifier), and 40bits are assigned by the manufacturer. In this manner, 64 bits are obtained.
The max MAC frame size of IEEE 802.15.4 is 127 bytes with a payload of 77 and more bytes and doesn’t have any segmentation and reassembly in it.
Bluetooth:
Used in the short range of communication in wireless technology with 2.4 GHz to 2.485 GHz of a radio frequency band within a 100 meters range and data rate of 1-3 max per second.
Zigbee:
Zigbee is stated with a high-level suite of communication protocol which is commonly used and referred to create a PAN with small and low-power digital radios.
The applications of Zigbee are home entertainment and control, building automation, medical collection, industrial control, and a wireless network.
This operates in a frequency of 2.4 GHz on 16 channels by reaching and transferring up to 350Kbps of speed with a maximum range of 100 meters.
Types of Personal Area Network (PAN) Network
As we have discussed above, the PAN network is maintaining two types of networks defined as, wired and wireless networks.
The wired will be having the USB cable or firewire and can also make use of the base station.
The wireless connection is where the nearby multiple devices get connected to the main device or a master device using tools like Bluetooth, Irda, and also Zigbee.
Features of PAN:
On the whole, only personal devices get connected likewise in home and office. That too only nearby devices.
Have limited space or area between the devices.
It allows and handles the multiple links for the devices through a single user that may be a master device.
Peripherals like a wireless mouse and keyboard, the cordless mic can be supported.
Like all the networking devices Pan too uses the same devices like laptops, tabs, and mobile phones.
It is cost-effective and Bluetooth is also embedded in smartphones.
Consumption of power is low.
Technology in PAN network:
WPAN technologies are having,
1)Insteon
2)IR
3)wireless universal serial bus
4)Z-wave
5)BSN or body area network
Insteon which is also called domotics. Domotics is home automatic systems making use of devices such as thermostats, switches, leak sensors, and motion sensors. Leak sensors are used when there is a particular leak in some device and it automatically identifies where the particular leak was or in which section the particular leak was active. So, these Insteon are meant to be home automatic systems.
It operates with RF (radio frequency) or power lines or with both RF and power lines. These employes dual mesh networking topology, In this each device or each node that participates in this type of technology will be self transmitting and self receiving the message. That is if there is one device that is present in the network it will be transmitting the message to another device and also it can receive from other devices so that means there is no other centralized control between the devices.
And it has some native clients on iOS, watches, androids, and windows operating system. So, with these operating systems, one can access instant technology.
IR (infrared), is invisible electromagnetic radiation in comparison with visible light the EM radiation has a longer wavelength. Used in ISM applications. which means industrial scientific and medical applications.
WUSB, based on IPv6 technology (internet protocol version6). Which is a device that we plug into another device like the laptops and computers and possibly through this one can access the wireless keyboard or the mouse.
A low range of wireless radio communication protocol.
This was created by the WUSB promoter group. Data speeds up to 480Mbps in a reach of 3 meters.
For longer distances, it can be up to 10 meters with a data speed of 100Mbps. And this operates up to 3.1 to 10.6 Gigabits frequency range.
A G-wave or a Z-wave is developed by the Zensys group. It is a wireless communication protocol used in remote control apps. In our houses themselves, the various devices are enabled with an infrared blaster. If we want any of the TV set up with remote access we make use of this Z-wave technology.
Used in low power radio frequency in electronic devices, lighting, and household appliances. It can be operated locally using a smart speaker using a wireless key fob device or can have a wall-mounted panel with Z-wave that means the panel consisting of the gateway which serves as a hub and through this hub the devices can be accessed and can also control them via some portal that is mounted outside or inside the house.
And this operates in 800 to 900 MHz within the range of 100 meters.
Body sensor network or wireless ban or MBAN ( medical body area network ) which is mainly used in the medical applications where those are a requirement to major monitoring. It is a wireless device that can be worn. Ban devices are embedded within the body and are carried around in pockets or on hands.
It mainly consists of body sensor units(BSU) and (BCU) body control units. These BSU’s are controlled by the bodies.
A large-sized tab and pad smart device act as a data hub and data gateway to provide the user interface (UI) to view and control BAN applications.
Advantages of PAN
Wire requirement, It is unnecessary to panic about floor space or about wire or cable management. So there is no need to fret for the users. There are fewer usages of wires and no extra cables.
Bluetooth should be enabled for linking the devices. It is cost-efficient or economically available.
The device connectivity is excellent in that a single device is made available to many devices simultaneously.
File sharing is convenient by receiving the acknowledgments when the devices are connected.
This is more secure than other networks. If it is around 10 meters range the PAN network is stable and reliable when there is an establishment of the connection.
Synchronization is attainable between devices by exchanging downloading and also by upload of data.
PAN achieves portability if it is wireless.
Disadvantages of PAN
As the coverage area is limited so it won’t be working after the range of 10 meters. This type of drawback is taken into consideration if a user wants a long-range of communication.
There are several disturbances in communication devices and the data leak is experienced in PAN networks when the infrared rays get to interfere with radio signals.
The infrared and Bluetooth are having moderate so that the data transfer in Pan networks is slower when compared with other types of networks.
Infrared signals give service only in a straight line this can be observed in Tv and remote example.
The microwave signals are liberated from the PAN networks during its wireless working which may cause several health troubles.
Security in PAN:
What’s more concerning when coming to the security of devices while using this network?
As the devices are nearer and places closer, there is trust between two users and acknowledges personally too. And when the user wants to connect via Bluetooth with the new device the pair up will be popped up to connect them.
when if and only the allowance is given then the pair up can be done and also for transferring the data is secure as the receiver device will be notified if there is a file transfer if it is allowed and authorized then the transfer can be done and also both the parties will receive the acknowledgment So one can say that this type of network is better than others.
But the vulnerability can occur even the devices or the users are authorized. This can happen when one of the devices is already infected or hacked or monitored by someone or sometimes the infected files can also be received this may cause the user’s data or information leakage.
Listed some difference between LAN and PAN:
LAN:
- LAN is entitled to a local area network.
- It is used for data transfer.
- It connects small areas in a network.
- Utilized in a particular building or office.
- Have a high bandwidth for transferring the packet or data.
- Generally granted to an individual or an organization and cost for set up is low.
- It covers the range of 100 to 1000meters which is greater than PAN.
PAN:
- PAN is entitled to a personal area network.
- It is used for data transfer.
- It connects personal areas in a network that is within the home.
- Utilized when devices are closer or in a small room.
- Have a low bandwidth for transferring the packet or data.
- Only granted to an individual and cost for set up is low.
- It covers the range of 10meters which is lower than LAN.
Summary:
The idea of PAN is drawn from a researcher named Thomas Zimmerman. The goal and aim is about providing the network personally to the devices.For a short distance range of network the personal area networking was developed with IEEE standards of 802.15 by a working group. And this came into force in 1999.
Making it economically efficient and widely useful for every user by forming trust based system.
Second Explanation of Personal Area network (PAN)
Personal Area Network is basically concerned with the individual’s working network used to interconnecting gadgets like computers, mobile phones, tablets, laptops etc. For the transmission of data or information, PAN can be used for personal use only to communicate or to connect to the higher-level network also and networking on Internet where the one server or main device connecting all the other devices like a gateway. PAN may be both wired or wireless.
A WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) is carried for the short-distance low powered wireless network technology such as Bluetooth, wireless USB or ZigBee. The reach distance of a WPAN may vary from a few centimetres to a few metres. In wireless PAN, there is not any type of cable connection everything works wirelessly.
Now, we can talk about Bluetooth. So, Bluetooth is used in WLAN worked on short-range waves. Some Bluetooth devices are headphones, speakers, mouse, keyboards, printers etc. It is also called Piconet in which the first device is the master and all others are known as slaves.
The range and many devices expanded by using the technique of mesh network to connect one device to another with Bluetooth mesh networking. This type of devices does not require master slaves and may not have WLAN. Firstly, PAN was introduced by Thomas Zimmerman, a research scientist.
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Working of PAN:
Personal Area Network normally covers an area of 30 feet to connect devices. PC devices may be laptops, palmtops, netbooks and also a mobile phone. These devices of personal help a person to communicate, to write messages, and to browse while travelling. It uses both technologies wired or wireless. PAN uses three technologies WPAN, Bluetooth and also Infrared technology to transfer or transmit its wireless signals. In this area, rapid and fast development is needed for developing a perfectly consistent network between personal devices and office.
Advantages of Personal Area Network
- Cost-Effective
PAN is considered a cost-effective network technology as there is not any type of wire or cable. No extra data charges are applicable to browse the internet. It is cheaper than any other network technology.
- Secure
This network is also more secure than any other network. It is very secured because every devices or signal are authorised before sharing that data or file. In this, it is impossible to hacking devices or any third-party interference.
- Many devices are connected at a single point of time
Many devices are interconnected with each other at the same time in PAN. You can connect a mobile phone with more than one device like any other mobile, keyboard, printer etc. That’s why your data or file is shared to many at the same time.
- Reliable
This type of network is more reliable or stable if it is used within 10 metres of range by you.
Disadvantages of Personal Area Network
- Health Problems
PAN release harmful rays or signals in many cases from its wireless devices. These signals can harm birds, animals and humans too. As a result, it can cause many health diseases or brain problems.
- Travelling of Infrared signals in a single line only
This is one more disadvantage of PAN that it can work in a straight line. For example, TV remote works when it is faced straight towards television otherwise it could not work properly.
- Slow Data Transfer
This type of network technology had a slow speed of transferring data from one device to another. Bluetooth share file in slow speed as compared to any other network like LAN.
- Less Distance Range
One more disadvantage rises up for PAN and its really matter that PAN has only 10 metres of range to transfer data. It makes a limitation for long-distance data sharing.
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