Definition

PAN (Personal Area Network) – short-range, where distances can be measured in meters, such as a wearable fitness tracker device that communicates with an app on a cell phone over BLE.
LAN – (Local Area Network) – short- to medium-range, where distances can be up to hundreds of meters, such as home automation or sensors that are installed within a factory production line that communicate over wifi with a gateway device that is installed within the same building.
WAN – (Wide Area Network) – long-range, where distances can be measured in kilometers

Range of Values

  • PAN – Bluetooth, Zigbee, Powerline Ethernet
  • LAN – WiFi
  • WAN – Cellular, LPWA, Satellite