Types of Networks

 Division based on the communication medium 

• Wired Network: As we all know, “wired” refers to any physical medium made up of cables. Copper wire, twisted pair, or fiber optic cables are all options. A wired network employs wires to link devices to the Internet or another network, such as laptops or desktop PCs.
• Wireless Network: “Wireless” means without wire, media that is made up of electromagnetic waves (EM Waves) or infrared waves. Antennas or sensors will be present on all wireless devices. Cellular phones, wireless sensors, TV remotes, satellite disc receivers, and laptops with WLAN cards are all examples of wireless devices. For data or voice communication, a wireless network uses radio frequency waves rather than wires.

Division based on area covered

• Local Area Network (LAN): A LAN is a network that covers an area of around 10 kilometers. For example, a college network or an office network. Depending upon the needs of the organization, a LAN can be a single office, building, or Campus. We can have two PCs and one printer in-home office or it can extend throughout a company and include audio and video devices. Each host in LAN has an identifier, an address that defines hists in LAN. A packet sent by the host to another host carries both the source host’s and the destination host’s address.
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): MAN refers to a network that covers an entire city. For example: consider the cable television network.
• Wide Area Network (WAN): WAN refers to a network that connects countries or continents. For example, the Internet allows users to access a distributed system called www from anywhere around the globe.WAN interconnects connecting devices such as switches, routers, or modems. A LAN is normally privately owned by an organization that uses it. We see two distinct examples of WANs today: point-to-point WANs and Switched WANs 

          Point To Point: Connects two connecting devices through transmission media. 

          Switched: A switched WAN is a network with more than two ends.

Based on types of communication 

• Point To Point networks: Point-to-Point networking is a type of data networking that establishes a direct link between two networking nodes.
  A direct link between two devices, such as a computer and a printer, is known as a point-to-point connection.
• Multipoint: is the one in which more than two specific devices share links. In the multipoint environment, the capacity of the channel is shared, either spartailly or temporally. If several devices can use the link simultaneously, it is a spatially shared connection. 
• Broadcast networks: In broadcast networks, a signal method in which numerous parties can hear a single sender. Radio stations are an excellent illustration of the “Broadcast Network” in everyday life. The radio station is a sender of data/signal in this scenario, and data is only intended to travel in one direction. Away from the radio transmission tower, to be precise.

Based on the type of architecture 

• P2P Networks: Computers with similar capabilities and configurations are referred to as peers.
  “Peer to Peer” is the abbreviation for “peer to peer.” The “peers” in a peer-to-peer network are computer systems that are connected to each other over the Internet. Without the use of a central server, files can be shared directly between systems on the network.
• Client-Server Networks: Each computer or process on the network is either a client or a server in a client-server architecture (client/server). The client asks for services from the server, which the server provides. Servers are high-performance computers or processes that manage disc drives (file servers), printers (print servers), or network traffic (network servers)
• Hybrid Networks: The hybrid model refers to a network that uses a combination of client-server and peer-to-peer architecture. Example: Torrent.