LAN Applications - Backbone Networks

A high-speed LAN can be used, as a backbone, to connect several low-speed networks in a organization. For example, low-speed LANs in different buildings on a campus environment can be connected through a high-speed backbone LAN to allow different users in different buildings to be connected to each other. This scheme has many advantages. First of all, it would be too expensive to use one high-speed LAN to connect each individual user and it would be too slow to use one low-speed LAN to do so. In addition, using a backbone improves the reliability of the system; if one of the LANs fails, the rest will continue to function. The load is another issue; using a backbone, we can isolate the load on one network from others.