Which type of network typically experiences the lowest transmission delay?
LAN
Transmission (propagation) delay is strongly influenced by the physical distance a signal must travel and by the number of intermediate devices it passes through. As a rule, the smaller the geographic area a network covers, the shorter the propagation path and the lower the delay.
Among the given network types, a LAN (Local Area Network) has the lowest transmission delay because:
- It spans a small area — a room, building, or campus (up to a few kilometres) — so signals travel very short distances.
- It uses high-speed links (commonly 1 Gbps or more) with few intermediate hops, keeping latency down to the order of microseconds.
Ranking the options from lowest to highest delay:
The relative delays can be summarised as:
| Network | Coverage | Typical delay |
|---|---|---|
| LAN | Building/campus | Lowest (~microseconds) |
| MAN | City-wide | Moderate |
| WAN | Country/global | High |
| Satellite | Earth-to-orbit-to-Earth | Highest (~250 ms one way for GEO) |
So the MAN covers a whole city and the WAN spans nations, both giving larger delays than a LAN, while a satellite network has the worst delay of all because a geostationary link forces the signal roughly 36,000 km up and back, adding about a quarter of a second each way. The LAN, with the shortest distances, is the clear answer.
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(A) MAN
(B) WAN
(C) LAN
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
______ represents raw facts, whereas ______ is processed meaningful data.
