Introduction of Home Area Network (HAN)

Home Area Network (HAN) is a network in a user’s home where all the laptops, computers, smartphones, and other smart appliances and digital devices are connected into a network. This facilitates communication among the digital devices within a home which are connected to the Home network. Home Area Network may be wired or wireless. Mostly wireless network is used for HAN. One centralized device is there for the function of Network Address Translation (NAT). This Home Area Network enables communication and sharing of resources between the smart devices over a network connection. 

Example – Think about a home where computers, printers, game systems and tablets, smartphones, other smart appliances are connected to each other through wired or wireless over a network is an example of Home Area Network.

Infrastructure of HAN :

• A modem is used which is provided by an ISP to expose Ethernet to WAN. In homes they comes in DSL modem or cable modem.
• A router is used to manage connection between Home Area Network (HAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN).
• A wireless access point is used for connecting wireless digital devices to the network.
• Smart Devices/ Digital Devices are used to connect to the Home Area Network.

Devices connected in HAN –

• Laptop and Computers
• Smart Phones
• Network Printers
• Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices
• Security Alarms
• Smart TV & Bulbs
• Smart speakers
• Garage door and gate openers
• Media Players or Streaming Devices etc

Advantages of Home Area Network (HAN) :

1. Accessibility – Home area Network gives better accessibility for the devices in the network for accessing internet connection.
2. Resources sharing – Resources on the network can be shared over the network. For example, if you want to share a video file from your computer to smart television that’s very using HAN.
3. Security – Home Area Network provides better security as it is enabled with security software, passwords etc which protects it from unauthorized access.
4. Management – All the devices/appliances connected to the home network are easy to manage and can be controlled the user’s little effort.
5. Maintenance – Once a home network is set up, it does not require frequent maintenance with a little care and monitoring it works well.
6. Multiuser – Home Area Network allows to work multiple users in that home without any problem. All members can work simultaneously as per their requirements.
7. Comfort Life – This network connects all the devices to a single network, and with the addition of IoT technology, everything becomes automatic where it provides a better comfort lifestyle to the human being.

Disadvantages of Home Area Network (HAN) :

1. Expensive – Set up of HAN is a little bit expensive because it requires smart devices and appliances to work in the network. For example, it requires Laptops, Smart Television, Smart Washing machines, smartphones, etc.
2. Slow Connectivity – When all the users of the home use shared Home Area Network, they may face slow internet speed. For example, when anyone is downloading a high volume file by taking a high amount of internet during that others may feel slow down in internet speed.
3. High Security – It requires high security otherwise if an attacker targets any device and enters the Home network then they may steal important data from the laptop also as all the devices are connected to each other and work on a shared network.