A WAN is a data communications network that covers a relatively broad geographic area and that often uses transmission facilities provided by common carriers, such as telephone companies.
WAN technologies generally function at the lower three layers of the OSI reference model: the physical layer, the data link layer, and the network layer.
WANs use numerous types of devices that are specific to WAN environments.
WANs are used to connect local area networks (LANs) together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations.
X.25 was an important early WAN protocol, and is often considered to be the "grandfather" of Frame Relay as many of the underlying protocols and functions of X.25 are still in use today (with upgrades) by Frame Relay.