A Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is a type of network that spans over an area larger than a building. MANs are common at universities and other places where the network is too big to be considered as a Local Area Network. MANs were originally meant to span a city (which is the reason for its name), but large companies and universities also use this definition of their network, due to its size.

A MAN is commonly used for connecting LANs (i.e. connect the LANs of each building in a campus). These MANs frequently use optical fibres, and when used in a city, running cables through subway-tunnels is a popular solution.

NOTE: A MAN is not the same as a WAN!