IrDA in the context of Serial cable

A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network for interconnecting electronic devices within an individual person's workspace. A PAN provides data transmission among devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and personal digital assistants. PANs can be used for communication among the personal devices themselves, or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet where one master device takes up the role as gateway.

A PAN may be carried over wired interfaces such as USB, but is predominantly carried wirelessly, also called a wireless personal area network (WPAN). A PAN is wirelessly carried over a low-powered, short-distance wireless network technology such as IrDA, Wireless USB, Bluetooth, NearLink or Zigbee. The reach of a WPAN varies from a few centimeters to a few meters. WPANs specifically tailored for low-power operation of the sensors are sometimes also called low-power personal area network (LPPAN) to better distinguish them from low-power wide-area network (LPWAN).

Tethering or phone-as-modem (PAM) is the sharing of a mobile device's cellular data connection with other connected computers. It effectively turns the transmitting device into a modem to allow others to use its cellular network as a gateway for Internet access. The sharing can be done wirelessly over wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth, IrDA or by physical connection using a cable like USB. If tethering is done over Wi-Fi, the feature may be branded as a personal hotspot or mobile hotspot, and the transmitting mobile device would also act as a portable wireless access point (AP) which may also be protected using a password. Tethering over Bluetooth may use the Personal Area Networking (PAN) profile between paired devices, or alternatively the Dial-Up Networking (DUN) profile where the receiving device virtually dials the cellular network APN, typically using the number *99#.