FortiAP units

FortiAP units are thin wireless access points are controlled by either a FortiGate unit or FortiCloud service. FortiAP is a family of Indoor, Outdoor and Remote Access Point models supporting the latest single, dual, and triple stream MIMO 802.11ac and 802.11n technology, as well as 802.11g and 802.11a.

For large deployments, some FortiAP models support a mesh mode of operation in which control and data backhaul traffic between APs and the controller are carried on a dedicated WiFi network. Users can roam seamlessly from one AP to another.

In dual-radio models, each radio can function as an AP or as a dedicated monitor. The monitoring function is also available during AP operation, subject to traffic levels.

The Products section of the Fortinet web site (www.fortinet.com) provides detailed information about the FortiAP models that are currently available.

 

 

Automatic Radio Resource Provisioning

To prevent interference between APs, the FortiOS WiFi Controller includes the Distributed Automatic Radio Resource Provisioning (DARRP) feature. Through DARRP, each FortiAP unit autonomously and periodically determines the channel that is best suited for wireless communications. FortiAP units to select their channel so that they do not interfere with each other in large-scale deployments where multiple access points have overlapping radio ranges.

 

To enable ARRP – GUI

1. Go to WiFi Controller > FortiAP Profiles and edit the profile for your device.

2. In the Radio sections (Radio 1, Radio 2, etc.), enable Radio Resource Provision.

3. Click OK.

 

To enable ARRP – CLI

In this example, ARRP is enabled for both radios in the FAP321C-default profile:

 

config wireless-controller wtp-profile edit FAP321C-default

config radio-1

set darrp enable end

config radio-2

set darrp enable

end end

 

Setting ARRP timing

By default, ARRP optimization occurs at a fixed interval of 1800 seconds (30 minutes). You can change this interval in the CLI. For example, to change the interval to 3600 seconds enter:

config wireless-controller timers set darrp-optimize 3600

end

 

Optionally, you can schedule optimization for fixed times. This enables you to confine ARRP activity to a low- traffic period. Setting darrp-optimize to 0, makes darrp-day and darrp-time available. For example, here’s how to set DARRP optimization for 3:00am every day:

 

config wireless-controller timers set darrp-optimize 0

set darrp-day sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday set darrp-time 03:00

end

Both darrp-day and darrp-time can accept multiple entries.