CTS 193: Fortinet @ MOBILITY FIELD DAY 4

We all know Fortinet as a security company, but they also provide wireless products. They actually started to do wireless when their customers asked them to secure their own Wi-Fi Networks. This year at Mobility Field Day 4, they wanted to talk about their overall wireless offering.







If you want to catch back with the presentations and watch them, here are the links you need:



* Fortinet Catching Up with Fortinet: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354230492 * Fortinet SD-Branch: Enabling Securing the WAN & Access Edge: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354230576* Fortinet Securing an IoT World: A Deeper Dive on FortiNAC: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354230739* Fortinet Managing the RF with FortiWLM: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354230876* Fortinet FortiLabs: A Peek Behind the Curtain: https://vimeo.com/showcase/6218644/video/354230955



For more insights from the other delegates, please read the following articles:



* Forti-Much to Appreciate at Mobility Field Day 4 by Lee Badman: https://wirednot.wordpress.com/2019/09/12/forti-much-to-appreciate-at-mobility-field-day-4/ 



Fortinet Presenters: Chris Hinsz, Director, Products and Solutions – Wireless.



In this episode, we talk about some of the interesting topics discussed during the event.















A FortiSolution for Everything!



The Fortinet portfolio is very impressive. It feels like they pretty much do everything! Here is their offering for branch offices that they call “Extended Branch Office”:







In terms of their wireless portfolio, here is a list of some of the thing they support (this list is not exhaustive):



* Wi-Fi 6 APs* Multi-Gig switched with UPoE support* Multiple types of controllers for the Forti-APs (FortiGate, Dedicated Controllers or Cloud)* FortiNAC solution* FortiWLM monitoring solution



I especially like the fact that you can manage the APs from the FortiGate. In smaller networks, it could be an ideal solid solution.







Wi-Fi 6 APs



Fortinet is bringing their new Wi-Fi APs to the market: FortiAP-U431F & FortiAP-U433F. 







And it is also their first tri-radio access point. The access point will actually be able to operate in different modes:







The last mode presented is very interesting. It would allow to use all radios to provide Wi-Fi access service (2 radios for the 5Ghz band and the third one for the 2.4Ghz band). This is something that we don’t often see offered with tri-radio APs. We typically see the third radio used to do some sort of monitoring or testing.







FortiWLM – Managing the RF



FortiWLM is a RF manager that pairs up with the wireless controller. It is used to perform complexe RF investigation.