Technical Tip: Beacon failure or stop issue on the FortiAP-231G/234G models

1. When the FortiAP is in the Beacon stop state, the 'Beacon success' counters remain constant, while the 'Beacon failed' counters increase across all 2.4 GHz VAPs except for the base VAP, as shown below. This results in client disconnections as the WiFi users may not see the SSIDs on the 2.4 GHz band.

Collect the following output about 4 to 5 times and verify whether success counters are constant and failed counters are incrementing:

FortiAP-231G # apstats -v -i wlan01 | grep Beacon
Beacon success = 3382326
Beacon failed = 1106465

FortiAP-231G # apstats -v -i wlan01 | grep Beacon
Beacon success = 3382326
Beacon failed = 1106698

2. Whereas, when the FortiAP radios randomly stop sending beacons on the radios for a brief time (a few seconds) due to channel conditions, the FortiAP may auto-correct itself when the RF is clean - this can be termed as a Beacon miss issue.
   
3. 'iwconfig' output on the FortiAP CLI displays the radio interfaces on the FortiAP, and all the SSIDs in 'wlanXY' format, where X is 0 for 2.4 GHz, 1 for 5 GHz, and 2 for 6 GHz radios. Meanwhile, Y describes the role of the SSID. The following 'apstats' command output on the FortiAP displays the radio interface stats:

iwconfig

apstats -v -i <radio_vap_interface>

4. In the problem state, also collect 'fap-tech' and Q6 Memory dump from the FortiAP.
   
   

5. The beacon failure fixes are now available on the new FortiAP v7.4.6 GA and v7.6.2 build 0972 GA release:

• 1060165: The FAP-231G/233G/234G 2.4GHz radio would stop SSID beaconing.
• 1120173: FAP-23JF/231F 2.4GHz radio would occasionally stop SSID beaconing.
  
  

See the FortiAP 7.6.2 resolved issues - FortiAP 7.6.2 release notes and FortiAP 7.4.6 resolved issues - FortiAP 7.4.6 release notes.