Max user count on Fortiap

[ganesh_karale]

Hi, what should be the per FAP count of user to get better performance.

Is there any document available.

Please guide.

[ebilcari]

As per DS the theoretical limit is "Up to 512 clients per radio" but this will heavily depend on the environment, the type of clients, the connection standard, authentication, network requirements in terms of speed and throughput etc.

[ganesh_karale]

Dear Emirjon, yes as per datasheet it could be upto 512. But many times if there are 30plus clients connected on any radio users starting getting low performance.

So that purpose looking for the document which can be helpful to convey to the customer.

[ebilcari]

I understand your request but as said earlier due to the nature of the WiFi also being very specific to the environment and the connected devices, it's hard to come with a golden rule to calculate the number of connected hosts.

In design guides we may find for example that 2.4 GHz radios with clients connected with 802.11n will offer practical accepted service for up to 25 clients per radio. Adding more or having an old client connected can affect the service for all the clients of that radio.

In newer APs will multiple radios using also the new standards WiFi 5/6, 5/6 GHz channels or the use of MU-MIMO will increase the quality of the service also the number of connected clients per AP.

[mpeddalla]

Hello  @ganesh_karale ,

Thank you for contacting the Fortinet Forum portal.

can you confirm the model of Fortiap which you are using along with the firmware version? So that we can check the datasheet of the AP.

-As earlier confirmed by my colleague the general I think would be 512 clients per radio.

If you would like to limit the number of clients please refer below link:

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortiap/7.4.2/fortiwifi-and-fortiap-configuration-guide/527708/li...

-Additionally, verify if there are any other configuration limitations on bandwidth usage.

-Verify how many users are effected by this is it on a particular SSID or on all SSID profiles they connect?

-Are you using tunnel mode or bridge mode SSID?

-Does this issue persist on windows only devices or mobile or TABLET devices as well ?

Best regards,

Manasa.

If you feel the above steps helped resolve the issue, mark the reply as solved so that other customers can get it easily while searching for similar scenarios.

[ganesh_karale]

Dear Manasa,

Actually, few days back we were working on performance related issue at one customer. Where they were having FP421E v6.4.9, FGT100E v7.0.14. 

Whenever user count on AP goes 35-40, they were starts getting 2/3 digit latency. 

Mostly all the APs having user count more than 30 users.

So, we showcased the issue to TAC and understood that per AP user count is high and we need to increase the number of FAP.

Accordingly, we increased the AP and now it's working fine.

In such case customers may ask for any document etc.. 

So, that's we are looking for any document which will help us to convey the same to customer. 

Also, wanted to understand we need to focus on per AP user count or Per Radio user count. 

Please guide.

[ganesh_karale]

Dear Manasa,

At one customer place we were facing issue of 2/3 digit latency for multiple users.

FGT100E 7.0.14, FP421E 6.4.9

Whenever client count goes up more than 30-40 per AP, users starts getting high latency.

We involved TAC and they confirmed that per AP client count was more and required to increase the number of AP.

Accordingly we increased the APs and post that we didn't observed same issue.

So, for future reference we are looking for any document which will may customer ask.

Also, please confirm whether we need to focus on per AP user count or per Radio user count.

Regards,

Ganesh Karale