What is actually... single-channel technology?

On the way home, you have to go through the usual bulky after-work traffic. There is a traffic jam and you make slow progress. The journey home is delayed. But let's imagine that each car had its own lane and could pull along this route at any speed, similar to single-channel technology. While WLAN Kanalüberschneidungen and the WLAN Signal-Rauschabstand make it difficult for us to send and receive our digital information, single-channel technology allows us to avoid these problems or reduce them.

How does single-channel technology work?

The architecture of single-channel technology is similar to that of virtual cells. All access points identify themselves with the same MAC address. A central WLAN controller manages the APs and coordinates them so that they do not interfere with each other. This makes the access points act like one large cell.
To reduce channel overlaps, you can also have several such single-channel bubbles working side by side in your company, but for this each cell needs its own MAC address and channel. Single-channel technology makes it possible to bypass channel congestion, which can be particularly advantageous in larger office buildings with high AP density. Networking the access points also reduces overlapping signal ranges.

What are the advantages of single-channel technology?

If you use or want to use VoIP in your company, single-channel technology offers the possibility of assigning different access points to the individual clients in order to make more bandwidth available.
Another advantage is that its area coverage means that there is no handover time for the clients when they leave the range of one AP and enter the range of another access point in your network. In other words, since the client is always in the same network, it does not have to authenticate itself with each new AP and you have uninterrupted communication within your network. Normally, by using single-channel technology, the signal-to-noise ratio (SRA) within your network should be eliminated. In some cases, however, the SRA is only reduced.

Which access points use single-channel technology?

The leading manufacturer of APs with single-channel technology was Meru Networks, as they patented single-channel technology early in its development. In 2015, Meru Networks was acquired by Fortinet Networks. Their technology was integrated into the in-house access points. In the meantime, most Meru access points are discontinued models, but their technology is built into the Fortinet U series. The single-channel technology can be used with a FortiWLC.

These access points belong to Fortinet's U series:

• FortiAP U221EV
• FortiAP U223EV
• FortiAP U321EV
• FortiAP U323EV
• FortiAP U421EV-E
• FortiAP U423EV-E
• FortiAP U431F
• FortiAP U433F