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FortiExtender: Secure LTE Wireless WAN Extender
Providing LTE Connectivity for Reliable Broadband Access to the Internet
Less Than 99% Is Never Acceptable
The number of connected devices organizations need to manage is growing rapidly, and new technologies such as SD-WAN and 5G are transforming the way businesses operate. Establishing and maintaining internet connectivity across an increasingly distributed environment is critical for business execution and competitiveness, but it can be a challenge for conventional networking approaches. These challenges include:
- Networks are sprawling and the number of connected devices is growing
- Continuous connectivity is critical for business continuity and competitiveness
- Cable/DSL also offers less than 99.999% uptime—and it can’t be deployed everywhere
- MPLS networks are costly and not scalable for current business needs
Extend Connectivity and Improve Network Availability
Deploying a secondary WAN connection helps ensure connectivity. The FortiExtender appliance uses LTE connectivity and the cellular infrastructure to provide broadband speeds that can be used in a failover or load-balancing configuration. For those locations without wired broadband options, FortiExtender can also serve as the primary Internet connection, enabling reliable connectivity for heavy-branch, remote, and mobile networks.
FortiExtender can also be leveraged to extend the Fortinet Security Fabric and other existing network infrastructure investments in a way the Cable/DSL simply cannot support. And with FortiExtender Cloud, organizations can centrally manage geo-distributed appliances and the networks they connect to.
Flexible Deployment and Manageability
FortiExtender offers a wide range of flexible deployment and management options, providing infrastructure leaders with the option to manage appliances using Fortinet’s FortiGate NGFW, FortiExtender Cloud, or locally at the appliance level.
Product Details
FortiExtender provides a reliable WAN connection to a firewall, such as a FortiGate, using the cellular LTE infrastructure, 3G, 4G, and 5G (planned). These connections are commonly used as a second broadband connection for reliability or increased throughput. But those businesses that want to use multiple WAN connections, including for SD-WAN, can also use FortiExtender for one of those WAN links. Another common use for FortiExtender is to deploy it as a primary connection for a location where cellular LTE is the preferred broadband option. Retail stores or kiosks processing point-of-sales (POS) transaction might also opt for a highly secure LTE network to meet PCI compliance requirements. FortiExtender can also be managed independently, using an attached FortiGate or through the FortiExtender Cloud service.