Aruba AP-518 data sheet
DATA SHEET
ARUBA 518 SERIES
RUGGEDIZED ACCESS
POINTS
High performance Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) for harsh
weather-protected and indoor environments
The hardened, Aruba 518 Series access point
delivers high Wi-Fi 6 performance in harsh,
weather-protected environments such as
warehouses, industrial freezers or enclosures
in extreme environments such as stadiums. It
delivers 4x4:4SS MU-MIMO capability, Aruba’s
advanced ClientMatch and integrated Bluetooth
toenable Aruba location services.
Purpose-built to survive in the harshest outdoor
environments, 518 Series APs withstand exposure to extreme
high and low temperatures, persistent (non-precipitant)
moisture, and are sealed to keep out airborne contaminants.
All electrical interfaces include industrial strength surge
protection.
Aruba Wi-Fi 6 access points provide high-performance
connectivity in dense mobile and IoT environments. With
maximum aggregate on air data rate of 3 Gbps (HE80/HE40),
the 518 Series APs deliver the speed and reliability needed
for demanding environments.
INCREDIBLE EFFICIENCY
The 518 Series APs are designed to optimize user experience
by maximizing Wi-Fi eciency and dramatically reducing
airtime contention between clients.
Features include Uplink and Downlink Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Downlink Multi-User MIMO
(MU MIMO) and cellular co-location. With up to 4 spatial
stream and 160 MHz channel capability, the 518 provides
groundbreaking wireless capabilities for any application.
Read the Multi-User 802.11ax white paper for further
information.
Channel utilization is optimized per transaction by matching
allocated bandwidth in a channel to the oered user load.
These sub divisions of the channel are referred to as
Resource Units (RU).
Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO)
The 518 Series APs support downlink MU-MIMO similar to
Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac Wave 2) APs. With the introduction OFDMA
in Wi-Fi 6, the overhead for this capability is reduced and
MU-MIMO eectiveness is substantially improved for large
client counts.
Wi-Fi 6 and MU-MIMO aware client optimization
Aruba’s patented AI powered ClientMatch technology ensures
that all clients are attached to their best serving Access Point.
Session metrics, network metrics, applications and client type
are used to identify and maintain the best connection.
Advanced Cellular Coexistence (ACC)
The ACC feature uses built in ltering to automatically
minimize the impact of interference of high power cellular
base stations, in building distributed antenna systems as well
as small cell and femtocell equipment.
Intelligent Power Monitoring (IPM)
Aruba APs continuously monitor and report hardware energy
consumption. APs can be congured to enable or disable
capabilities based on the available PoE power – ideal when
wired switches have exhausted their power budget.
Advantages of OFDMA
This capability allows Aruba Wi-Fi 6 APs to handle multiple
Wi-Fi 6 enabled clients simultaneously on a single radio.
DATA SHEET
ARUBA 518 SERIES RUGGEDIZED ACCESS POINTS
IOT PLATFORM CAPABILITIES
Aruba Wi-Fi 6 APs include an integrated Bluetooth 5 and
802.15.4 radio (for Zigbee support) to simplify deploying and
managing IoT-based location services, asset tracking services,
security solutions and IoT sensors. This allow organizations to
leverage the 518 as an IoT platform, which eliminates the need
for an overlay infrastructure and additional IT resources.
Target Wake Time (T WT)
Ideal for IoT solutions that communicate infrequently,
this Wi-Fi 6 capability allows IoT devices to use 802.11ax
protocol. TWT coordinates with client devices to allow them
to sleep for extended periods and use shorter wake times
to communicate before returning to sleep. This substantially
extends the useful operating life of Wi-Fi 6 based battery
powered sensors.
ARUBA SECURE INFRASTRUCTURE
The 518 Series is an integral part of Aruba’s zero trust security
approach to help protect user authentication and wireless
trac. Select capabilities include:
WPA3 and Enhanced Open
With the introduction of WPA3 and Enhanced Open, a Wi-Fi 6
certied client will never send unencrypted trac over the air.
Even with an open authenticated network, Enhanced Open
still provides strong encryption over the air.
Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
For enhanced device assurance, all Aruba APs have an
installed TPM for secure storage of credentials, keys and boot
code.
SIMPLE AND SECURE ACCESS
To simplify policy enforcement, the Aruba 518 uses
Aruba’sPolicy Enforcement Firewall (PEF) to encapsulate all
trac from the AP to the Mobility Controller (gateway) for
end-to-end encryption and inspection. Policies are applied
based on context including user role, device type, application,
and location. This reduces the manual conguration of SSIDs,
VLANs, and ACLs. PEF also serves as the underlying technology
for Aruba Dynamic Segmentation.
HIGH DENSITY CONNECTIVITY
Each 518 Series AP provides connectivity for a maximum of
512 associated clients per radio (1024 total).
Flexible Operation and Management
A unique feature of Aruba APs is the ability to operate in either
controller-less or controller-based mode.
Controller-less (Instant) Mode
In controller-less mode, one AP serves as a virtual controller
for the entire network. Learn more about Instant mode in this
technology brief.
In all Wi-Fi 6 user sessions, each user is uniquely encrypted
and if they disconnect and reconnect, the encryption changes
from session to session.
WPA 2-MPSK
MPSK enables simpler passkey management for WPA2
devices – should the Wi-Fi password on one device change, no
additional changes are needed for other devices. This feature
is enabled when networks are deployed with ClearPass Policy
Manager.
VPN Tunnels
In Remote AP (RAP) and IAP-VPN deployments, the Aruba 518
can be used to establish a secure SSL/IPSec VPN tunnel to
a Gateway or Mobility Controller that is congured as a VPN
concentrator.
Mobility Controller Mode
For optimized network performance, roaming and security,
APs tunnel all trac to a mobility controller for central
management of trac forwarding, segmentation, encryption,
and policy enforcement. Learn more in the ArubaOS
datasheet.
Management Options
Available management choices includes Aruba Central
(cloud-based) or Aruba AirWave (multi-vendor, on prem)
solutions.
For large installations across multiple sites, Aruba APs can be
shipped and activated with Zero Touch Provisioning through
Aruba Central or AirWave. This reduces deployment time,
centralizes conguration, and provides inventory visibility.
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DATA SHEET
ARUBA 518 SERIES RUGGEDIZED ACCESS POINTS
ADDITIONAL WI-FI FEATURES
Transmit Beamforming (TxBF)
Increased signal reliability and range
Passpoint Release 2
Seamless cellular-to-Wi-Fi carryover for guests
Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS)
Optimized use of available RF spectrum
Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC)
Improved receiver performance for multi antenna access
points.
Cyclic Delay/Shift Diversity (CDD/CSD)
Enable use of multiple transmit antennas
Space-Time Block Coding (STBC)
Increased connection robustness
Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC)
High performance error detection and correction coding for
enhanced receiver performance.
AP-518 SPECIFICATIONS
Hardware Variants
• AP-518
- 5 GHz: Four RP-SMA connectors for external antenna
operation
- 2.4 GHz Two RP-SMA connectors for external antenna
operation
Wi-Fi Radio Specications
• AP type: Indoor Hardened, Wi-Fi 6 dual radio, 5 GHz 4x4
MIMO and 2.4 GHz 2x2 MIMO
• Software-congurable dual radio supports 5 GHz (Radio 0)
and 2.4 GHz (Radio 1)
5 GHz:
• Four spatial stream Single User (SU) MIMO for up to 4.8
Gbps wireless data rate to individual 4SS HE160 Wi-Fi 6
client device (max)
• Two spatial stream Single User (SU) MIMO for up to 1.2
Gbps wireless data rate to individual 2SS HE80 Wi-Fi 6
client device (typical)
• Four spatial stream Multi User (MU) MIMO for up to
4.8 Gbps wireless data rate to up to four 1SS or two
2SS HE160 Wi-Fi 6 DL-MU-MIMO capable client devices
simultaneously (max)
• Four spatial stream Multi User (MU) MIMO for up to
2.4 Gbps wireless data rate to up to four 1SS or two
2SS HE80 Wi-Fi 6 DL-MU-MIMO capable client devices
simultaneously (typical)
2.4 GHz
• Two spatial stream Single User (SU) MIMO for up to
575Mbps wireless data rate to individual 2SS HE40
Wi-Fi 6 client device (max)
• Two spatial stream Single User (SU) MIMO for up to
287Mbps wireless data rate to individual 2SS HE20
Wi-Fi 6 client device (typical)
• Two spatial stream Multi User (MU) MIMO for up to
575Mbps wireless data rate to up to two 1SS HE40
Wi-Fi 6 DL-MU-MIMO capable client devices
simultaneously (max)
• Two spatial stream Multi User (MU) MIMO for up to 287
Mbps wireless data rate to up to two 1SS HE20 Wi-Fi 6 DL-
MU-MIMO capable client devices simultaneously (typical)
• Support for up to 512 associated client devices per radio,
and up to 16 BSSIDs per radio
• Supported frequency bands (country-specic restrictions
apply):
- 2.400 to 2.4835 GHz
- 5.150 to 5.250 GHz
- 5.250 to 5.350 GHz
- 5.470 to 5.725 GHz
- 5.725 to 5.850 GHz
- 5.850 to 5.925 GHz
- 5.825 to 5.875 GHz
• Available channels: Dependent on congured regulatory
domain.
• Dynamic frequency selection (DFS) optimizes the use of
available RF spectrum.
• Supported radio technologies:
- 802.11b: Direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS)
- 802.11a/g/n/ac: Orthogonal frequency-division
multiplexing (OFDM)
- 802.11ax: Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access
(OFDMA) with up to 16 resource units (RU)
• Supported modulation types:
- 802.11b: BPSK, QPSK, CCK
- 802.11a/g/n: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM
(proprietary extension)
- 802.11ac: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM,
1024 QAM (proprietary extension)
- 802.11ax: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM,
1024 QAM
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