HPE Aruba AP-555 Access Point

Aruba Wi-Fi 6 access points provide high-performance connectivity for any organization experiencing growing numbers of IoT and mobility requirements. With a combined peak datarate of up to 5.37Gbps, the 550 Series deliver the speed and reliability needed for any enterprise

KEY FEATURES

• Up to 5.37Gbps combined peak datarate
• WPA3 and Enhanced Open security
• Built-in technology that resolves sticky client issues for Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 devices
• OFDMA and MU-MIMO for enhanced multi-user efficiency
• IoT-ready Bluetooth 5, NFC, and Zigbee support
• Optional tri-radio mode with two 5GHz and one 2.4Ghz radio (4x4 MIMO)
• Embedded ranging technology for accurate indoor location measurements

INCREDIBLE EFFICIENCY

The 550 Series APs are also designed to optimize user experience by maximizing Wi-Fi efficiency and dramatically reducing airtime contention between clients.

Features include Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), bi-directional multi-user MIMO and cellular optimization. With optional tri-radios, up to 4 spatial streams (4SS) and 160MHz channel bandwidth, the 550 Series provides groundbreaking wireless capabilities for any enterprise.

Read the Multi-User 802.11ax white paper for further information.

Advantages of OFDMA

This capability allows Aruba’s APs to handle multiple Wi-Fi 6 capable clients on each channel simultaneously, regardless of device or traffic type. Channel utilization is optimized by handling each transaction via smaller sub-carriers or resource units (RUs), which means that clients are sharing a channel and not competing for airtime and bandwidth.

The following table highlights the number of available resources units per Wi-Fi Channel used: 

Aruba Air Slice™ for Extended Application Assurance

Initially, APs in controller-less mode (Instant) can provide SLA-grade performance by allocating radio resources, such as time, frequency, and spatial streams, to specific traffic types. By combining Aruba’s Policy Enforcement Firewall (PEF) and Layer 7 deep packet inspection (DPI) to identify user roles and applications, the APs will dynamically allocate the bandwidth needed. Non-Wi-Fi 6 clients can also benefit.

Air Slice™ for APs uses Aruba Central for management.

Controller-based APs will be supported in a future software release.

Bi-directional Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO)

Similar to downlink MU-MIMO in Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac Wave 2), the 550 Series can simultaneously connect clients use downlink – and now – uplink spatial streams. The added benefit is the ability to multiply the number of clients that can now send traffic, thus optimizing client-to-AP spatial stream diversity. 

Wi-Fi 6 and MU-MIMO aware client optimization

Aruba’s patented AI-powered ClientMatch technology eliminates sticky client issues by placing Wi-Fi 6 capable devices on the best available AP. Session metrics are used to steer mobile devices to the best AP based on available bandwidth, types of applications being used and traffic type – even as users roam.

Aruba Advanced Cellular Coexistence (ACC)

This feature uses built-in filtering to automatically minimize the impact of interference from cellular networks, distributed antenna systems (DAS), and commercial small cell or femtocell equipment.

Intelligent Power Monitoring (IPM)

Aruba APs continuously monitor and report hardware energy consumption. They can also be configured to enable or disable capabilities based on available PoE power – ideal when wired switches have exhausted their power budget.

IOT PLATFORM CAPABILITIES

Like all Aruba Wi-Fi 6 APs, the 550 Series includes 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. It also enables NFC to easily display AP status information and streamline deployment. This allows organizations to leverage the 550 Series as an IoT platform, which eliminates the need for an overlay infrastructure and additional IT resources.

Target Wake Time (TWT)

Ideal for IoTs that communicate infrequently, TWT establishes a schedule for when clients need to communicate with an AP. This helps improve client power savings and reduces airtime contention with other clients.

FOUNDATION FOR ACCURATE INDOOR LOCATION

Aruba APs act as a foundation for accurate indoor location so that location-aware services can be deployed at scale. Using embedded GPS receivers, Aruba Wi-Fi 6E APs are able   to self-locate and work with Wi-Fi 6 APs to establish reference points that can be used to accurately determine indoor client location.

Because they use universal latitude and longitude coordinates, there is no need for custom map development or to create separate applications for indoor and outdoor environments.

ARUBA SECURE INFRASTRUCTURE

The Aruba 550 Series includes components of Aruba’s 360 Secure Fabric to help protect user authentication and wireless traffic. Select capabilities include:

WPA3 and Enhanced Open

Support for stronger encryption and authentication is provided via the latest version of WPA for enterprise protected networks. Enhanced Open offers seamless new protection for users connecting to open networks where each session is automatically encrypted to protect user passwords and data on guest networks.

WPA2-MPSK

MPSK enables simpler passkey management for WPA2 devices – should the Wi-Fi password on one device or device type change, no additional changes are needed for other devices. Requires ClearPass Policy Manager.

VPN Tunnels

In Remote AP (RAP) and IAP-VPN deployments, the Aruba 550 Series can be used to establish a secure SSL/IPSec VPN tunnel to a Mobility Controller that is acting as a VPN concentrator.

Trusted Platform Module (TPM)

For enhanced device assurance, all Aruba APs have an installed TPM for secure storage of credentials and keys, and boot code.

SIMPLE AND SECURE ACCESS

To simplify policy enforcement, the Aruba 550 Series uses Aruba’s policy enforcement firewall (PEF) feature to encapsulate all traffic from the AP to the Mobility Controller (or Gateway) for end-to-end encryption and inspection. Policies are applied based on user role, device type, applications, and location. This reduces the manual configuration of SSIDs, VLANs and ACLs. PEF also serves as the underlying technology for Aruba Dynamic Segmentation.

HIGH-DENSITY CONNECTIVITY

Like the 530 Series AP, each 550 Series AP provides connectivity for a maximum of 1024 associated clients per radio (2048 in total). In real-world scenarios, the maximum recommended client density is dependent on environmental conditions.

FLEXIBLE OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT

A unique feature of Aruba APs is the ability to operate in either controllerless (Instant) or controller-based mode.

Controller-less (Instant) mode

In controllerless mode, one AP serves as a virtual controller for the entire network. Learn more about Instant mode in this technology brief.

Mobility Controller mode

For optimized network performance, roaming and security, APs tunnel all traffic to a mobility controller for centrally managed traffic forwarding and segmentation, data encryption, and policy enforcement. Learn more in the ArubaOS datasheet.

Management options

Available management solutions include Aruba Central (cloudmanaged) or Aruba AirWave – a multi-vendor on-premises management solution.

For large installations across multiple sites, APs can be factory shipped and can be activated with Zero Touch Provisioning through Aruba Central or AirWave. This reduces deployment time, centralizes configuration, and helps manage inventory.

ADDITIONAL WI-FI FEATURES

Each AP also includes the following standards-based technologies:

Transmit beamforming (TxBF)

Increased signal reliability and range

Passpoint Wi-Fi (Release 2) (Hotspot 2.0)

Seamless cellular-to-Wi-Fi carryover for guests

Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS)

Optimized use of available RF spectrum

Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC)

Improved receiver performance

Cyclic Delay/Shift Diversity (CDD/CSD)

Greater downlink RF performance

Space-Time Block Coding

Increased range and improved reception

Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC)

High-efficiency error correction for increased throughput

SPECIFICATIONS

Hardware variants

AP-555: Internal antenna models

Wi-Fi radio specifications

• AP type: Indoor, dual/tri-radio, 5GHz and 2.4GHz 802.11ax 4x4 MIMO
• 5GHz radio (dual-radio operation): Eight spatial stream Single User (SU) MIMO for up to 4.8Gbps wireless data rate with individual 8SS HE80 (or 4SS HE160) 802.11ax client devices, or with eight 1SS or four 2SS HE80 802.11ax MU-MIMO capable client devices simultaneously
• 5GHz radio (tri-radio operation): Four spatial stream Single User (SU) MIMO for up to 2.4Gbps wireless data rate with individual 4SS HE80 (or 2SS HE160) 802.11ax client devices, or with four 1SS or two 2SS HE80 802.11ax MU-MIMO capable client devices simultaneously
• 2.4GHz radio: Four spatial stream Single User (SU) MIMO for up to 1,147Mbps (574Mbps) wireless data rate with individual 4SS HE40 (HE20) 802.11ax client devices or with two 2SS HE40 (HE20) 802.11ax MU-MIMO capable client devices simultaneously
• Both downlink and uplink MU-MIMO in 5GHz, downlink only in 2.4GHz
• Support for up to 1,024 associated client devices per radio, and up to 16 BSSIDs per radio
• Supported frequency bands (country-specific restrictions apply):
  • 2.400 to 2.4835GHz (radio 1) ISM
  • 5.150 to 5.250GHz (radio 0 and 0L) U-NII-1
  • 5.250 to 5.350GHz (radio 0 and 0L) U-NII-2A
  • 5.470 to 5.725GHz (radio 0 and 0U) U-NII-2C
  • 5.725 to 5.850GHz (radio 0 and 0U) U-NII-3
• Available channels: Dependent on configured 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 37 resource units (for an 80MHz channel)*
• 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
  • 802.11n high-throughput (HT) support: HT20/40
  • 802.11ac very high throughput (VHT) support: VHT20/40/80/160
  • 802.11ax high efficiency (HE) support: HE20/40/80/160
• Supported data rates (Mbps):
  • 802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11
  • 802.11a/g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54
  • 802.11n: 6.5 to 600 (MCS0 to MCS31, HT20 to HT40), 800 with 256-QAM
  • 802.11ac: 6.5 to 1,733 (MCS0 to MCS9, NSS = 1 to 4, VHT20 to VHT160), 2,166 with 1024-QAM
  • 802.11ax (2.4GHz): 3.6 to 1,147 (MCS0 to MCS11, NSS = 1 to 4, HE20 to HE40)
  • 802.11ax (5GHz): 3.6 to 4,804 (MCS0 to MCS11, NSS = 1 to 8, HE20 to HE160)
  • 802.11n/ac/ax packet aggregation: A-MPDU, A-MSDU
• Transmit power: Configurable in increments of 0.5dBm
• Maximum (aggregate, conducted total) transmit power (limited by local regulatory requirements):
  • 2.4GHz band: +24dBm (18dBm per chain)
  • 5GHz band: +27dBm in dual-radio mode, +24dBm in triradio mode (18dBm per chain)
  • Note: conducted transmit power levels exclude antenna gain. For total (EIRP) transmit power, add antenna gain.
• Advanced Cellular Coexistence (ACC) minimizes the impact of interference from cellular networks
• Maximum ratio combining (MRC) for improved receiver
• Low-density parity check (LDPC) for high-efficiency error correction and increased throughput
• Transmit beam-forming (TxBF) for increased signal reliability and range
• 802.11ax Target Wait Time (TWT) to support low-power client devices

Wi-Fi antennas

• Integrated downtilt omni-directional antennas for 4x4 MIMO in 2.4GHz with peak antenna gain of 4.3dBi, and 8x8 MIMO in 5GHz with peak antenna gain of 5.8dBi in 5GHz. In tri-radio mode, the peak gain of the antennas for each of the 4x4 5GHz radios is 5.5dBi (radio 0L, lower half of 5GHz) and 5.6dBi (radio 0U, upper half of 5GHz). Built?in antennas are optimized for horizontal ceiling mounted orientation of the AP. The downtilt angle for maximum gain is roughly 30 degrees.
  • A mix of horizontally and vertically polarized antenna elements is used
  • Combining the patterns of each of the antennas of the MIMO radios, the peak gain of the combined, average pattern is 2.4dBi in 2.4GHz and 2.0dBi in 5GHz (dual-radio mode).
  • In tri-radio mode, the peak gain of the combined, average pattern is 2.7dBi (radio 0L, lower half of 5GHz) and 1.8dBi (radio 0U, upper half of 5GHz)

Other interfaces

• E0, E1: HPE SmartRate port (RJ-45, maximum negotiated speed 5Gbps)
  • Auto-sensing link speed (100/1000/2500/5000BASE-T) and MDI/MDX
  • 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps speeds comply with NBase-T and 802.3bz specifications
  • POE-PD: 48Vdc (nominal) 802.3at/bt POE (class 4 or higher)
  • 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)
• Link aggregation (LACP) support between both network ports for redundancy and increased capacity
• POE power can be drawn from either port (single source, or set to prioritize) or both ports simultaneously (set to combine). When set to prioritize, the AP draws power from E0 and may failover to E1.
• DC power interface: 48Vdc (nominal, +/- 5%), accepts 1.35mm/3.5mm center-positive circular plug with 9.5mm length 
• USB 2.0 host interface (Type A connector)
  • Capable of sourcing up to 1A / 5W to an attached device
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE5.0) and Zigbee (802.15.4) radio (2.4GHz)
  • BLE: up to 8dBm transmit power (class 1) and -99dBm receive sensitivity (125kbps) 
  • Zigbee: up to 8dBm transmit power and -97dBm receive sensitivity
  • A pair of integrated omnidirectional antennas (polarization diversity) with roughly 30 degrees downtilt and peak gain of 4.5dBi
• Visual indictors (two multi-color LEDs): for System and Radio status
• Reset button: factory reset, LED mode control (normal/off)
• Serial console interface (proprietary, micro-B USB physical jack)
• Kensington security slot

Power sources and power consumption

• The AP supports direct DC power and Power over Ethernet (POE; on port E0 and/or E1)
• When POE power is supplied to both Ethernet ports, the AP can be configured to combine or prioritize power sources
• When both DC and POE power sources are available, DC power takes priority over POE
• Power sources are sold separately; see the ordering
• Information section below for details
• When powered by DC, 802.3bt (class 5) POE or 2x 802.3at (class 4) POE, the AP will operate without restrictions.
• When powered by 1x 802.3at (class 4) POE and with the IPM feature disabled, the AP will disable the USB port, disable the other Ethernet port, operate the 5GHz radio in 4x4 mode, and disable tri-radio operation 
• In the same configuration but with IPM enabled, the AP will start up in unrestricted mode, but may dynamically apply restrictions depending on the POE budget and actual power. The feature restrictions and order can be programmed.
• Operating the AP with an 802.3af (class 3 or lower) POE source is not supported.
• Maximum (worst-case) power consumption (dual-radio operation):
  • DC powered: 32.6W
  • POE powered (802.3bt or dual 802.3at): 38.2W
  • POE powered (802.3at, IPM disabled): 25.1W
  • All numbers above are without an external USB device connected. When sourcing the full 5W power budget to such a device, the incremental (worst-case) power consumption for the AP is up to 6.0W (POE powered) or is used to secure the AP to any of the Aruba mount kits (sold separately); see the ordering Information section below for details.

Mechanical specifications

• Dimensions/weight (AP-555; unit, excluding mount bracket):
  • 260mm (W) x 260mm (D) x 61mm (H) / 10.2” (W) x 10.2” (D) x 2.3” (H)
  • 1,570g / 55.4oz
• Dimensions/weight (AP-555; shipping):
  • 320mm (W) x 303mm (D) x 108mm (H) / 12.6” (W) x 11.9” (D) x 4.3” (H)
  • 2,230g / 78.7oz

Environmental specifications

• Operating conditions
  • Temperature: 0C to +50C / +32F to +122F
  • Humidity: 5% to 93% non-condensing
  • AP is plenum rated for use in air-handling spaces
  • ETS 300 019 class 3.2 environments
• Storage and transportation conditions
  • Temperature: -40C to +70C / -40F to +158F
  • Humidity: 5% to 93% non-condensing
  • ETS 300 019 classes 1.2 and 2.3 environments

Reliability

• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF): 855,000hrs (98yrs) at +25C operating temperature.

Regulatory compliance

• FCC/ISED
• CE Marked
• RED Directive 2014/53/EU
• EMC Directive 2014/30/EU
• Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU
• UL/IEC/EN 60950
• EN 60601-1-1, EN60601-1-2

For more country-specific regulatory information and approvals, please see your Aruba representative.

Regulatory model numbers

• AP-555: APIN0555

Certifications

• UL2043 plenum rating
• Wi-Fi Alliance:
  • Wi-Fi CERTIFIED a, b, g, n, ac, ax
  • WPA, WPA2 and WPA3 – Enterprise with CNSA option, Personal (SAE), Enhanced Open (OWE)
  • WMM, WMM-PS, Wi-Fi Vantage, W-Fi Agile Multiband
  • Passpoint (release 2)
• Bluetooth SIG

WARRANTY

Aruba’s hardware limited lifetime warranty.

MINIMUM OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE VERSIONS

ArubaOS and Aruba InstantOS 8.5.0.0 (with some restrictions). For unrestricted operation, use 8.6.0.0 or later.