Sizing guidelines

To choose appropriate hardware and settings for your FortiRecorder deployment, consider how much data can be generated for both input and output.

Input varies by:

Number of video streams from each camera (not just the total number of cameras)
Video recording schedules (motion only or continuous) of each camera
Video resolution, frame rate, bitrate mode (constant or variable) and its parameters (bitrate or image quality)
Number of detection events
Number of snapshots and motion detection video recordings
Storage settings (NAS or remote storage, re-compression, and deletion of old recordings)

Output varies by:

Number of simultaneous user sessions
Maximum number of simultaneous live video streams by users
Video resolution, frame rate, bitrate mode (constant or variable) and its parameters (bitrate or image quality)

See also Optimizing performance, or contact your Fortinet reseller.

Number of supported cameras

See Appendix B: Maximum values.

Bandwidth per camera

Constant bit rate video is a simple calculation of:

video resolution x frame rate x number of cameras

Variable bit rate

Depending on resolution, frame rate and video quality, each camera using H.264 compression can use the following network bandwidth:

352 x 240 @ 30 FPS, high quality = 0.4 Mbps
720 x 576 @ 30 FPS, high quality = 1 Mbps
1280 x 720 @ 30 FPS, high quality = 2 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 30 FPS, high quality = 4 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 30 FPS, medium quality = 2.8 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 30 FPS, low quality = 2 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 10 FPS, high quality = 2.4 Mbps
1920 x 1080 @ 10 FPS, low quality = 1.2 Mbps

The following table can be used to estimate. Please note that these are estimates providing a high quality image under most conditions. If the scene is less complex (indoors, with little detail and not much motion) or the camera has very little noise (daylight, good noise reduction), then the required bit rate might be lower. If video compression is set to lower quality or capped at a defined maximum bandwidth, then the bit rate can be significantly lower, but image quality is also reduced. DNR can reduce bandwidth usage even more, especially for grainy night images, but shows less detail during motion.

Avoid using networks with less than half of the bandwidth indicated in the following table.

Bitrate table (H.264 estimate) in Mbps with high quality image (x0.7 = standard quality):

Bitrate/screen resolution	Frame rate
	1	6	10	15	30
CIF (352 x 240 pixels)	0.16	0.2	0.24	0.3	0.4
D1 (0.4 Mbps; 720 x 576 pixels)	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.75	1
720p (1 Mbps)	0.8	1	1.2	1.5	2
SXGA (1.3 Mbps; 1280 x 1024 pixels)	1	1.25	1.5	1.9	2.5
HD (2 Mbps; 1920 x 1080 pixels)	1.6	2	2.4	3	4
3 Mbps	2	2.5	3	3.75	5
5 Mbps	3.2	4	4.8	6	8

Bandwidth per FortiRecorder

Recommended maximum total bandwidth usage varies by FortiRecorder model and deployment scenarios such as network attached storage (NAS), continuous recording only, or continuous recording with separate video clips for motion detection.

Model	Continuous	Continuous with NAS	Continuous with motion	Continuous with motion and NAS
FRC-100D	90 Mbps	TBC	35 Mbps	TBC
FRC-200D gen1	90 Mbps	55 Mbps	50 Mbps	50 Mbps
FRC-200D gen2	135 Mbps	135 Mbps	130 Mbps	130 Mbps
FRC-400D	170 Mbps	160 Mbps	140 Mbps	130 Mbps

These values have been determined experimentally in a lab setting and do not represent hard limits. Performance degrades gradually if enough bandwidth is not available, with symptoms such as a slow response or dropped video frames. Real world performance depends on many factors, including network and NAS type. The table above assumes a motion detection rate of 13% based on 1 detection that is 40 s long every 5 minutes per camera.

Storage capacity

Video retention depends on the available storage capacity and the total amount of video bandwidth from the cameras.

To calculate storage capacity, you can estimate that a 1 TB hard drive stores 1 camera configured to consume 1 Mbps for approximately 100 days.

Video retention period in days for hard drive capacities:

	FortiRecorder 100D with 1 TB HD	FortiRecorder 200D with 3 TB HD	FortiRecorder 400F with 4 TB HD	FortiRecorder 200D with 3 TB HD plus 16 TB remote storage	FortiRecorder 400F with 32 TB HD
1 MP @ 30 FPS standard video quality = 1.4 Mbps	72	218	291	1381	2327
2 MP @ 15 FPS standard video quality = 2.1 Mbps	48	145	194	921	1551
3 MP @ 10 FPS high quality video = 3 Mbps	34	102	136	645	1086
3 MP @ 30 FPS high quality video = 5 Mbps	20	61	81	387	651

In practice, Fortinet suggests to use the numbers provided in the bandwidth calculator as a starting point and then adjust them after installation to achieve the balance between quality and bandwidth.