Real-Time Modes (410)

There are two real-time modes an ENGAGE device may operate under: RSI or IP mode. These are given the designations of 410-RSI and 410-IP respectively (four-ten). The respective mode is enabled during commissioning and should correspond to how the Gateway is intended to function in the network (either hard-line Ethernet IP or RS-485 RSI mode).

An ENGAGE Gateway is required to bridge either of the means of communication (Ethernet or RS-485) to the BLE form that ENGAGE battery powered devices utilize for all real-time data exchange.

Associating a device to a particular Gateway, referred to as linking an edge device to the Gateway, can be performed programmatically (see the Gateway APIs section) or via the Allegion ENGAGE mobile application.

NOTE: Both the edge device(s) and the Gateway must be commissioned before linking can occur and each Gateway is capable of supporting ten real-time (persistent BLE) connections at once. Additionally, any previous mode (WiFi) configuration settings are cleared during the linking process. This is necessary for the site key, which is used for data encryption / decryption, to be loaded into each device.

In RSI real-time mode, the ENGAGE device operates as a slave device under RSI protocol with its true underlying communication transport being made transparent to the master system. As such, once commissioned and linked, all further operations are governed by the RSI protocol; refer to the Schlage AD-SERIES & ENGAGE RSI RS-485 Protocol Specification for details.

In IP real-time mode, ENGAGE devices run autonomously just like standalone mode (See Standalone Modes (200 and 210) section) running event schedules and granting access based upon the configured embedded access control database. All transactional (audit) event data and device status is also available immediately. Immediate modification to the access control database or the current configuration of the ENGAGE device can be made without the need to wait for a scheduled call-in by the device.

In IP real-time mode, the ENGAGE Gateway acts as a web server. A host connects to the Gateway and, through a defined set of RESTful endpoints over standard HTTPS, pushes or pulls information to/from linked edge devices; the entire API of Gateway endpoints is defined in the Gateway APIs section.

NOTE: The Gateway does not validate information sent through it, intending to operate as a store and forward bridge as much as possible, and therefore the audits generated in response to operations by the edge device itself should be consulted to validate proper processing occurred.

Additionally, the ENGAGE Gateway can be configured to act as an IP client using WebSockets protocol. In this mode of operation the Gateway will attempt to open a WebSocket connection with the IP Host’s webserver. In this mode of operation the underlying communication utilizes the same RESTful endpoints as utilized when the Gateway is operating as a webserver, however this communication is now wrapped in the WebSocket protocol. This mode of operation allows for the IP Host server to be publicly addressable and does not require for advanced network configurations or devices to be on the same network subnet. When the ENGAGE Gateway is configured to act as an IP client there is also additional functionality of a subscription service available to the IP Host. For more information regarding this mode of operation see the ENGAGE – WebSockets App Note in the reference section.