Assa Abloy Door Lock Integration with MRs

Last updated

Apr 2, 2025
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Overview

Electronic Door Locks are keyless electronic door locks used by various industries to simplify the management and monitoring of their doors. The electronic door locks come with a pick-proof design ensuring that the intruders or burglars cannot access your property by picking or breaking the lock. Unlike traditional doors utilizing keys, the digital door locks typically can be automated using a central control server simplifying management and access control of the devices while keeping intruders away. Below are some examples of electronic door locks from a Meraki’s partner, Assa Abloy.

VingCard Signature RFID image

Electronic Door Locks have the following advantages over traditional door locks:

Increased security due to the keyless nature of the solution
Improved operating efficiency by removing the need to physically update the access controls and remotely control them from a central server
The enhanced monitoring experience of seeing the users which utilize each of the door locks?

Cisco Meraki has partnered with Assa Abloy to deliver a simple integrated solution to our customers in such scenarios. Supported MR access points can act as the IoT Controller to integrate with Assa Abloy’s Zigbee Secure Door Lock Solution. Supported MR access points connect to the door locks while serving regular wireless clients. With the Meraki integration, the door locks will directly connect via Zigbee to MRs functioning as Zigbee gateways which connect them to a Assa Abloy Visionline server removing the need for additional Zigbee gateways or other hardware/cabling requirements.

Assa Abloy/Meraki Door Lock Architecture

Customers must run the Zigbee and wireless infrastructures in parallel and maintain hardware and software for both, increasing operational overhead.

Cisco Meraki provides a unified Zigbee + Wireless infrastructure with no additional hardware (e.g., USB dongles or PCI-e add-on cards):

Supported Models and Specifications

IoT Controller Support

The door Lock Integration IoT Controller with Assa Abloy is supported on the following AP models:

Model	MR Family	Zigbee IoT Controller
MR57	Wireless WiFi 6E Indoor Access Point	Supported
CW9164	Wireless WiFi 6E Indoor Access Point	Supported
CW9166I	Wireless WiFi 6E Indoor Access Point	Supported
CW9166D	Wireless WiFi 6E Indoor Access Point	Supported

Zigbee Gateway Support

Note: Only MR models explicitly listed in the table below are supported.

The Door Lock Integration Zigbee Gateway with Assa Abloy is supported on the following AP models:

MR Model Name	MR Family	Zigbee Gateway Status
MR45	WiFi-6 (Compatible) Indoor	Supported
MR55	WiFi-6 (Compatible) Indoor	Supported
MR36	Wi-Fi 6 Indoor	Supported
MR36H	Wi-Fi 6 Indoor	Supported
MR44	Wi-Fi 6 Indoor	Supported
MR46	Wi-Fi 6 Indoor	Supported
MR56	Wi-Fi 6 Indoor	Supported
MR76	Wi-Fi 6 Outdoor	Supported
MR86	WiFi-6 Outdoor	Supported
MR28	WiFi-6 Indoor	Supported
MR78	WiFi-6 Outdoor	Supported
MR57	Wi-Fi 6E Indoor	Supported
CW9162	Wi-Fi 6E Indoor	Supported
CW9164	Wi-Fi 6E Indoor	Supported
CW9166	Wi-Fi 6E Indoor	Supported
CW9163	Wi-Fi 6E Outdoor	Supported
CW9176I	Wi-Fi 7 Indoor	Supported
CW9176D1	Wi-Fi 7 Indoor	Supported
CW9178I	Wi-Fi 7 Indoor	Supported

Assa Abloy Door Lock Models

Please refer to the Assa Abloy website for up-to-date specifications and technical details of door locks.

VingCard Allure
VingCard Signature RFID
VingCard EssenceV2
VingCard Classic RFID
VingCard Flex
VingCard Sigma RFID
VingCard Alfa RFID

Prerequisites

Visionline - On-Premise Access Management System for Assa Abloy electronic door locks
Electronic Door Locks from Assa Abloy.

Note: Enabling the Door Lock Integration on a Meraki network precludes other MR IoT functionality, most notably Zigbee. That is, when using Zigbee, MR access points will not transmit a BLE beacon or scan for nearby BLE devices.

Requirements

Access points listed in the “Supported Models and Specifications” section
Network firmware version set to MR 31.1.1 +
Assa Abloy Door Locks listed in the “Assa Abloy Door Lock Models” Section
A Mifare 4K Plus or higher version card made from VisiOnline Software as a Discovery Card
A VingCard RFID encoder with an expiry set

Door Lock Configuration

To enable the door lock integration on supported MR models, navigate to Wireless > Configure > IoT radio settings.
Select the Add gateway to begin the Day 0 Assa Abloy server and IoT controller configuration.

3. In the sections below, include the information for the Assa Abloy Visionline Server, including the IP address and login credentials.

4. Select an available MR57 or CW9166 in the network to serve as the IoT controller.

5. Enter a Gateway power transmit value which is in the range 10 dBm to 20 dBm.

6. Verify that the configuration is correct, and click “Finish”.

Edit Configuration

To edit the door lock integration on supported MR models, navigate to Wireless > Configure > IoT radio settings.
Select the Door Locks tab > Settings and toggle Assa Abloy Integration from “Enable” to “Disable” or vice versa.
Within the settings page, there are options to update the IP addresss of the Assa Abloy Visionline Server, selected IoT controller, and power transmit levels of gateways.

Gateway Enrollment

After the Visionline server and the IoT controller’s initial configuration is complete. Compatible Access Points in the network other than the IoT controller will be enabled as a Zigbee Gateway capable of connecting to Assa Abloy door locks.

Note: Ensure your IoT controllers and gateways are configured with static IPs to prevent unexpected door lock disconnections.

Note: If two door locks are paired to the same gateway and their Zigbee RF modules are swapped—either by unplugging the chip or hardware, or by reprogramming the locks to switch room numbers (e.g., reprogramming lock 101 to 102 and vice versa)—both door locks must be deleted from the dashboard and re-enrolled.

Enrolling Door Locks

To enroll the Assa Abloy door Locks, navigate to “Gateways” and select the lightning icon to start the enrollment process.

The gateway overview page shows all Zigbee Gateway APs in the network, with a status and a count of how many locks are associated with each.

Alternatively, you can select the specific MR Zigbee Gateway, and click “Open enrollment”.

This will send a message to the AP telling it to allow Zigbee devices to join the network.

Enrollment will take place for 3 minutes, during which time an individual will have to tap an Assa Abloy Discovery Card onto the door lock. This will connect the door lock to the specific MR access point executing the enrollment process.

If the discovery card is accepted, a green light will flash on the lock.

A red light either means that there is an issue when tapping the card (not long enough, close enough, only part of the card touched the card reader) or the card has expired. Try tapping the card again. If this continues to fail, use the Assa Abloy card encoder to check the card status and reprogram if necessary.

Note: If the door lock does not appear on the dashboard within 5 seconds of tapping the discovery card, it failed to associate. Wait 20 seconds before trying again.

Once enrolled, specify the Door Lock name to reflect the location of the door lock and select “Finish”.

Once enrolled, the door locks will appear on the specific MR gateway dashboard page that they are associated with. The page provides details around the lock's status, name, IEEE ID, signal health, channel operation, and enrollment timestamp for active monitoring and troubleshooting.
An onsite individual will have to turn the deadbolt, once the door locks appears on dashboard. This will help provide the external ID that maps to this lock to Visionline server.

Rename Door Lock

To rename specific door locks, select the checkbox next to the door lock, and click “Rename”.

Enter the name of the door lock and click “Save”.

Remove Door Lock

To remove an enrolled door lock, select the checkbox next to the door lock, and click “Remove”.

Confirm the deletion of the door lock from Meraki Dashboard by clicking “Delete”.

IoT Architecture

Assa Abloy Door locks

Directly connect to MRs functioning as Zigbee gateways connecting them to a Assa Abloy Visionline server.

Meraki APs functioning as Gateways

Handles Zigbee protocol messages to and from the Assa Abloy door locks.
MR Establishes a connection to the IoT Controller via the MQTT broker and periodically updates its status to the IoT Controller.

IoT Controller

The middleware that configures, manages, and controls a large number of MRs, all of which register to it. All registered MRs communicate to the VisionLine server through the IoT NC.

Manages a database of all MRs - each MRs sends periodic update messages to keep their status current

VisionLine Server

This is the Assa Abloy server that sits on the premises at the hospitality venue.

Use the encoder to encode visitor/guest cards with door lock ID and stay duration.
VisionLine server GUI to configure, manage and control door locks
Other guest-related functionality.

Scalability

It is recommended that 4 door locks be paired to a gateway AP to account for available CPU resources when a High WiFi + high MQTT load is seen on the AP. In events with a High WiFi + high MQTT load, the gateway AP will operate at 35-40% of CPU usage with 40-50% of memory available.

Since the MQTT protocol is low latency, which minimizes CPU usage, it allows for thousands of MQTT "door lock events" to be sent to the IoT controller at once without drops. Scale testing was done to investigate memory/CPU usage to determine the maximum number of gateways that are supported by the IoT controller which is approximately 3000.

Lock Not Enrolling

Sometimes lock enrollment takes a while. The Discover card can only be tapped once every 20 seconds, and this process works best if the back of the door is angled (as much as possible) towards the AP. If this never works, debugging requires a packet sniffer.

Sometimes, locks have issues due to a low battery. The door lock programming cable and the Lock Service 3G application can check this.

If the door lock is not enrolling with the gateway check the LQI and RSSI reported to dashboard. Poor signal strength could be the result of an obstruction between the doorlock and gateway AP.

Note: (LQI) or Link Quality Index is an indication of the quality of the data packets received by the receiver. The received signal strength (RSSI) Receive Signal Strength Indication -- a standardized value can be used as a measure of the signal quality. The RSSI is a measure of the total energy of the received signal. In general, the path that has the highest overall LQI has a better chance of delivering a message to the destination. LQI. On-chip radios differ across manufacturers.

Getting More Help

Note: For issues related to door lock-to-gateway connectivity or IoT controller connectivity within the dashboard, please first open a case with Meraki Support. If Meraki support determines that the access point is not the cause of the issue, then escalate the case to your VingCard technician via Assa Abloy Support.