Systech Reveals New Modular Gateway for M2M, But is it the Right Time?

Systech announced its newest modular network router, the SL-2000 Modular Gateway, on Monday. The SL-2000 is the latest in providing customers with customized configurations they need to keep their machine-to-machine (M2M) applications working right, and will be on display at the CTIA Wireless show, going on from May 21-23. 

The SL-2000 supports two Ethernet ports, two USB ports and two internal slots supporting any combination of cellular and Wi-Fi connections. The internal slots in particular are capable of communicating through POTS, Serial, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave or GPIO. The network router can also use both ZigBee and Z-Wave short-range personal area network standards simultaneously.

"Customers have found this modular solution to be extremely attractive. Similar to children's building blocks, it is easy to plug the SysLINK modular pieces together to produce exactly the right solution," Robert Lutz, director of business development at Systech, said in a prepared statement. "Also, should the customer's needs change, the SL-2000 can change along with it."

And that's great news for homeowners dreaming of quality home automation and security. Both ZigBee and Z-Wave are used for home automation — controlling everything from lighting and appliances to entertainment devices and healthcare — and security, though they use different means to do so.

M2M connectivity has hit its stride in the past few months as the concept of the Internet of Things has taken off in the mass market, but there's still some room for improvement. Specifically, as IoTevolutionworld's Mae Kowalke notes, what's needed is getting more M2M vendors to contribute to M2M in order to let the platform really shine.

On top of that, Kowalke says, M2M devices need to be able to be identified with addresses, data routing options need to be provided depending on the flow of data, and similar devices from different companies need to be able to talk with each other and with devices that are wildly different.