Cisco unveils go-anywhere router

The small, rugged ISR 819 is intended for machine-to-machine networking
Cisco Systems created its fortune selling routers for the cores of enterprise and service-provider networks, however currently the corporate is sending its technology farther from those cozy confines than ever before.

The Cisco Integrated Services Router 819 Machine-to-Machine Gateway, out there immediately, is that the smallest member of the ISR family of branch and remote-office routers and is intended to resist outside environments with extreme temperatures. Target markets for the device embrace truck fleets, tollbooths and ATMs (automated teller machines). The ISR 819 can even function a traditional router in an exceedingly remote workplace, said Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior director of promoting for borderless networks.



Unlike most routers, the 819 depends totally on cellular information to achieve the net. This exposes additional potential uses for the router, together with moving vehicles. The router, that weighs solely two.3 pounds (1 kilogram) and is thicker however smaller than a pill, starts at US$1,600. a rather larger, hardened version, that is waterproof and features a temperature vary from -13 degrees to a hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit (-25 to sixty Celsius), starts at $2,300.

To ensure communication in isolated locations, the ISR 819 is provided for 3G connectivity. it's out there with each GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) technology and has space for 2 SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards, thus users will discovered service with 2 completely different mobile operators for redundancy. Cisco is additionally eyeing 4G capability next year, though most machine-to-machine (M2M) applications are not bandwidth-hungry.



M2M (machine-to-machine) networking is anticipated to grow rapidly within the returning years. Functions like meter-reading, asset tracking and supply-level notifications may be automated through radios engineered into systems within the field, and wireless links will facilitate to create it easier to network those devices.

As an example of how this kind of device may work, atiny low wireless router in an ATM may send a sign when the quantity of money out there within the machine fell to a definite level. It may immediately communicate over the cellular network to an analogous router in an armored truck, and therefore the driver of the truck would be given directions to deliver additional cash to that ATM.

Trucks, vending machines and different systems within the field have had wireless connectivity before, however Cisco calls the ISR 819 its initial router for these varieties of applications that has all the options of the popular ISR line. as an example, it includes stateful and application-inspection firewall capability, encryption for VPNs (virtual personal networks), and options to optimize voice and video, per Cisco.

There are 3G routers on the market from smaller vendors, however the actual fact that the 819 has constant software as Cisco's different fashionable ISR models is probably going to create it additional enticing to enterprises that have already invested in Cisco, said analyst Mike Spanbauer of Current Analysis. Cisco is additional dominant within the router marketplace for tiny and medium-sized firms than it's even in different areas of switching and routing, Spanbauer said.
"It's additional regarding operational potency than essentially bringing out a brand new service that did not exist before," Spanbauer said.

But as a result of such a large amount of options are engineered into it, the 819 might inspire new uses of remote routers within the future, he said. it'll in all probability take less custom code and facilitate from consultants to induce a brand new use case off the bottom, he said.

"Having the collapsed service giving on one device will breed simplicity and encourages creativity in deployment," he said.

A renewed commitment by mobile operators may conjointly facilitate to spice up the employment of machine-to-machine applications, said IDC analyst Rohit Mehra. Some carriers are slow to support machine-to-machine as a result of they were centered on maintaining with consumers' use of mobile information on smartphones, he said. M2M are a crucial supply of market growth currently that nearly all shoppers have cellphones.