Difference between IoT and M2M

Difference between IoT and M2M

The differences between M2M and IoT are described as follows:

• Communication protocols: M2M and IoT can differ in how the communication between the machines of devices happens. M2M uses either proprietary or non-IP based communication protocols for communication within the M2M area networks. Commonly uses M2M protocols include ZigBee, Bluetooth, ModBus, M-Bus, Wireless M-Bus, Power Line Communication (PLC). 6LoWPAN, IEEE 802.15.4, Z-Wave, etc.

             The focus of communication in IoT is usually on the protocols above the network layer such as HTTP, CoAP, WebSockets, MQTT, XMPP, DDS, AMQP, etc.,

• Machines in M2M vs Things in IoT: The “Things” in IoT refers to physical objects that have unique identifiers and can sense and communicate with their external environment or their internal physical states. The unique identifiers for the things in IoT are the IP addresses. Things have software components for accessing, processing, and storing sensors information, or controlling actuators connected. IoT system can have heterogeneous things. M2M systems, in contrast to IoT, typically have homogeneous machine types within an M2M area network.
• Hardware vs software Emphasis: while the emphasis of M2M is more on hardware with embedded modules, the emphasis of IoT is more on software. IoT devices runs specialize software for sensor data collections, data analysis and interfacing with the cloud through IP-based communication. Figure 3.4 shows various components of IoT system include the things, the internet, communication infrastructure and the applications.
• Data connections and analysis: M2M data is collected in a point solutions and often in on-premises  storage infrastructure in contrast to M2M, the data in IoT is collected in the cloud. Figure:3.5 shows the various IoT-levels, and the IoT components deployed in the cloud. The analytics component analyzes the data and the stores the results in the cloud database. The IoT data and analysis results are visualized with the cloud-based applications. The centralized controller is aware of the status of all the end nodes and sends control commands to the nodes. Observer nodes can process information and use it for various applications, however, observer nodes do not perform any control functions.
• Applications: M2M data is collected in point solutions anda can be accessed by on-premises applications such as diagnosis applications, service management applications, and on-premises enterprise applications. IoT data is collected in the local and can be accessed by cloud applications such as  analytics applications, enterprise applications, remote diagnosis and management applications, etc. Since the scale of data collected in IoT is so massive, cloud-based real-time and batch data analysis frameworks are used for data analysis.

      communication in IoT is IP-based whereas M2M uses non-IP based networks. Communication within M2M area networks is based on protocols below the network layer whereas IoT is based on protocols above the network layer.