Remote device monitoring technologies have evolved rapidly in the last few years and networked devices now a days needs to communicate with each other by exchanging data and perform automated actions without the need of human interventions. These devices can be industrial or consumer it doesn't matter, every device these days are designed in such a manner that they can communicate with other related device senselessly. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has enabled the path of autonomous decision making for such devices and these technologies are allowing devices for making their own decisions while exchanging data and information with in the system.

Machine to machine, or M2M and Internet of Things , or IoT are broad labels that can be used to explain or describe the philosophy. The main purpose of these technologies is to collect sensor data and transmit it to a network so that the device can be remotely monitored to manage and control the data with in the network. This becomes very much important in industrial automation where manual monitoring is very tedious job and can be hazardous.

We have seen what exactly M2M and IoT technologies are and why they are used, now question arises what is the difference between these two technology phrases when both are concern regarding transmitting data from devices, where is M2M better and when to use IoT and which one is better.

In this article we will be defining M2M and IoT and will also focus on how these two are different and what are the different application areas they can be used.

What is Machine to Machine (M2M)?

We can say that it is the base for device connectivity that we are using today for our day to day life. In M2M two or more than two devices communicate with each other using wired or wireless communication.

Telemetry is one of the oldest example of M2M, which has been used from many decades to transmit operational data. This technology is being adopted in manufacturing and industrial automation from years to remotely monitor various factors such as moisture, temperature, pressure, energy consumption using sensor networks.

A typical M2M system include sensors, RFID, a wireless or cellular communications link, and a software program to help a network device to make decisions on the interpreted data, which can trigger predefined and automated actions.

Along with remote monitoring M2M have several other benefits reduces cost by minimizing the downtime of system, involvement of technology increases revenue.

What is Internet of Things (IoT)?

In contrast to device to device communication model as discussed in M2M, an IoT technology can be referred to as device to cloud communication model where every device is capable of connecting it self directly with internet based service or cloud service to exchange data.

IoT is based on the basic concept of M2M and expand this to outside cloud network by creating a network of devices that communicate directly with internet or cloud services, this allows users to communicate with wide variety of other devices seamlessly.

IoT devices are all around us in our day to day life for example voice controlled smart home systems like Google Home and Alexa. IoT is also used in enterprise level for example in dairy farming managing the fleets, controlling temperature, tracing shipments in cargo.

IoT devices can also be used outside cloud service but using cloud service but making use of cloud service enables enterprise to connect with their consumers.

Difference between M2M and IoT

Although it is very common to use both terms interchangeably as both terms relate to communication of connected devices but both are different, we can say every IoT systems need M2M where as M2M does not needs IoT very simple.

M2M is a standalone network of connected devices that provides communication among devices with in the network, IoT makes use of internet to expand M2M and bring geographically separated devices into one large connected ecosystem.

M2M uses point to point communication where as IoT relies on IP based networks over cloud platforms to transmit data collected from various devices. Following table describes how M2M is different then IoT.

Following table provides a comparative analysis of both technologies on various parameters.

Where to use ?

Which technology is best suited for your next application, it all depends upon what you need from your device to communicate from ? It all depends upon your business needs what should be picked up.

M2M is better choice if :

• Your application needs to operate irrespective of internet connection .
• Scalability is not the top priority.
• Your application has a security concern that needs to be isolated and not to operate over public networks.
• Your application needs point to point communication between devices.

IoT can be better if :

• Your application needs to operate over fast and reliable internet connection.
• Your application needs rapid scaling.
• Your application needs to make data interchange with several other devices over internet.
• Devices in your application wants real time data syncing from many other devices over internet.

Conclusion

Both M2M and IoT are great technologies for today’s consumer and business market perspective. These technologies are continuously developing and creating new opportunities for those who want to make use of these technologies for better tomorrow.