(1) (
Machine to
Machine) The automatic communications between devices without any or with very little human intervention. It often refers to a system of remote sensors that is continuously transmitting data to a central system. Agricultural weather sensing, automatic meter reading and RFID tags are examples. M2M systems use proprietary networks as well as 2G cellular transmission, although 3G, 4G and LTE are also on the rise (see
LTE for IoT).
M2M communications is increasingly synonymous with the Internet of Things (IoT), which ties physical objects together via the Internet. See
fog computing,
IoT and
X2X.
(2) (
Mobile to
Mobile,
Mobile to
Machine) The automatic communications between mobile devices or between mobiles and other machines such as printers and hands-free vehicle systems.