Machine to machine
technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same type
Machine to machine (M2M) is direct communication between devices using any communications channel, including wired and wireless. M2M communication can include industrial instrumentation, where a sensor communicates the data it records (such as temperature or inventory level), as well as telematics, which uses M2M to enable a fleet telematics system to monitor mobile assets. Such communication was originally accomplished by having a remote network of machines relay information back to a central hub for analysis, which would then be rerouted into a system like a personal computer.
More recent machine to machine communication has changed into a system of networks that transmits data to personal appliances. The expansion of IP networks has made M2M communication quicker and easier while using less power, and it is a component of the Internet of Things (IoT). These networks also allow new business opportunities for consumers and suppliers.
History
Wired communication machines have been using signaling to exchange information since the early 20th century. Machine to machine has taken more sophisticated forms since the advent of computer networking automation and predates cellular communication. It has been utilized in applications such as telemetry, industrial, automation, and SCADA.
Machine to machine devices that combined telephony and computing were first conceptualized by Theodore Paraskevakos while working on his Caller ID system in 1968, later patented in the U.S. in 1973. This system, similar but distinct from the panel call indicator of the 1920s and automatic number identification of the 1940s, which communicated telephone numbers to machines, was the predecessor to what is now caller ID, which communicates numbers to people.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Machine to machine” as technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same type. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as technologies that allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of the same type. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q251072. The first chronological checks are 1968 and 1973.
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This entry incorporates text from “Machine to machine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.