IoT

Internet of Things aka IoT and Internet of Everything (IoE) was a term popularized by CISCO with a trillion dollar market opportunity.IoT is related to M2M (machine 2 Machine) but different. M2M is used be telecom industry who assume the communication rides over cellular networks.IoT Networks are much more varied .The academic community has used a more precise description Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). Descriptions of IoT abound . The diagram below from a working group of ITU is a good starting point

Regulators like TRAI are trying to regulate IoT Service Providers and legal definitions are not yet available. 

Cisco

The IoT links objects to the Internet, enabling data and insights never available before.

Wikipedia

The Internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enable these objects to connect and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of about 30 billion objects by 2020...

When IoT is augmented with sensors and actuators, the technology becomes an instance of the more general class of cyber-physical systems, which also encompasses technologies such as smart grids, virtual power plants, smart homes, intelligent transportation and smart cities.

Happiest Minds

Internet of Things (IoT) is an ecosystem of connected physical objects that are accessible through the internet. The ‘thing’ in IoT could be a person with a heart monitor or an automobile with built-in-sensors, i.e. objects that have been assigned an IP address and have the ability to collect and transfer data over a network without manual assistance or intervention. The embedded technology in the objects helps them to interact with internal states or the external environment, which in turn affects the decisions taken.

SAP

The vast network of devices connected to the Internet, including smart phones and tablets and almost anything with a sensor on it – cars, machines in production plants, jet engines, oil drills, wearable devices, and more. These “things” collect and exchange data.

IoT – and the machine-to-machine (M2M) technology behind it – are bringing a kind of “super visibility” to nearly every industry. Imagine utilities and telcos that can predict and prevent service outages, airlines that can remotely monitor and optimise plane performance, and healthcare organisations that can base treatment on real-time genome analysis. The business possibilities are endless

[ BEREC]

In a 2010 paper<ref>Body of Euopean Regulators for Electronic Communicatiosn (BEREC), Report on convergent services, BoR (10) 65, December 2010, p. 6</ref> on convergent services, BEREC described M2M as “a generic concept that indicates the exchange of information in data format between two remote machines, through a mobile or fixed network, without human intervention.”

European Council

In Definition of a Research and Innovation Policy Leveraging Cloud Computing and IoT Combination”, Study prepared by IDC and TXT for the European Commission, 13 May 2015, the EC says "The Internet of Things enables objects sharing information with other objects/members in the network, recognizing events and changes so to react autonomously in an appropriate manner. The IoT therefore builds on communication between things (machines, buildings, cars, animals, etc.) that leads to action and value creation"

ITU

The International Telecomminaction Union in its paper ITU-T Y.2060 {now renumbered ITU Y.400} describes This Recommendation defines the following terms: 3.2.1 device: With regard to the Internet of things, this is a piece of equipment with the mandatory capabilities of communication and the optional capabilities of sensing, actuation, data capture, data storage and data processing.

3.2.2 Internet of things (IoT): A global infrastructure for the information society, enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and virtual) things based on existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies. NOTE 1 – Through the exploitation of identification, data capture, processing and communication capabilities, the IoT makes full use of things to offer services to all kinds of applications, whilst ensuring that security and privacy requirements are fulfilled. NOTE 2 – From a broader perspective, the IoT can be perceived as a vision with technological and societal implications. 3.2.3 thing: With regard to the Internet of things, this is an object of the physical world (physical things) or the information world (virtual things), which is capable of being identified and integrated into communication networks.

ETSI

The European Telecom Standards Institute in its report ETSI TR 102 725 defines IoT as a component of lager system . See IoT Stack

M2M Applications

applications that run the service logic and use Service Capabilities accessible via open interfaces.

M2M Application Service

an M2M Application Service is realized through the service logic of an M2M Application

and is operated by the end user or an M2M Application Service Provider.

M2M Application Service Provider

is an entity (e.g. a company) that provides M2M Application Services in the

M2M System to the end user.

M2M Area Network

an M2M Area Network provides connectivity between M2M Devices (both compliant and noncompliant

to ETSI M2M) and ETSI M2M Gateways.

M2M Authentication Server

a secure server used to store security credentials.

M2M Communications

refer to physical telecommunication based interconnection for data exchange between two

ETSI M2M compliant entities, like: device, gateways and network infrastructure.

Thing

an element of the environment that is individually identifiable in the M2M system.

Thing Representation

it is the instance of the informational model of the Thing in the M2M System. A Thing

Representation provides means for applications to interact with the Thing. See DigitalTwin

DoT & TRAI Regulation in India

In its Recommendations on “Spectrum, Roaming and QoS related requirements in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications TRAI notes

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is a broad term that can be used to describe any technology that enables networked devices to exchange information and perform actions without or with minimal human intervention.

TRAI has proposed a licensing regime for M2M Service Provider (M2MSP)

M2M service provider (MSP)

It is an entity that provides M2M Common Services (registration, discovery, security, group management, data management & repository, subscription & notification, device management, application & service management, communication management, network service exposure, location, service charging & accounting) to Application provider. DoT has defined M2MSP as an entity that collects and analyse data from M2M devices and platforms. Authority has used the abbreviation of MSP to indicate M2M service provider in this recommendations. Many stakeholders have used the abbreviation M2MSP, which is one and the same.

Regulatory Issues

Most description of IoT are generic and do not help distinguish from normal Internet traffic. For example a App on a Android smartphone connecting to a bot running on a cloud service would qualify as IoT or M2M especially if there is no direct human interaction and the App or Bot are acting semi autonomously.

IoTForum

Distinguishing pure play IoT or M2M from more general public internet usage is important legally to be clear on scope of regulation proposed by TRAI. The IoTForum has proposed that the following may be used as a basis

1. . Display capability
   1. Headless devices with no display capability on the device itself
   2. Limited display capability ( Small LCD panel like on a Appliance )
2. Protocol/Content
   1. Origination of communication from Non IP endpoints or destination is a non IP endpoint
      1. Bluetooth nodes
      2. Modbus or Wireless HART nodes
      3. LPWAN nodes like LoRa
      4. Special carve out for mapping between IP and non-IP mapped to UDP, TCP/IP like 6LowPAN)
   2. Binary content like JSON
   3. Not VoIP or video streaming (IPTV). Specifying a low bandwidth of less than 256Kbps is appropriate.
   4. Limited origin or endpoints (Whitelist). Not anywhere access.
3. User action
   1. Not a direct reaction to a HTML page displayed by a remote server
   2. Less human/ user action initiated from device