Methods and apparatuses for feature-driven machine-to-machine communications are described. At a feature encoder, features are extracted from sensed raw information, to generate features that compress the raw information by a compression ratio. The feature encoder implements a probabilistic encoder to generate the features, each feature providing information about a respective probability distribution that each represents one or more aspects of the subject. The probabilistic encoder is designed to provide a compression ratio that satisfies a predetermined physical channel capacity limit for a transmission channel. The features are transmitted over the transmission channel.