A method and apparatus are described for incorporating an Internet of Things (IoT) service interface protocol layer in at least one node. The format of various IoT messages used to communicate over a service interface are also described. A set of IoT service level operations may be defined in the node. The IoT service level operations may be performed on IoT information elements (IEs). The IoT service level operations may be defined in terms of various actions that are generic and applicable across industry verticals. The operations may leverage each other as sub-operations, (e.g., collaborate, share, synchronize, discover, associate, collect, aggregate, concatenate, share, relocate, invoke, delegate or surrogate). The IoT IEs may include at least one of a content IoT IE, a context IoT IE, a policy IoT IE, a decision IoT IE, an event IoT IE, a discovery IoT IE or a descriptor IoT IE.