EtherNet/IP Protocol (EtherNet Industrial Protocol)

The EtherNet/IP protocol -- EtherNet Industrial Protocol -- was created specifically to serve the needs of industrial automation, making use of the ethernet physical layer. EtherNet/IP is an application layer protocol created by Rockwell Automation and maintained by the Open DeviceNet Vendors Association. EtherNet/IP is part of the Common Industrial Protocol and is widely used throughout industrial market.

EtherNet/IP Gateway Providers:

• FieldServer Technologies: a protocol gateway provider dedicated to meeting the interoperability needs of the industrial market. FieldServer provides comprehensive EtherNet IP gateways that link legacy devices and external networks to EtherNet/IP. FieldServer has an extensive protocol library that includes EtherNet/IP protocol drivers as well as EtherNet/IP gateways. FieldServer enable communication between devices with non-compatible protocols. The FieldServer EtherNet/IP gateways are available in several versions depending on the point count and serial port needs of the devices being interfaced.

EtherNet/IP Protocol Structure

EtherNet/IP makes use of TCP to transfer data within the TCP/IP packet. EtherNet/IP handles this data transfer in one of two ways: as explicit messages that are transferred when requested, and as I/O messages that are continuously communicated. Because EtherNet/IP makes use of the Ethernet structure, it directly benefits from Ethernet upgrades -- similar to the Lonworks protocol that is also popular in industrial applications. The cost of the Ethernet structure is currently falling dramatically, while at the same time communications bandwidth is poised to increase even more dramatically. This means that as the costs of Ethernet fall, so too does the cost of implementing the Ether