industrial//industrial Ethernet//EtherNet/IP

The industrial Ethernet of the Rockwell Automation ecosystem. The name does not mean "Ethernet over IP": it is **EtherNet Industrial Protocol**, and the protocol carried is **CIP**, the Common Industrial Protocol.

The industrial Ethernet of the Rockwell Automation ecosystem. The name does not mean "Ethernet over IP": it is EtherNet Industrial Protocol, and the protocol carried is CIP, the Common Industrial Protocol.

CIP gives it an object model far richer than a Modbus register map: devices expose typed objects, attributes and services, so a drive or an I/O module is described, not just addressed (register map).

It runs on standard TCP/IP and UDP over ordinary Ethernet, with implicit cyclic I/O messaging for control and explicit messaging for configuration; time-critical variants add synchronization for motion.

Choosing it is usually choosing the ecosystem: Allen-Bradley PLCs, PowerFlex drives, and the integrators who know them (automation vendor).