Because devices such as limit switches and proximity sensors will not have Ethernet any time soon, here's how to connect them to Ethernet now.
　　Engineering-Driven Ethernet Read more articles on industrial Ethernet.
　　While use of industrial network standards such as Arcnetwww.cechina.cn, DeviceNet, Modbus, Profibus, and others continues to grow, we should not try to decide between them or Ethernet, but embrace their coexistence. As long as existing networks are performing as desired, it may be difficult to

justify converting all sensors, controlsCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, actuators控制工程网版权所有, and related I/O modules so they can be connected to Ethernet. Additionally, industrial Ethernet installations require many considerations related to cabling and infrastructure devices (routers, firewalls, managed switches, etc.) that should be taken into account when determining the overall cost.
　　Many devices available to connect networks go by names such as gateway, bridge, router, device server, linking device, and media converter. With industrial Ethernet protocols or other networks or fieldbuses, these devices may act as slaveswww.cechina.cn, masters, or a combination of the two, or support peer-to-peer messaging. Knowing these things in advance will help you design in the functionality that you need. Following are several examples.

　　A slave-master I/O gateway is a master to the end devices on network 1 and an I/O slave device on network 2. It transfers outputs from the controller on network 2 as outputs to the devices on network 1. It will also scan the devices on network 1 for inputs and transfer these as inputs to the controller on network 2.
　　Bridging gateways
　　CIP: EtherNet/IP is based on an underlying protocol called the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP), which is the basis for DeviceNet and ControlNet. Because these protocols share the same basic message structureCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, it is possible to route messages from an EtherNet/IP-based scanner to a DeviceNet device via a gateway.
　　Modbus: When considering connectivity between Modbus