EtherNet/IP (Ethernet Industrial Protocol) is an industrial Ethernet communication protocol developed by ODVA. It is one of the major real-time industrial Ethernet protocols (alongside Profinet and EtherCAT) and is particularly common in North American manufacturing because of its strong association with Rockwell Automation and Allen-Bradley equipment.

In short: EtherNet/IP runs the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) over standard Ethernet, providing both real-time control communications and general data exchange on the same network infrastructure. It is widely deployed in automotive manufacturing, food and beverage, packaging, material handling, and other discrete manufacturing applications. EtherNet/IP supports both standard Ethernet equipment and managed switches with industrial features like ring redundancy and QoS for real-time traffic prioritisation.

For IoT and edge connectivity, EtherNet/IP is one of the protocols an industrial cellular router or gateway may need to support. Where a Teltonika or other industrial router sits at the plant edge, alongside Rockwell PLCs, EtherNet/IP-aware features such as VLAN segmentation, multicast handling, and time synchronisation become important. The router itself is typically not a primary EtherNet/IP node, but it carries EtherNet/IP traffic between zones and provides the cellular backhaul that connects the plant to cloud platforms.

Selection between Profinet, EtherNet/IP, and EtherCAT for new builds depends largely on the dominant PLC and automation vendor. EtherNet/IP is the default choice on Rockwell-based lines; Profinet on Siemens; EtherCAT on Beckhoff. Industrial cellular routers and switches need to support all three to be useful across the breadth of UK industrial deployments.