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In many industrial applications, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) is achieved through a number of deployed field devices. The field devices may be used for measuring values such as temperature, pressure, tank level, flow rate, or valve state. The field devices provide analog or digital signals to a control system or Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) that provides the control logic for operating and monitoring an industrial process.

Communication between analog field devices and the PLC is typically provided using a bus network architecture operating a proprietary protocol. Traditional bus network architectures are limited by the number of nodes that can be supported, sometimes leading to numerous networks of field devices with multiple PLCs. Technological advances are driving demands for higher bandwidth, greater throughput, and faster information analysis than can be delivered by traditional bus networks. These new demands leave many industrial and manufacturing companies looking for new solutions.

Industrial Ethernet standards are being developed to meet these demands with Ethernet gaining traction as the preferred factory network protocol because of its cost and performance benefits, hardware availability and ease of implementation. One such industrial Ethernet standard is IEEE 802.3af or Power over Ethernet (PoE), which provides power and data through a single Ethernet cable, thereby reducing the cabling requirements for installations.