Ethercat -

| Mode | Description | | :--- | :--- | | | Real-time I/O data exchange in fixed cycle | | Mailbox (acyclic) | Parameterization, diagnostics, file upload (CoE, FoE, SoE) | | VoE (Vendor over EtherCAT) | Vendor-specific protocols |

For 64 digital inputs (8 bytes), standard UDP/IP would use 42+ bytes overhead; EtherCAT uses ~14 bytes overhead + 2 bytes per datagram. Net data rate can exceed 90% of 100 Mbit/s. ethercat

They released the specification to the . This meant any manufacturer—Siemens, Bosch, ABB, or a small startup—could build devices that spoke EtherCAT. | Mode | Description | | :--- |