# Ethernet/IP and Profinet

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ethernet-ip-and-profinet/4927>\
**Category:** Archived Topics\
**Created:** [August 3, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ethernet-ip-and-profinet/4927 "2012-08-03T20:26:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AlThePal](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/althepal/32/3603_2.png) [@AlThePal](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/AlThePal)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ethernet-ip-and-profinet/4927/1 "2012-08-03T20:26:00Z")

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Is it correct that the current Allen Bradley Ignition driver is basically an implementation of an Ethernet/IP driver and the Siemens driver an implementation of a Profinet driver? If this is correct, is it reasonably straightforward to extend these to include other Ethernet/IP and Profinet devices?

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**Author:** ![chi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/0ea827/32.png) [@chi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/chi)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2012, 7:41am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/ethernet-ip-and-profinet/4927/2 "2012-08-04T07:41:03Z")

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The Siemens driver does definitely not use Profinet, but a proprietary (undocumented) protocol. As Profinet is a master-slave fieldbus protocol, you will always need a master, e.g. a PLC, to configure and control the slaves.