The Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) is a peer to peer object oriented protocol that provides connections between industrial devices (sensors, actuators) and higher-level devices (controllers). CIP is physical media and data link layer independent. EtherNet/IP (Ethernet/Industrial Protocol) is a communication system suitable for use in industrial environments. EtherNet/IP allows industrial devices to exchange time-critical application information. These devices include simple I/O devices such as sensors/actuators, as well as complex control devices such as robots, programmable logic controllers, welders, and process controllers. EtherNet/IP uses CIP (Common Industrial Protocol), the common network, transport and application layers also shared by ControlNet and DeviceNet. EtherNet/IP then makes use of standard Ethernet and TCP/IP technology to transport CIP communications packets. It should be noted that EtherNet/IP is not Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) protocol! It is transmitted over a regular TCP/IP connection.