Based on the role model of the office networks, Ethernet networking is now moving into the industrial environment and beginning to replace other standards such as Profibus. These range from the small entry level switch and modular gigabit switches to Wireless LAN (WLAN) Access Points.

To save installation costs and for added flexibility in the networking, the IEEE 802.3af standard was introduced which enables common transmission of data and energy over a network. This means that a single LAN cable will be sufficient in future instead of one cable each for the data network, energy network and telephone network (VoIP).