Legacy Industrial Protocols vs PROFINET

Developers should learn legacy industrial protocols when working with brownfield industrial systems, retrofitting old equipment, or maintaining critical infrastructure where upgrading is costly or impractical meets developers should learn profinet when working on industrial automation projects that require high-speed, deterministic communication between devices, such as in automotive, food and beverage, or pharmaceutical manufacturing. Here's our take.

Legacy Industrial Protocols

Nice Pick

Developers should learn legacy industrial protocols when working with brownfield industrial systems, retrofitting old equipment, or maintaining critical infrastructure where upgrading is costly or impractical

Pros

• They are essential for industrial IoT projects that integrate legacy devices into modern networks, ensuring compatibility and data acquisition from existing machinery in sectors like manufacturing, utilities, and oil and gas
• Related to: modbus, profibus

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

PROFINET

Developers should learn PROFINET when working on industrial automation projects that require high-speed, deterministic communication between devices, such as in automotive, food and beverage, or pharmaceutical manufacturing

Pros

• It is essential for implementing Industry 4
• Related to: industrial-ethernet, plc-programming

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Legacy Industrial Protocols is a concept while PROFINET is a platform. We picked Legacy Industrial Protocols based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Legacy Industrial Protocols wins

Based on overall popularity. Legacy Industrial Protocols is more widely used, but PROFINET excels in its own space.