Industrial Ethernet now in eight of ten new nodes

The 2026 study shows that the long-running shift from traditional fieldbus technologies to Industrial Ethernet has continued through another full year, with Industrial Ethernet now accounting for 79% of newly installed nodes worldwide, up from 76% in 2025 and just 34% when HMS first began publishing these figures in 2015.

After the slowdown of 2024, the market stabilised in 2025. Component availability has returned to normal levels and inventory cycles in highly automated sectors have largely been worked through. While Europe's automotive sector continued to face headwinds, broader manufacturing activity recovered modestly, and capital spending on new automation projects resumed in most regions. The 2026 study confirms HMS Networks' expectation of approximately +7.7% average annual growth in newly installed nodes over the next five years, with continued migration of the remaining fieldbus install base to Industrial Ethernet driving much of that expansion.

Industrial Ethernet reaches 79% of new installations

The 2026 analysis shows that Industrial Ethernet now accounts for 79% of new nodes, up from 76% in 2025. The three leading Ethernet protocols continued to consolidate their position, together representing roughly three-quarters of the wired protocol market.

Within Industrial Ethernet: PROFINET strengthens its lead at 30% (up from 27%); EtherNet/IP follows at 25% (up from 23%); EtherCAT continues a strong trajectory at 20% (up from 17%); Modbus TCP holds steady at 5%; CC-Link IE remains stable at 3%; and POWERLINK declines to 1% (from 3%). Other Ethernet protocols account for the remaining 2% as market consolidation around the major networks continues

Fieldbus drops to 14% as PROFIBUS decline

Fieldbus technologies now represent 14% of new nodes, down from 17% in 2025. PROFIBUS & PROFINET International's own published figures showed PROFIBUS new-node installations dropping from 1.1 million in 2024 to 1.0 million in 2025, a 9% decline corroborated by HMS Networks' internal data and by HMS's industry survey.

Within Fieldbus: PROFIBUS remains the largest fieldbus but drops to 4% (from 5%); Modbus RTU holds steady at 3%, reflecting its continued role as the universal low-cost serial protocol; CC-Link, DeviceNet and CAN/CANopen each remain in the 1-2% range with modest further decline; and other Fieldbus protocols collectively account for 2%, down from 4%, as the long tail of legacy networks fades. Wireless remains steady at 7%

Wireless technologies continue to connect 7% of new node installations, unchanged from 2025. Wireless retains its established role as a complement to wired industrial networks, particularly valuable for mobile equipment such as AGVs (automated guided vehicles) and AMRs (autonomous mobile robots), retrofitted machinery, and IIoT sensors in hard-to-reach locations.

5G remains an area of significant interest but slow industrial deployment. The complexity of private 5G infrastructure is the most commonly cited barrier. Early industrial 5G deployments continue to grow, particularly in Asia, but the technology has yet to deliver the breakthrough adoption many in the industry expected.

Regional insights

Europe: PROFINET and EtherCAT continue to lead, with strong activity around APL (Advanced Physical Layer) for process automation and SPE (Single Pair Ethernet) for sensor-level connectivity. PROFIBUS decline is most visible in Europe, where the install base is largest and the migration to PROFINET most advanced.

North America: EtherNet/IP remains the dominant protocol, particularly in automotive and discrete manufacturing. Adoption of IO-Link, APL and SPE is gaining clear momentum, supported by interest in OT cybersecurity ahead of the regulatory landscape taking shape around CRA and IEC 62443.

Asia: PROFINET and EtherCAT both continue to grow in the Chinese market. CC-Link IE, the first industrial protocol with TSN mechanism, maintains a strong regional foothold.

Magnus Jansson, Director of Product Marketing at HMS Networks, comments: "Twelve years of data tell a remarkably consistent story. The migration from fieldbus to Industrial Ethernet is now in its later stages, but the more interesting question is what happens next. When nearly everything is Ethernet, the conversation shifts from 'which protocol?' to 'what is running on top of it?', functional safety, cybersecurity, TSN, OPC UA, Single Pair Ethernet, IT/OT convergence. That is where the complexity, and the differentiation, will increasingly sit.

"The 2026 numbers also reinforce something we have been seeing in our industry survey: cybersecurity is now cited by nearly half of respondents as a top integration challenge, and 93% expect OT cybersecurity to change substantially over the next five years. The protocols matter, but the layers above them increasingly define how factories actually operate." Magnus continues.