Abstract: According to the development demand of industrial control network and the characteristics of Ethernet, this paper summarizes three main problems of industrial Ethernet, including the transmission indeterminacy, the reliability of Ethernet and the lack of unified application layer protocol. Furthermore, the authors summarize the solutions for the above problems. The methods to improve determination by adapting transmission protocol and two current open application layer protocols are discussed in detail. The individual viewpoint in the research direction of industrial Ethernet is aso presented.