The History of EtherCAT:

• Beckhoff, a German automation company, developed a fiedlbus system called Fast Lightbus to correct a low bandwidth problem present in other Ethernet protocols. This protocol led to EtherCAT, which was released in 2003.
  
  
• In 2004, a group was created to help promote EtherCAT, which lead to the creation of the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG), who now owns the rights to EtherCAT.
  
  
• The ETG provides numerous advantages providing research and advancements for EtherCAT in addition to publishing specifications and papers which allows users greater success in using EtherCAT.