Ethernet is one medium among many over which the VxWorks network can operate. Ethernet is a local area network specification that is supported by numerous vendors. It is ideal for most VxWorks applications, but, with the exception of certain protocols, such as BOOTP and DHCP, nothing in either the VxWorks or host network systems is inherently tied to Ethernet.

If you are writing or porting an Ethernet driver to VxWorks, it should conform to the MUX interface for network drivers (for information on how to write a driver that works with the MUX, see the Network Protocol Toolkit User's Guide). This interface includes support for features such as multicasting and polled-mode Ethernet. If these features do not matter to you, a simpler port might be possible; see 14. Upgrading 4.3 BSD Network Drivers. However, the MUX is the future of network driver interfaces under VxWorks; eventually, all network drivers must be ported to the MUX.