Modbus is a serial communication protocol released by Modicon Corporation (formerly Schneider Electric) in 1979. Open to the public, free of copyright restrictions, and simple to implement and manage, Modbus has emerged as a prominent industrial co¬mmunication protocol standard and is widely utilized for communication between industrial electronic devices. Modbus is merely a protocol framework; there are other versions as well, such as Modbus RTU and Modbus/TCP.

Modbus RTU adopts EIA-485 (or RS-485) differential signals, offering strong anti-noise interference capabilities. The table below provides a comparison between MEAN WELL's existing communication protocols. The primary distinction from CAN bus is that the Modbus RTU protocol employs a master/slave architecture, thus not supporting multi-host communication.