An Internet Protocol (IP)-enabled smart transducer (150) includes a sensor (151) for generating field data regarding a physical quantity associated with processing equipment or a device (114) in an industrial processing facility, and a signal conditioning circuit (152) for at least one of amplifying and filtering the field data to provide conditioned field data. A communications interface (155) is coupled to the signal conditioning circuit including a processor (155a) having an associated memory (155b) and a field data to IP data conversion algorithm (155c) for generating the IP data from the conditioned field data, and a transmitter (156) is for transmitting the IP data across an IP bus (132) to at least one application connected to the IP bus.
