X10 is a very robust and proven protocol that allows you to connect and control devices in your home over the powerline or wirelessly. While X10 works very well for this purpose, it is not very extensible: the system is more or less 'closed', and X10 equipment is usually pretty expensive. Also, X10 only allows for very basic commands like 'lights on', while DoIP allows more complex commands and information to be used. Still, it should be possible to add your existing X10 equipment to a DoIP network by using a bridging solution.

Yes, but only if there exists a DoIP 'bridge' device that supports DMX512A. Because there are a lot of DMX interface devices (some using USB, some also connected to Ethernet), this depends on the vendor of your DMX interface. Some interfaces that are currently supported by the TJShow Show Control software suite will be supported in the future.

Yes, you need to run a bridge program that translates messages from the network to the device (which is in most cases connected through a serial cable or through USB). The tjledepserver program is capable of controlling devices that support the USP3 protocol (i.e. the Chromoflex controllers).

Of course, everybody can write their own DoIP implementation that runs on any system. The DoIP programs provided here all run on Windows 7 (32-bit), Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard; 32 and 64-bits version) and Debian GNU/Linux (ARM 'armel' devices like the Marvell SheevaPlug and Linksys NSLU2 are supported; x86 versions will also be available). There is also a DoIP remote available for the iPhone.

No, you don't. All devices that support the DoIP standard natively will connect to the network directly and may be always on or not depending on the type of device. Typically, these devices have some kind of low-power 'stand by' mode in which they don't do anything but listen to receive commands. Devices that are not natively supported (i.e. DMX512 interfaces or Chromoflex controllers) need a 'bridge' device which in most cases is a small, Linux-based computer that only draws 3-4 Watts. Fabric servers can also run on these low-power devices. In a typical set-up, you will use one of these devices for each room in which automation is needed.

'EP' means 'Endpoint Protocol', and is the internal name/abbreviation used in the SDK to identify the DoIP protocol. Because technically, EP is not a protocol itself, but merely a suite of protocols, conventions and file formats, the name is not extensively used outside the code. The EPFramework name also originated from this.