CAN Bus (Controller Area Network)

Controller Area Network (CAN) is becoming a very popular bus for the automotive industry, with in-vehicle communications, and industrial automation applications. One of the features that makes CAN so successful is its producer-consumer oriented data transmission and multi-master capability. CAN has been standardized by the International Standards Organization as ISO 11898 for high and low-speed/fault-tolerant versions. High-speed CAN reaches 1Mbps and is used for the Colorado vNet bus and many engine control and power-train applications. Low-speed/fault-tolerant CAN reaches 125Kbps and is used for body and comfort devices. National Instruments provides CAN connectivity to the Automotive Test Platform in high and low-speed/fault-tolerant versions for complete Rapid Control Prototyping, Hardware in the Loop, and System and Manufacturing Test Systems.

The Controller Area Network (CAN)

Is a high-integrity serial data communications bus for real-time control applications

Operates at data rates of up to 1 Mega bits per second

Has excellent error detection and confinement capabilities

Was originally developed for use in cars

Is now being used in many other industrial automation and control applications

Has an OSI session layer known as Time Triggered CAN (TTCAN)

Has a sub-bus known as the Local Interconnect Network (LIN)

CAN is documented in ISO 11898 (for applications up to 1 Mega bits per second) and ISO 11519 (for applications up to 125 K bits per second)

CAN Bus (Controller Area Network)

The Controller Area Network (CAN)

How CAN Works