Controller Area Network (Can)

Overview 

The Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is a message-based protocol that allows control units and devices to communicate with each other using a shared network. With this system, control units of the various electronic systems are no longer interconnected by multiple separate cables. This does away with a large number of electrical connections and results in a reduced likelihood of failure of the device network.

Broadcast Communication 

Each of the devices on the network has a CAN circuit and is therefore is considered "intelligent". All devices on the network see all transmitted messages. Each device can determine if a message is relevant or if it should be filtered out. This structure allows modifications to CAN networks with minimal impact. Additional non-transmitting nodes can be added without modification to the network.

Priority 

Every message has an assigned priority. If two nodes try to send messages simultaneously, the one with the higher priority gets transmitted and the one with the lower priority gets postponed. This arbitration does not affect other messages and results in non-interrupted transmission of the highest priority message