OEMs wishing to adopt CAN-bus can refer to detailed ISO standards that allow common strategies across vehicles. ISO 11898-x is the primary standard for the interchange of digital information for road vehicles and is the cornerstone for the CAN standard. The standard is split into 5 sections.

As defined in ISO 11898-1, CAN is built to be physically robust, providing excellent protection against electro-magnetic disturbances that can compromise data transmissions.

CAN offers significant transmission reliability by use of an efficient error detection mechanism and multi-master functionality to increase the possibility of providing fast recovery from errors, should they occur. 

CAN also deploys a non-destructive arbitration principle, meaning that when several devices broadcast at the same time, data is not lost, simply delayed until the transmitting node has finished.

As CAN has been adopted across most industries, companies have sought to standardise the CAN protocols used in order to allow isolated development and interconnection. A number of key protocols have been established including CANopen, DeviceNet, OSEK/VDX and more.

It is estimated that there are in excess of 1 billion CAN devices worldwide and this is being added to each year. Virtually every chip manufacturer supports CAN meaning that number manufacturers of electronic controllers, sensors and devices is growing all the time. This leads to a competitive market and reduced cost of implementation.

We’ve worked with CAN-bus technologies for over 10 years, designing, implementing and delivering solutions to many industries. We know what works and what doesn’t and can support you in various ways, whether it’s adopting CAN for the first time, developing your existing CAN system or generally supporting the system in the field.