About CAN: A Flexible and Powerful Protocol
The CAN protocol is an ISO standard (ISO 11898) for serial data communication. The protocol was developed aiming at automotive applications. Today CAN has gained widespread use and is used in industrial automation as well as in automotives and mobile machines.
Kvaser’s CAN Protocol Tutorial takes a deep look at how CAN, covering topics like the physical layer, message format, message arbitration, and more. Take the full CAN Protocol Tutorial here.
Most recently, the CAN standard has been augmented with CAN FD (“flexible data-rate”), allowing for increased data throughput on the CAN bus. Learn more about CAN FD here.
Key Benefits of CAN

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Distributed Control Systems
The CAN protocol is a good basis when designing Distributed Control Systems. The CAN arbitration method ensures that each CAN node just has to deal with messages that are relevant for that node.
A Distributed Control System can be described as a system where the processor capacity is distributed among all nodes in a system. The opposite can be described as a system with a central processor and local I/O-units.

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Hardware Implementation

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Simple Transmission Medium

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Excellent Error Handling

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Impressive Fault Confinement
