Can 20

CAN Specification 2.
0, Part B page 1
PART B
CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

CAN Specification 2.0, Part B page 2
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................3
2 BASIC CONCEPTS ..............................................................................................................5
3 MESSAGE TRANSFER .....................................................................................................11
3.1 Frame Formats ..................................................................................................................11

3.2 Frame Types.....................................................................................................................11
3.2.1 DATA FRAME.............................................................................................................11
3.2.2 REMOTE FRAME .......................................................................................................18
3.2.3 ERROR FRAME...........................................................................................................19
3.2.4 OVERLOAD FRAME ..................................................................................................20
3.2.5 INTERFRAME SPACING...........................................................................................22
3.3 Conformance with regard to Frame Formats.....................................................................24
3.4 Definition of TRANSMITTER / RECEIVER..................................................................24
4 MESSAGE FILTERING.....................................................................................................25
5 MESSAGE VALIDATION.................................................................................................26
6 CODING..............................................................................................................................27
7 ERROR HANDLING..........................................................................................................28
7.1 Error Detection..................................................................................................................28

7.2 Error Signalling ..................................................................................................................29
8 FAULT CONFINEMENT..................................................................................................30
9 OSCILLATOR TOLERANCE............................................................................................33
10 BIT TIMING REQUIREMENTS ....................................................................................34

1 INTRODUCTION
The Controller Area Network (CAN) is a serial communications protocol which efficiently
supports distributed realtime control with a very high level of security.
Its domain of application ranges from high speed networks to low cost multiplex wiring.
In automotive electronics, engine control units, sensors, anti-skid-systems, etc. are connected
using CAN with bitrates up to 1 Mbit/s. At the same time it is cost effective to build into
vehicle body electronics, e.g. lamp clusters, electric windows etc. to replace the wiring har-
ness otherwise required.
The intention of this specification is to achieve compatibility between any two CAN imple-
mentations. Compatibility, however, has different aspects regarding e.g. electrical features
and the interpretation of data to be transferred. To achieve design transparency and imple-
mentation flexibility CAN has been subdivided into different layers according to the ISO/OSI
Reference Model:
· the Data Link Layer
- the Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer
- the Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer
· the Physical Layer
Note that in previous versions of the CAN Specification the services and functions of the
LLC and MAC sublayers of the Data Link Layer had been described in layers denoted as
'object layer' and 'transfer layer'. The scope of the LLC sublayer is
· to provide services for data transfer and for remote data request,
· to decide which messages received by the LLC sublayer are actually to be accepted,
· to provide means for recovery management and overload notifications.
There is much freedom in defining object handling. The scope of the MAC sublayer mainly is
the transfer protocol, i.e. controlling the Framing, performing Arbitration, Error, Checking, Error
Signalling and Fault Confinement. Within the MAC sublayer it is decided whether the bus is
free for starting a new transmission or whether a reception is just starting. Also some general
features of the bit timing are regarded as part of the MAC sublayer. It is in the nature of the
MAC sublayer that there is no freedom for modifications.

The scope of the physical layer is the actual transfer of the bits between the different nodes
with respect to all electrical properties. Within one network the physical layer, of course, has
to be the same for all nodes. There may be, however, much freedom in selecting a physical
layer.
The scope of this specification is to define the MAC sublayer and a small part of the LLC
sublayer of the Data Link Layer and to describe the consequences of the CAN protocol on
the surrounding layers.

2 BASIC CONCEPTS
CAN has the following properties
· prioritization of messages
· guarantee of latency times
· configuration flexibility
· multicast reception with time synchronization
· system wide data consistency
· multimaster
· error detection and error signalling
· automatic retransmission of corrupted messages as soon as the bus is idle again.
· distinction between temporary errors and permanent failures of nodes and autonomous
switching off of defect nodes.
Layered Architecture of CAN according to the OSI Reference Model
· The Physical Layer defines how signals are actually transmitted and therefore deals with
the description of Bit Timing , Bit Encoding, and Synchronization. Within this
specification the Driver/Receiver Characteristics of the Physical Layer are not defined so
as to allow trans-mission medium and signal level implementations to be optimized for
their application.
· The MAC sublayer represents the kernel of the CAN protocol. It presents messages
received from the LLC sublayer and accepts messages to be transmitted to the LLC
sublayer. The MAC sublayer is responsible for Message Framing, Arbitration,
Acknowledgement, Error Detection and Signalling. The MAC sublayer are supervised by
a management entity called Fault Confinement which is self-checking mechanism for
distinguishing short disturbances from permanent failures.
· The LLC sublayer is concerned with Message Filtering, Overload Notification and
Recovery Management.

Data Link Layer

LLC Supervisor
Acceptance Filtering
Overload Notification
Recovery Management
MAC
Data Encapsulation
/Decapsulation
Frame Coding
(Stuffing, Destuffing) Fault
Medium Access Management Confinement
Error Detection
Error Signalling
Acknowledgement
Serialization / Deserialization
Physical Layer
Bit Encoding/Decoding
Bit Timing Bus Failure
Synchronization Management
Driver/Receiver Characteristics
LLC = Logical Link Control

MAC = Medium Access Control

The scope of this specification is to define the Data Link Layer and the consequences of the
CAN protocol on the surrounding layers.
Messages
Information on the bus is sent in fixed format messages of different but limited length (see
section 3: Message Transfer). When the bus is free any connected unit may start to transmit
a new message.
Information Routing
In CAN systems a CAN node does not make use of any information about the system
configuration (e.g. station addresses). This has several important consequences.
System Flexibility: Nodes can be added to the CAN network without requiring any
change in the software or hardware of any node and application layer.
Message Routing: The content of a message is named by an IDENTIFIER. The

IDENTI-FIER does not indicate the destination of the message, but describes the
meaning of the data, so that all nodes in the network are able to decide by Message
Filtering whether the data is to be acted upon by them or not.
Multicast: As a consequence of the concept of Message Filtering any number of nodes

can receive and simultaneously act upon the same message.
Data Consistency: Within a CAN network it is guaranteed that a message is

simultaneously accepted either by all nodes or by no node. Thus data consistency of a
system is achieved by the concepts of multicast and by error handling.
Bit rate
The speed of CAN may be different in different systems. However, in a given system the
bit-rate is uniform and fixed.
Priorities
The IDENTIFIER defines a static message priority during bus access.

Remote Data Request

By sending a REMOTE FRAME a node requiring data may request another node to send the
corresponding DATA FRAME. The DATA FRAME and the corresponding REMOTE
FRAME are named by the same IDENTIFIER.
Multimaster
When the bus is free any unit may start to transmit a message. The unit with the message of
highest priority to be transmitted gains bus access.
Arbitration
Whenever the bus is free, any unit may start to transmit a message. If 2 or more units start
transmitting messages at the same time, the bus access conflict is resolved by bitwise arbitra-
tion using the IDENTIFIER. The mechanism of arbitration guarantees that neither informa-
tion nor time is lost. If a DATA FRAME and a REMOTE FRAME with the same IDENTI-
FIER are initiated at the same time, the DATA FRAME prevails over the REMOTE
FRAME. During arbitration every transmitter compares the level of the bit transmitted with
the level that is monitored on the bus. If these levels are equal the unit may continue to send.
When a 'recessive' level is sent and a 'dominant' level is monitored (see Bus Values), the unit
has lost arbitration and must withdraw without sending one more bit.
Safety
In order to achieve the utmost safety of data transfer, powerful measures for error detection,
signalling and self-checking are implemented in every CAN node.
Error Detection
For detecting errors the following measures have been taken:
- Monitoring (transmitters compare the bit levels to be transmitted with the bit levels
de-
tected on the bus)
- Cyclic Redundancy Check
- Bit Stuffing
- Message Frame Check
Performance of Error Detection

The error detection mechanisms have the following properties:
- all global errors are detected.

- all local errors at transmitters are detected.
- up to 5 randomly distributed errors in a message are detected.
- burst errors of length less than 15 in a message are detected.

- errors of any odd number in a message are detected.
Total residual error probability for undetected corrupted messages: less than
message error rate á 4.7 á10 -11.
Error Signalling and Recovery Time

Corrupted messages are flagged by any node detecting an error. Such messages are aborted
and will be retransmitted automatically. The recovery time from detecting an error until the
start of the next message is at most 31 bit times, if there is no further error.
Fault Confinement
CAN nodes are able to distinguish short disturbances from permanent failures. Defective
nodes are switched off.
Connections
The CAN serial communication link is a bus to which a number of units may be connected.
This number has no theoretical limit. Practically the total number of units will be limited by
delay times and/or electrical loads on the bus line.
Single Channel
The bus consists of a single bidirectional channel that carries bits. From this data resynchro-
nization information can be derived. The way in which this channel is implemented is not
fixed in this specification. E.g. single wire (plus ground), two differential wires, optical fi-
bres, etc.
Bus values
The bus can have one of two complementary logical values: 'dominant' or 'recessive'. Du-
ring simultaneous transmission of 'dominant' and 'recessive' bits, the resulting bus value will
be 'dominant'. For example, in case of a wired-AND implementation of the bus, the
Ôdominant' level would be represented by a logical '0' and the 'recessive' level by a logical '1'.
Physical states (e.g. electrical voltage, light) that represent the logical levels are not given in
this specification.
Acknowledgement
All receivers check the consistency of the message being received and will acknowledge a
consistent message and flag an inconsistent message.

Sleep Mode / Wake-up

To reduce the system's power consumption, a CAN-device may be set into sleep mode with-
out any internal activity and with disconnected bus drivers. The sleep mode is finished with
a wake-up by any bus activity or by internal conditions of the system. On wake-up, the
inter-nal activity is restarted, although the MAC sublayer will be waiting for the system's
oscilla-tor to stabilize and it will then wait until it has synchronized itself to the bus activity
(by checking for eleven consecutive 'recessive' bits), before the bus drivers are set to "on-
bus" again.
Oscillator Tolerance
The Bit Timing requirements allow ceramic resonators to be used in applications with trans-
mission rates of up to 125 kbit/s as a rule of thumb; for a more precise evaluation refer to
Dais, S; Chapman, M:
"Impact of Bit Representation on Transport Capacity and Clock
Accuracy in Serial Data Streams",
SAE Technical Paper Series 890532, Multiplexing in Automobil SP-773,
March 1989.
For the full bus speed range of the CAN protocol, a quartz oscillator is required.

3 MESSAGE TRANSFER
3.1 Frame Formats
There are two different formats which differ in the length of the IDENTIFIER field: Frames
with the number of 11 bit IDENTIFIER are denoted Standard Frames . In contrast, frames
containing 29 bit IDENTIFIER are denoted Extended Frames.
3.2 Frame Types
Message transfer is manifested and controlled by four different frame types:
A DATA FRAME carries data from a transmitter to the receivers.

A REMOTE FRAME is transmitted by a bus unit to request the transmission of the DATA
FRAME with the same IDENTIFIER.
An ERROR FRAME is transmitted by any unit on detecting a bus error.
An OVERLOAD FRAME is used to provide for an extra delay between the preceding and
the succeeding DATA or REMOTE FRAMEs.
DATA FRAMEs and REMOTE FRAMEs can be used both in Standard Frame Format and
Extended Frame Format; they are separated from preceding frames by an INTERFRAME
SPACE.
3.2.1 DATA FRAME
A DATA FRAME is composed of seven different bit fields:

START OF FRAME, ARBITRATION FIELD, CONTROL FIELD, DATA FIELD,
CRC FIELD, ACK FIELD, END OF FRAME. The DATA FIELD can be of
length zero.

Interframe Interframe
Space DATA FRAME Space
or
Overload
Frame
Start of Frame
Arbitration Field
Control Field
Data Field
CRC Field
ACK Field
End of Frame
START OF FRAME (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

The START OF FRAME (SOF) marks the beginning of DATA FRAMES and REMOTE
FRAMEs. It consists of a single 'dominant' bit.
A station is only allowed to start transmission when the bus is idle (see 'INTERFRAME
Spacing'). All stations have to synchronize to the leading edge caused by START OF
FRAME (see 'HARD SYNCHRONIZATION') of the station starting transmission first.
ARBITRATION FIELD
The format of the ABITRATION FIELD is different for Standard Format and Extended
Format Frames.
- In Standard Format the ARBITRATION FIELD consists of the 11 bit IDENTIFIER and
the RTR-BIT. The IDENTIFIER bits are denoted ID-28 ... ID-18.
- In Extended Format the ARBITRATION FIELD consists of the 29 bit IDENTIFIER,

the
SRR-Bit, the IDE-Bit, and the RTR-BIT. The IDENTIFIER bits are denoted ID-28 ....
ID-0.

In order to distinguish between Standard Format and Extended Format the reserved bit r1 in
previous CAN Specifications version 1.0-1.2 now is denoted as IDE Bit.
Standard Format
Arbitration Control Data

Field Field Field
S R I
O 11 bit IDENTIFIER T D r DLC
F R E 0
Extended Format
Arbitration Field Control Data

Field Field
S S I R
O 11 bit IDENTIFIER R D 18 bit IDENTIFIER T r r DLC
F R E R 1 0
IDENTIFIER
IDENTIFIER - Standard Format
The IDENTIFIER's length is 11 bits and corresponds to the Base ID in Extended
For-mat. These bits are transmitted in the order from ID-28 to ID-18. The least
significant bit is ID-18. The 7 most significant bits (ID-28 - ID-22) must not be all
'recessive'.
IDENTIFIER - Extended Format

In contrast to the Standard Format the Extended Format consists of 29 bits. The
format comprises two sections:
Base ID with 11 bits and the

Extended ID with 18 bits

Base ID
The Base ID consists of 11 bits. It is transmitted in the order from ID-28 to ID-18. It is
equivalent to format of the Standard Identifier. The Base ID defines the Extended
Frame's base priority.
Extended ID
The Extended ID consists of 18 bits. It is transmitted in the order of ID-17 to ID-0.
In a Standard Frame the IDENTIFIER is followed by the RTR bit.
RTR BIT (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

Remote Transmission Request BIT
In DATA FRAMEs the RTR BIT has to be 'dominant'. Within a REMOTE FRAME the
RTR BIT has to be 'recessive'.
In an Extended Frame the Base ID is transmitted first, followed by the IDE bit and the SRR
bit. The Extended ID is transmitted after the SRR bit.
SRR BIT (Extended Format)

Substitute Remote Request
The SRR bit is a recessive bits. It is transmitted in Extended Frames at the position of the
RTR Bit in Standard Frames and so substitutes the RTR-Bit in the Standard Frame.
Therefore, collisions of a Standard Frame and an Extended Frame, the Base ID (see 'Ex-
tended IDENTIFIER' below) of which is the same as the Standard Frame's Identifier, are
resolved in such a way that the Standard Frame prevails the Extended Frame.
IDE BIT (Extended Format)

Identifier Extension Bit
The IDE Bit belongs to
- the ARBITRATION FIELD for the Extended Format.
- the CONTROL FIELD for the Standard Format.
The IDE bit in the Standard Format is transmitted 'dominant', whereas in the Extended
Format the IDE bit is recessive.
CONTROL FIELD (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

The CONTROL FIELD consists of six bits. The format of the CONTROL FIELD is different
for Standard Format and Extended Format. Frames in Standard Format include the DATA
LENGTH CODE, the IDE bit, which is transmitted 'dominant' (see above),

and the reserved bit r0. Frames in Extended Format include the DATA LENGTH
CODE and two reserved bits r1 and r0. The reserved bits have to be sent 'dominant', but
Recei-vers accept 'dominant' and 'recessive' bits in all combinations.
Arbitration CONTROL FIELD Data

Field Standard Format and Extended Format Field
IDE/ or
r1 r0 DLC3 DLC2 DLC1 DLC0 CRC Field
reserved
Data Length Code
bits
DATA LENGTH CODE (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

The number of bytes in the DATA FIELD is indicated by the DATA LENGTH CODE.
This DATA LENGTH CODE is 4 bits wide and is transmitted within the CONTROL
FIELD.
Coding of the number of data bytes by the DATA LENGTH CODE

abbreviations: d 'dominant'
r 'recessive'
Number of Data Data Length Code
Bytes DLC3 DLC2 DLC1 DLC0
0 d d d d
1 d d d r
2 d d r d
3 d d r r
4 d r d d
5 d r d r
6 d r r d
7 d r r r
8 r d d d

DATA FRAME: admissible numbers of data bytes: {0,1,....,7,8}.

Other values may not be used.
DATA FIELD (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

The DATA FIELD consists of the data to be transferred within a DATA FRAME. It can
contain from 0 to 8 bytes, which each contain 8 bits which are transferred MSB first.
CRC FIELD (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

contains the CRC SEQUENCE followed by a CRC DELIMITER.
Data CRC FIELD Ack

or Field
Control
Field
CRC Delimiter
CRC Sequence
CRC SEQUENCE (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

The frame check sequence is derived from a cyclic redundancy code best suited for frames
with bit counts less than 127 bits (BCH Code).
In order to carry out the CRC calculation the polynomial to be divided is defined as the
poly-nomial, the coefficients of which are given by the destuffed bit stream consisting of
START OF FRAME, ARBITRATION FIELD, CONTROL FIELD, DATA FIELD (if
present) and, for the 15 lowest coefficients, by 0. This polynomial is divided (the
coefficients are calcula-ted modulo-2) by the generator-polynomial:
X 15 + X 14 + X 10 + X 8 + X7 + X 4 + X 3 + 1.
The remainder of this polynomial division is the CRC SEQUENCE transmitted over the bus.
In order to implement this function, a 15 bit shift register CRC_RG(14:0) can be used. If
NXTBIT denotes the next bit of the bit stream, given by the destuffed bit sequence from
START OF FRAME until the end of the DATA FIELD, the CRC SEQUENCE is calculated
as follows:
CRC_RG = 0; // initialize shift register

REPEAT
CRCNXT = NXTBIT EXOR CRC_RG(14);
CRC_RG(14:1) = CRC_RG(13:0); // shift left by
CRC_RG(0) = 0; // 1 position
IF CRCNXT THEN
CRC_RG(14:0) = CRC_RG(14:0) EXOR (4599hex);
ENDIF
UNTIL (CRC SEQUENCE starts or there is an ERROR condition)
After the transmission / reception of the last bit of the DATA FIELD, CRC_RG contains
the CRC sequence.
CRC DELIMITER (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

The CRC SEQUENCE is followed by the CRC DELIMITER which consists of a single 're-
cessive' bit.
ACK FIELD (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

The ACK FIELD is two bits long and contains the ACK SLOT and the ACK DELIMITER.
In the ACK FIELD the transmitting station sends two 'recessive' bits.
A RECEIVER which has received a valid message correctly, reports this to the
TRANSMIT-TER by sending a 'dominant' bit during the ACK SLOT (it sends 'ACK').
CRC ACK FIELD End of

Field Frame
ACK Delimiter
ACK Slot
ACK SLOT
All stations having received the matching CRC SEQUENCE report this within the ACK
SLOT by superscribing the 'recessive' bit of the TRANSMITTER by a 'dominant' bit.
ACK DELIMITER
The ACK DELIMITER is the second bit of the ACK FIELD and has to be a 'recessive' bit.
As a consequence, the ACK SLOT is surrounded by two 'recessive' bits (CRC
DELIMITER, ACK DELIMITER).

END OF FRAME (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

Each DATA FRAME and REMOTE FRAME is delimited by a flag sequence consisting of
seven 'recessive' bits.
3.2.2 REMOTE FRAME
A station acting as a RECEIVER for certain data can initiate the transmission of the respecti-
ve data by its source node by sending a REMOTE FRAME.
A REMOTE FRAME exists both in Standard Format and in Extended Format. In both case
it is composed of six different bit fields:
START OF FRAME, ARBITRATION FIELD, CONTROL FIELD, CRC FIELD, ACK
FIELD, END OF FRAME.
Contrary to DATA FRAMEs, the RTR bit of REMOTE FRAMEs is 'recessive'. There is
no DATA FIELD, independent of the values of the DATA LENGTH CODE which may be
sig-ned any value within the admissible range 0...8. The value is the DATA LENGTH
CODE of the corresponding DATA FRAME.
Inter REMOTE FRAME Inter

Frame Frame
Space Space
or
Overload
Frame
Start of Frame
Arbitration Field
Control Field
CRC Field
ACK Field
End of Frame

The polarity of the RTR bit indicates whether a transmitted frame is a DATA FRAME
(RTR bit 'dominant') or a REMOTE FRAME (RTR bit 'recessive').
3.2.3 ERROR FRAME
The ERROR FRAME consists of two different fields. The first field is given by the
superpo-sition of ERROR FLAGs contributed from different stations. The following second
field is the ERROR DELIMITER.
Data ERROR FRAME Interframe

Frame Space or
Error Flag Overload

Frame
superposition of
Error Flags
Error Delimiter
In order to terminate an ERROR FRAME correctly, an 'error passive' node may need the bus
to be 'bus idle' for at least 3 bit times (if there is a local error at an 'error passive' receiver).
Therefore the bus should not be loaded to 100%.
ERROR FLAG
There are 2 forms of an ERROR FLAG: an ACTIVE ERROR FLAG and a PASSIVE ER-
ROR FLAG.
1. The ACTIVE ERROR FLAG consists of six consecutive 'dominant' bits.
2. The PASSIVE ERROR FLAG consists of six consecutive 'recessive' bits unless it is
overwritten by 'dominant' bits from other nodes.
An 'error active' station detecting an error condition signals this by transmission of an AC-TIVE
ERROR FLAG. The ERROR FLAG's form violates the law of bit stuffing (see CO-DING)
applied to all fields from START OF FRAME to CRC DELIMITER or destroys the fixed
form ACK FIELD or END OF FRAME field. As a consequence, all other stations de-tect an
error condition and on their part start transmission of an ERROR FLAG. So the se-

quence of 'dominant' bits which actually can be monitored on the bus results from a
superposition of different ERROR FLAGs transmitted by individual stations. The total
length of this sequence varies between a minimum of six and a maximum of twelve bits.
An 'error passive' station detecting an error condition tries to signal this by transmission of a
PASSIVE ERROR FLAG. The 'error passive' station waits for six consecutive bits of equal
polarity, beginning at the start of the PASSIVE ERROR FLAG. The PASSIVE ERROR
FLAG is complete when these 6 equal bits have been detected.
ERROR DELIMITER
The ERROR DELIMITER consists of eight 'recessive' bits.
After transmission of an ERROR FLAG each station sends 'recessive' bits and monitors the
bus until it detects a 'recessive' bit. Afterwards it starts transmitting seven more 'recessive'
bits.
3.2.4 OVERLOAD FRAME
The OVERLOAD FRAME contains the two bit fields OVERLOAD FLAG and OVER-
LOAD DELIMITER.
There are two kinds of OVERLOAD conditions, which both lead to the transmission of an
OVERLOAD FLAG:
1. The internal conditions of a receiver, which requires a delay of the next DATA FRAME
or REMOTE FRAME.
2. Detection of a 'dominant' bit at the first and second bit of INTERMISSION.
3. If a CAN node samples a dominant bit at the eighth bit (the last bit) of an ERROR DE-
IMITER or OVERLOAD DELIMITER, it will start transmitting an OVERLOAD
FRAME (not an ERROR FRAME). The Error Counters will not be incremented.
The start of an OVERLOAD FRAME due to OVERLOAD condition 1 is only allowed to

be started at the first bit time of an expected INTERMISSION, whereas OVERLOAD
FRAMEs due to OVERLOAD condition 2 and condition 3 start one bit after detecting the
'dominant' bit.

At most two OVERLOAD FRAMEs may be generated to delay the next DATA or REMO-
TE FRAME.
End of Frame or OVERLOAD FRAME Inter

Error Delimiter or Frame
Overload Delimiter Space or
Overload Overload
Flag Frame
superposition of
Overload Flags Overload Delimiter
OVERLOAD FLAG
consists of six 'dominant' bits. The overall form corresponds to that of the ACTIVE ERROR
FLAG.
The OVERLOAD FLAG's form destroys the fixed form of the INTERMISSION field. As a
consequence, all other stations also detect an OVERLOAD condition and on their part start
transmission of an OVERLOAD FLAG. In case that there is a 'dominant' bit detected during
the 3rd bit of INTERMISSION then it will interpret this bit as START OF FRAME.
Note:
Controllers based on the CAN Specification version 1.0 and 1.1 have another interpre-
tation of the 3rd bit of INTERMISSION: If a dominant bit was detected locally at
some node, the other nodes will not interpret the OVERLOAD FLAG correctly, but
interpret the first of these six 'dominant' bits as START OF FRAME; the sixth 'domi-
nant' bit violates the rule of bit stuffing causing an error condition.
OVERLOAD DELIMITER
consists of eight 'recessive' bits.
The OVERLOAD DELIMITER is of the same form as the ERROR DELIMITER. After
transmission of an OVERLOAD FLAG the station monitors the bus until it detects a transi-

tion from a 'dominant' to a 'recessive' bit. At this point of time every bus station has finished
sending its OVERLOAD FLAG and all stations start transmission of seven more 'recessive'
bits in coincidence.
3.2.5 INTERFRAME SPACING
DATA FRAMEs and REMOTE FRAMEs are separated from preceding frames whatever
type they are (DATA FRAME, REMOTE FRAME, ERROR FRAME, OVERLOAD
FRA-ME) by a bit field called INTERFRAME SPACE. In contrast, OVERLOAD
FRAMEs and ERROR FRAMEs are not preceded by an INTERFRAME SPACE and
multiple OVER-LOAD FRAMEs are not separated by an INTERFRAME SPACE.
INTERFRAME SPACE
contains the bit fields INTERMISSION and BUS IDLE and, for 'error passive' stations,
which have been TRANSMITTER of the previous message, SUSPEND TRANSMISSION.
For stations which are not 'error passive' or have been RECEIVER of the previous message:
Frame INTERFRAME SPACE Frame
Bus Idle
Intermission
For 'error passive' stations which have been TRANSMITTER of the previous message:
Frame INTERFRAME SPACE Frame
Bus Idle
Suspend Transmission
Intermission

INTERMISSION
consists of three 'recessive' bits.
During INTERMISSION the only action to be taken is signalling an OVERLOAD condition

and no station is allowed to actively start a transmission of a DATA FRAME or REMOTE
FRAME.
Note:
If a CAN node has a message waiting for transmission and it samples a dominant bit at
the third bit of INTERMISSION, it will interpret this as a START OF FRAME bit,
and, with the next bit, start transmitting ist message with the first bit of its IDENTI-
FIER without first transmitting a START OF FRAME bit and without becoming re-
ceiver.
BUS IDLE
The period of BUS IDLE may be of arbitrary length. The bus is recognized to be free and
any station having something to transmit can access the bus. A message, which is pending for
transmission during the transmission of another message, is started in the first bit follo-wing
INTERMISSION.
The detection of a 'dominant' bit on the bus is interpreted as START OF FRAME.
SUSPEND TRANSMISSION
After an 'error passive' station has transmitted a message, it sends eight 'recessive' bits fol-
lowing INTERMISSION, before starting to transmit a further message or recognizing the bus
to be idle. If meanwhile a transmission (caused by another station) starts, the station will
become receiver of this message.

3.3 Conformance with regard to Frame Formats
The Standard Format is equivalent to the Data/Remote Frame Format as it is described in the
CAN Specification 1.2. In contrast the Extended Format is a new feature of the CAN proto-
col. In order to allow the design of relatively simple controllers, the implementation of the
Extended Format to its full extend is not required (e.g. send messages or accept data from
messages in Extended Format), whereas the Standard Format must be supported without re-
striction.
New controllers are considered to be in conformance with this CAN Specification, if they
have at least the following properties with respect to the Frame Formats defined in 3.1 and
3.2:
- Every new controller supports the Standard Format;

- Every new controller can receive messages of the Extended Format. This requires that
Extended Frames are not destroyed just because of their format. It is, however, not
required that the Extended Format must be supported by new controllers.
3.4 Definition of TRANSMITTER / RECEIVER
TRANSMITTER
A unit originating a message is called "TRANSMITTER" of that message. The unit stays
TRANSMITTER until the bus is idle or the unit loses ARBITRATION.
RECEIVER
A unit is called "RECEIVER" of a message, if it is not TRANSMITTER of that message and
the bus is not idle.

4 MESSAGE FILTERING
Message filtering is based upon the whole Identifer. Optional mask registers that allow any
Identifer bit to to be set 'don't care' for message filtering, may be used to select groups of
Identifiers to be mapped into the attached receive buffers.
If mask registers are implemented every bit of the mask registers must be programmable, i.e.
they can be enabled or disabled for message filtering. The length of the mask register can
comprise the whole IDENTIFIER or only part of it.

5 MESSAGE VALIDATION
The point of time at which a message is taken to be valid, is different for the transmitter and
the receivers of the message.
Transmitter
The message is valid for the transmitter, if there is no error until the end of END OF FRA-
ME. If a message is corrupted, retransmission will follow automatically and according to
prioritization. In order to be able to compete for bus access with other messages, retransmis-
sion has to start as soon as the bus is idle.
Receivers
The message is valid for the receivers, if there is no error until the last but one bit of END
OF FRAME. The value of the last bit of END OF FRAME is treated as 'dont care', a domi-
nant value does not lead to a FORM ERROR (cf. section 7.1).

6 CODING
BIT STREAM CODING
The frame segments START OF FRAME, ARBITRATION FIELD, CONTROL FIELD,

DATA FIELD and CRC SEQUENCE are coded by the method of bit stuffing. Whenever a
transmitter detects five consecutive bits of identical value in the bit stream to be transmitted
it automatically inserts a complementary bit in the actual transmitted bit stream.
The remaining bit fields of the DATA FRAME or REMOTE FRAME (CRC DELIMITER,
ACK FIELD and END OF FRAME) are of fixed form and not stuffed. The ERROR FRA-
ME and the OVERLOAD FRAME are of fixed form as well and not coded by the method of
bit stuffing.
The bit stream in a message is coded according to the Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) method.
This means, that during the total bit time the generated bit level is either 'dominant' or
'recessive'.

7 ERROR HANDLING
7.1 Error Detection
There are 5 different error types (which are not mutually exclusive):
· BIT ERROR
A unit that is sending a bit on the bus also monitors the bus. A BIT ERROR has to be
detected at that bit time, when the bit value that is monitored is different from the bit
value that is sent. An exception is the sending of a 'recessive' bit during the stuffed bit
stream of the ARBITRATION FIELD or during the ACK SLOT. Then no BIT ERROR
occurs when a 'dominant' bit is monitored. A TRANSMITTER sending a PASSIVE
ERROR FLAG and detecting a 'dominant' bit does not interprete this as a BIT ERROR.
· STUFF ERROR
A STUFF ERROR has to be detected at the bit time of the 6th consecutive equal bit level
in a message field that should be coded by the method of bit stuffing.
· CRC ERROR
The CRC sequence consists of the result of the CRC calculation by the transmitter. The
receivers calculate the CRC in the same way as the transmitter. A CRC ERROR has to be
detected, if the calculated result is not the same as that received in the CRC sequence.
· FORM ERROR
A FORM ERROR has to be detected when a fixed-form bit field contains one or more
illegal bits. (Note, that for a Receiver a dominant bit during the last bit of END OF
FRAME is not treated as FORM ERROR).
· ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ERROR
An ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ERROR has to be detected by a transmitter whenever it
does not monitor a 'dominant' bit during ACK SLOT.

7.2 Error Signalling
A station detecting an error condition signals this by transmitting an ERROR FLAG. For an
'error active' node it is an ACTIVE ERROR FLAG, for an 'error passive' node it is a PAS-
SIVE ERROR FLAG. Whenever a BIT ERROR, a STUFF ERROR, a FORM ERROR or an
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ERROR is detected by any station, transmission of an ERROR
FLAG is started at the respective station at the next bit.
Whenever a CRC ERROR is detected, transmission of an ERROR FLAG starts at the bit
fol-lowing the ACK DELIMITER, unless an ERROR FLAG for another error condition has
al-ready been started.

8 FAULT CONFINEMENT
With respect to fault confinement a unit may be in one of three states:
· 'error active'
· 'error passive'
· 'bus off'
An 'error active' unit can normally take part in bus communication and sends an ACTIVE
ERROR FLAG when an error has been detected.
An 'error passive' unit must not send an ACTIVE ERROR FLAG. It takes part in bus com-
munication, but when an error has been detected only a PASSIVE ERROR FLAG is sent.
Also after a transmission, an 'error passive' unit will wait before initiating a further transmis-
sion. (See SUSPEND TRANSMISSION)
A 'bus off' unit is not allowed to have any influence on the bus. (E.g. output drivers switched
off.)
For fault confinement two counts are implemented in every bus unit:
1) TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT

2) RECEIVE ERROR COUNT
These counts are modified according to the following rules:

(note that more than one rule may apply during a given message transfer)
1. When a RECEIVER detects an error, the RECEIVE ERROR COUNT will be increased by
1, except when the detected error was a BIT ERROR during the sending of an ACTIVE
ERROR FLAG or an OVERLOAD FLAG.
2. When a RECEIVER detects a 'dominant' bit as the first bit after sending an ERROR
FLAG the RECEIVE ERROR COUNT will be increased by 8.

3. When a TRANSMITTER sends an ERROR FLAG the TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT

is
increased by 8.
Exception 1:
If the TRANSMITTER is 'error passive' and detects an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ERROR because of not detecting a 'dominant' ACK and does not detect a 'dominant' bit
while sending its PASSIVE ERROR FLAG.
Exception 2:
If the TRANSMITTER sends an ERROR FLAG because a STUFF ERROR occurred
during ARBITRATION, and should have been 'recessive', and has been sent as 'recessive'
but monitored as 'dominant'.
In exceptions 1 and 2 the TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT is not changed.
4. If an TRANSMITTER detects a BIT ERROR while sending an ACTIVE ERROR FLAG

or an OVERLOAD FLAG the TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT is increased by 8.
5. If an RECEIVER detects a BIT ERROR while sending an ACTIVE ERROR FLAG or an

OVERLOAD FLAG the RECEIVE ERROR COUNT is increased by 8.
6. Any node tolerates up to 7 consecutive 'dominant' bits after sending an ACTIVE ERROR
FLAG, PASSIVE ERROR FLAG or OVERLOAD FLAG. After detecting the 14th
consecutive 'dominant' bit (in case of an ACTIVE ERROR FLAG or an OVERLOAD
FLAG) or after detecting the 8th consecutive 'dominant' bit following a PASSIVE ERROR
FLAG, and after each sequence of additional eight consecutive 'dominant' bits every
TRANSMITTER increases its TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT by 8 and every
RECEIVER increases its RECEIVE ERROR COUNT by 8.
7. After the successful transmission of a message (getting ACK and no error until END OF
FRAME is finished) the TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT is decreased by 1 unless it was
already 0.
8. After the successful reception of a message (reception without error up to the ACK
SLOT and the successful sending of the ACK bit), the RECEIVE ERROR COUNT is
decreased by 1, if it was between 1 and 127. If the RECEIVE ERROR COUNT was 0, it
stays 0, and if it was greater than 127, then it will be set to a value between 119 and 127.
9. A node is 'error passive' when the TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT equals or exceeds 128,
or when the RECEIVE ERROR COUNT equals or exceeds 128. An error condition let-
ting a node become 'error passive' causes the node to send an ACTIVE ERROR FLAG.
10. A node is 'bus off' when the TRANSMIT ERROR COUNT is greater than or equal to
256.
11. An 'error passive' node becomes 'error active' again when both the TRANSMIT ERROR
COUNT and the RECEIVE ERROR COUNT are less than or equal to 127.
12. An node which is 'bus off' is permitted to become 'error active' (no longer 'bus off') with
its error counters both set to 0 after 128 occurrances of 11 consecutive 'recessive' bits
have been monitored on the bus.
Note:
An error count value greater than about 96 indicates a heavily disturbed bus. It may be of
advantage to provide means to test for this condition.
Note:
Start-up / Wake-up:
If during system start-up only 1 node is online, and if this node transmits some message, it will
get no acknowledgement, detect an error and repeat the message. It can become 'error passive'
but not 'bus off' due to this reason.

9 OSCILLATOR TOLERANCE
A maximum oscillator tolerance of 1.58% is given and therefore the use of a ceramic resona-
tor at a bus speed of up to 125 Kbits/s as a rule of thumb; for a more precise evaluation refer
to
Dais, S; Chapman, M:
"Impact of Bit Representation on Transport Capacity and Clock
Accuracy in Serial Data Streams",
SAE Technical Paper Series 890532, Multiplexing in Automobil SP-773,
March 1989.
For the full bus speed range of the CAN protocol, a quartz oscillator is required.
The chip of the CAN network with the highest requirement for its oscillator accuracy
determines the oscillator accuracy which is required from all the other nodes.
Note:
CAN controllers following this CAN Specification and controllers following the previous
versions 1.0 and 1.1, used in one and the same network, must all be equipped with a quartz
oscillator. That means ceramic resonators can only be used in a network with all the nodes of
the network following CAN Protocol Specification versions 1.2 or later.

10 BIT TIMING REQUIREMENTS
NOMINAL BIT RATE

The Nominal Bit Rate is the number of bits per second transmitted in the absence of resyn-
chronization by an ideal transmitter.
NOMINAL BIT TIME
NOMINAL BIT TIME = 1 / NOMINAL BIT RATE
The Nominal Bit Time can be thought of as being divided into separate non-overlapping time
segments. These segments
- SYNCHRONIZATION SEGMENT (SYNC_SEG)

- PROPAGATION TIME SEGMENT (PROP_SEG)
- PHASE BUFFER SEGMENT1 (PHASE_SEG1)
- PHASE BUFFER SEGMENT2 (PHASE_SEG2)
form the bit time as shown in figure 1.
NOMINAL BIT TIME
SYNC_SEC PROP_SEG PHASE_SEG1 PHASE_SEG2
Sample Point
Fig. 1 Partition of the Bit Time
SYNC SEG
This part of the bit time is used to synchronize the various nodes on the bus. An edge is
expected to lie within this segment.

PROP SEG
This part of the bit time is used to compensate for the physical delay times within the net-
work. It is twice the sum of the signal's propagation time on the bus line, the input compara-
tor delay, and the output driver delay.
PHASE SEG1, PHASE SEG2

These Phaes-Buffer-Segments are used to compensate for edge phase errors. These segments
can be lengthened or shortened by resynchronization.
SAMPLE POINT
The SAMPLE POINT is the point of time at which the bus level is read and interpreted as
the value of that respective bit. It's location is at the end of PHASE_SEG1.
INFORMATION PROCESSING TIME

The INFORMATION PROCESSING TIME is the time segment starting with the
SAMPLE POINT reserved for calculation the subsequent bit level.
TIME QUANTUM
The TIME QUANTUM is a fixed unit of time derived from the oscillator period. There
exists a programmable prescaler, with integral values, ranging at least from 1 to 32. Starting
with the MINIMUM TIME QUANTUM, the TIME QUANTUM can have a length of
TIME QUANTUM = m á MINIMUM TIME QUANTUM
with m the value of the prescaler.
Length of Time Segments
· SYNC_SEG is 1 TIME QUANTUM long.
· PROP_SEG is programmable to be 1,2,...,8 TIME QUANTA long.
· PHASE_SEG1 is programmable to be 1,2,...,8 TIME QUANTA long.

· PHASE_SEG2 is the maximum of PHASE_SEG1 and the INFORMATION

PROCESSING TIME.
· The INFORMATION PROCESSING TIME is less than or equal to 2 TIME QUANTA

long.
The total number of TIME QUANTA in a bit time has to be programmable at least from 8
to 25.
Note:
It is often intended that control units do not make use of different oscillators for the local
CPU and its communication device. Therefore the oscillator frequency of a CAN device
tends to be that of the local CPU and is determined by the requirements of the control unit.
In order to derive the desired bitrate, programmability of the bittiming is necessary.
In case of CAN implementations that are designed for use without a local CPU the bittiming
cannot be programmable. On the other hand these devices allow to choose an external oscil-
lator in such a way that the device is adjusted to the appropriate bit rate so that the program-
mability is dispensable for such components.
The position of the sample point, however, should be selected in common for all nodes.
Therefore the bit timing of CAN devices without local CPU should be compatible to the fol-
lowing definition of the bit time:
Sync- Prop-
Seg Seg Phase Buffer Seg. 1 Phase Buffer Seg. 2
1Time 1 Time 4 Time Quanta 4 Time Quanta
Quantum Quantum
1 Bit Time
10 Time Quanta
HARD SYNCHRONIZATION
After a HARD SYNCHRONIZATION the internal bit time is restarted with SYNC_SEG.
Thus HARD SYNCHRONIZATION forces the edge which has caused the HARD SYNCH-
RONIZATION to lie within the SYNCHRONIZATION SEGMENT of the restarted bit
time.

RESYNCHRONIZATION JUMP WIDTH

As a result of RESYNCHRONIZATION PHASE_SEG1 may be lengthened or PHASE_
SEG2 may be shortened. The amount of lengthening or shortening of the PHASE BUFFER
SEGMENTs has an upper bound given by the RESYNCHRONIZATION JUMP WIDTH.
The RESYNCHRONIZATION JUMP WIDTH shall be programmable between 1 and
min(4, PHASE_SEG1).
Clocking information may be derived from transitions from one bit value to the other. The
property that only a fixed maximum number of successive bits have the same value provides
the possibility of resynchronizing a bus unit to the bit stream during a frame. The maximum
length between two transitions which can be used for resynchronization is 29 bit times.
PHASE ERROR of an edge

The PHASE ERROR of an edge is given by the position of the edge relative to SYNC_SEG,
measured in TIME QUANTA. The sign of PHASE ERROR is defined as follows:
· e = 0 if the edge lies within SYNC_SEG.
· e > 0 if the edge lies before the SAMPLE POINT.
· e < 0 if the edge lies after the SAMPLE POINT of the previous bit.
RESYNCHRONIZATION
The effect of a RESYNCHRONIZATION is the same as that of a HARD
SYNCHRONIZA-TION, when the magnitude of the PHASE ERROR of the edge which
causes the RESYN-CHRONIZATION is less than or equal to the programmed value of the
RESYNCHRONI-ZATION JUMP WIDTH. When the magnitude of the PHASE ERROR is
larger than the RESYNCHRONIZATION JUMP WIDTH,
· and if the PHASE ERROR is positive, then PHASE_SEG1 is lengthened by an amount

equal to the RESYNCHRONIZATION JUMP WIDTH.
· and if the PHASE ERROR is negative, then PHASE_SEG2 is shortened by an amount

equal to the RESYNCHRONIZATION JUMP WIDTH.

SYNCHRONIZATION RULES
HARD SYNCHRONIZATION and RESYNCHRONIZATION are the two forms of
SYNCHRONIZATION. They obey the following rules:
1. Only one SYNCHRONIZATION within one bit time is allowed.
2. An edge will be used for SYNCHRONIZATION only if the value detected at the previ-
ous SAMPLE POINT (previous read bus value) differs from the bus value immediately
after the edge.
3. HARD SYNCHRONIZATION is performed whenever there is a 'recessive' to 'domi-nant'

edge during BUS IDLE.
All other 'recessive' to 'dominant' edges fulfilling the rules 1 and 2 will be used for RE-
SYNCHRONIZATION with the exception that a node transmitting a dominant bit will not
perform a RESYNCHRONIZATION as a result of a 'recessive' to 'dominant' edge with a
positive PHASE ERROR, if only 'recessive' to 'dominant' edges are used for re-synchronization.

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CAN Specification 2.

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

2 BASIC CONCEPTS ..............................................................................................................5

3 MESSAGE TRANSFER .....................................................................................................11

3.1 Frame Formats ..................................................................................................................11

7.1 Error Detection..................................................................................................................28

10 BIT TIMING REQUIREMENTS ....................................................................................34

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

· the Data Link Layer

- the Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer

- the Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer

· the Physical Layer

· to provide means for recovery management and overload notifications.

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

CAN has the following properties

· guarantee of latency times

· multicast reception with time synchronization

· system wide data consistency

· error detection and error signalling

· automatic retransmission of corrupted messages as soon as the bus is idle again.

Layered Architecture of CAN according to the OSI Reference Model

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

Data Link Layer

LLC = Logical Link Control

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

Message Routing: The content of a message is named by an IDENTIFIER. The

Multicast: As a consequence of the concept of Message Filtering any number of nodes

Data Consistency: Within a CAN network it is guaranteed that a message is

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

Remote Data Request

Performance of Error Detection

- all global errors are detected.

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

- errors of any odd number in a message are detected.

message error rate á 4.7 á10 -11.

Error Signalling and Recovery Time

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

Sleep Mode / Wake-up

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

3.1 Frame Formats

3.2 Frame Types

Message transfer is manifested and controlled by four different frame types:

A DATA FRAME carries data from a transmitter to the receivers.

3.2.1 DATA FRAME

A DATA FRAME is composed of seven different bit fields:

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

START OF FRAME (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

- In Extended Format the ARBITRATION FIELD consists of the 29 bit IDENTIFIER,

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

Arbitration Control Data

Arbitration Field Control Data

IDENTIFIER - Extended Format

Base ID with 11 bits and the

CAN in Automation, Am Weichselgarten 26, D-91058 Erlangen

In a Standard Frame the IDENTIFIER is followed by the RTR bit.

RTR BIT (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)

SRR BIT (Extended Format)

IDE BIT (Extended Format)

CONTROL FIELD (Standard Format as well as Extended Format)