Design and implementation of a CAN/CAN bridge

Distributed real-time control systems require a powerful communication link between remote subsystems. The Controller Area Network (CAN) was developed to support such applications. The CAN is a serial bus with high speed, high reliability, and low cost for distributed real time control applications. The CAN is a desirable, cheap solution for networks in industrial environments, but there is limit on the maximum length of a single CAN. A solution is to divide the CAN network into segments and connect them using bridges. Bridges are high performance devices that are used to interconnect LANs at the Logical Link Control (LLC) or Medium Access Control (MAC) level in the protocol hierarchy. Unlike many serial communication protocols the CAN message contains no information relating to the destination and source addresses. Because of this feature of the CAN message it is not possible to use traditional address based bridges to connect CAN segments. The aim of this study is to design and implement a bridge to connect CAN segments based on CAN protocol features.