Integrating inaccessibility in response time analysis of CAN networks

A controller area network (CAN) is a field bus network suitable for small-scale distributed computer controlled systems, appropriate for transferring short real-time messages. Nevertheless, it must be understood that continuity of service is not fully guaranteed since it may be disturbed by temporary periods of network inaccessibility. Such temporary periods of network inaccessibility are integrated in the response time analysis of CAN networks. The achieved results emphasise that, in the presence of temporary periods of network inaccessibility, a CAN network is not able to provide different integrity levels to the supported applications, since errors in low priority messages interfere with the response time of higher priority message streams.