Philips PC Card Kvaser LAPcan - Manual (Page 2)

About CAN
detection mechanisms are extensive, and the fault confinement algorithms are well developed.
The error handling and retransmission of the messages is done automatically by the CAN
hardware.
Fine fault confinement
A faulty node within a system can ruin the transmission of a whole system, e.g. by occupying all
the available band width. The CAN protocol has a built-in feature that prevents a faulty node
from blocking the system. A faulty node is eventually excluded from further sending on the CAN
bus.
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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