A CAN hub with improved error detection and isolation
Manuel Barranco, Julián Proenza, Guillermo Rodríguez-Navas, Lúıs Almeida, Illes Baleares · 2005
Distributed embedded systems that require real-time performance need a network capable of deterministic access delay. CAN is one such network that became widespread in recent years due to its electrical robustness, low price, and prioritybased access control. However, its use in safety-critical applications has been controversial mainly due to dependability limitations that arise from its bus topology, e.g. the existence of many possible points of failure. In this paper we propose and present a star topology that exhibits improved fault diagnosis and isolation mechanisms with respect to other commercially available hubs. Our hub 1 is fully compatible with existing CAN controllers but requires double links. The paper presents a prototype implementation configurable with 4 to 16 ports, describes its architecture and presents some performance results. 2