An active star topology for improving fault confinement in CAN networks

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2006

Authors

Barranco, M (Author) Other; Proenza, J (Author) Other; Rodriguez Navas, G (Author) Other; Luis Almeida (Author) Other

Journal

Title: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics

Vol. 2 No. 2

Pages: 78-85

ISSN: 1551-3203

Publisher: IEEE

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 38 Citations

Scopus - 59 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-004-KYF

DOI: 10.1109/tii.2006.875505

Abstract (EN): The controller area network (CAN) is a field bus that is nowadays widespread in distributed embedded systems, due to its electrical robustness, low price, and deterministic access delay. However, its use in safety-critical applications has been controversial due to dependability limitations, such as those arising from its bus topology. In particular, in a CAN bus, there are multiple components such that if any of them is faulty, a general failure of the communication system may happen. In this paper, we propose a design for an active star topology called CANcentrate. Our design solves the limitations indicated above by means of an active hub, which prevents error propagation from any of its ports to the others. Due to the specific characteristics of this hub, CANcentrate is fully compatible with existing CAN controllers. This paper compares bus and star topologies, analyzes related work, describes the CANcentrate basics, paying special attention to the mechanisms used for detecting faulty ports, and finally describes the implementation and test of a CANcentrate prototype.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 8