International standardization

CiA is committed to support international standardization. CiA staff participates in or observes the CAN-related standardization activities by IEC, ISO, or ITU respectively CEN or Cenelec. CiA is also committed to submit all of its specifications to international standardization bodies.

CiA 301 (CANopen application layer) is standardized as EN 50325-4 and CANopen Safety is standardized as EN 50325-5. The CiA 422 CANopen application profile for refuse collecting vehicles has been released in 2016 by CEN as Technical Report (EN TR 16851). The CiA 407 CANopen profile for passenger information systems is published in the EN TR 13149 series. Parts of the CiA 443 CANopen profile for SIIS level-2 devices are standardized in ISO 13628-6. The CiA 443 profile for subsea applications has been developed jointly with SIIS members.

The CiA 402 CANopen profile for drives and motion controllers is part of the IEC 61800-7 series (sub-parts -201 and -301). The use of CANopen (CiA 301 and CiA 302-2) in rail vehicles is standardized in 61375-3-3. IEC has adapted also parts of the CiA 454 CANopen application profile for energy management systems in the IEC 61851 series to be released as Technical Report.

Standardization bodies

Cooperates with others

CiA also cooperates with other nonprofit organizations to develop jointly CAN-based solutions. With Profibus International a CANopen interface profile for Profinet-I/O has been released (CiA 309-4). The CiA 420 series of CANopen profiles for extruder downstream devices jointly developed with Euromap has been published since many years. In cooperation with the EnergyBus association, CiA members specify the above-mentioned CiA 454 profile also suitable for light electric vehicles including pedelecs and e-bikes. Additionally, CiA and JasPar cooperate in the development of CAN FD design recommendations for devices and networks.

ISO 11898 series

This series of standards comprise the lower-layers. Part 1 standardizes the data link layers: the Classical CAN as well as the CAN FD protocols. In addition, it specifies the physical signaling. Part 4 defines the time-triggered communication option (TTCAN), which enables the design of real-time systems in combination with event-triggered communication. Part 2 defines the high-speed medium access unit (MAU) implemented as stand-alone CAN transceiver and in system base chips (SBC). Former part 5 (lower-mode for high-speed MAUs), and former part 6 (selective wake-up functionality) have been integrated into part 2 published end of 2016. Part 3 standardizes the low-speed fault-tolerant MAU, which provides also a low-power mode.

ISO automotive standards

The automotive industry has developed some ISO standards to specify diagnostics. Because those data is sometimes longer than 8 byte, a transport protocol was standardized. This ISO-TP (transport protocol) for CAN-based networks is defined in ISO 15765-2. This standard supports Classical CAN as well as CAN FD.
ISO has also standardized the communication between commercial trucks and trailers including semi-trailers (ISO 11992 series). The ISO 16844 series standardizes the CAN interface for tachographs, and the ISO 26021 series (End-of-life activation of on-board pyrotechnic devices) is also based on CAN.

EN 50325 series

The EN 50325 series released by Cenelec comprises the CANopen application layer and communication profile (part 4) and the CANopen Safety protocol extension (part 5). Part 4 is equivalent to the CiA 301 version 4.0 specification. It doesn’t include the mapping to CAN FD, the Sync counter, and some other minor functional extensions introduced in CiA 1301. Part 5 substitutes the CiA 304 specification. It standardizes the CANopen Safety protocol introducing the SRDOs (safety-related data objects). An SRDO is made of two CAN messages containing the same process data, but bit-wise inverted.

ISO agriculture

For agriculture and forestry vehicles, ISO has developed a standard series (ISO 11783). This application profile is based on the SAE J1939 series of specifications. The ISO 11783-2 application layer (in the ISO wrongly titled as data link layer) references partly the SAE J1939-21 specification. The other ISO 11783 parts deal with the application parameters, e.g. part 7 with the implement messages, part 8 with power train messages, and part 10 with the task controller and management information system data interchange. There is also a specific enhancement for the network management as specified in SAE J1939-81.

SAE specifications

The international Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) provides the J1939 application profile for trucks and buses. The CAN-based specification comprises profile specifications for all OSI layers plus the description of suspect parameters and parameter groups. J1939 uses only the Classical CAN extended frame format (29-bit CAN identifier). The specification of a CAN FD based application layer is under development. In addition, the SAE has published in J2411 a single-wire physical layer. The SAE J2284 series provides network and device design recommendations including bit-rate settings for Classical CAN as well as for CAN FD.

IEC 61162-3

The IEC 61162-3 standard was originally published as NMEA 2000 specification. It is based on the SAE J1939 protocol. However, it uses also the multi-packet protocol as specified in ISO 11783-3 to transport payloads larger than 8 byte. The standard also specifies the signals and the mapping to messages (parameter groups). Typical devices connected to this CAN-based network are GPS receivers, auto-pilots, wind instruments, etc. The standard provides information for the application of NMEA 2000 aboard Solas vessels. Exceptions, additions, and specific requirements for implementation upon Solas vessels are contained in the document.

Other IEC standards

The IEC 61800-7 series comprises several device profile standards for electrical drives and motion controllers. This includes the CiA 402 series (IEC 61800-7-201/301) with a mapping to CANopen. The IEC 61375-3-3 standardizes the use of CANopen networks in rail vehicle applications. It is part of the Train Communication Network (TCN) standard series. The document specifies some dedicated physical layer items and provides a framework for CANopen used for in-car and train-set networking. The IEC 61915-2 standard is the base for the CANopen device profile for motor starters (CiA 442). It defines just the parameters, while CiA 442 specifies the mapping to CANopen.

Other ISO standards

ISO 15475-2 specifies the application framework for CAN-based networks, including CANopen and Devicenet (internationally standardized in IEC 62026-3). From this specification, the XML schema used for CiA 311 (Electronic Data Sheet in XML) is derived. The ISO 13628-6 standard includes some basic definitions for the CiA 443 profile for SIIS level-2 devices. CiA 443 specifies the CANopen communication interface for subsea equipment.

SAE Arinc 825/826

The SAE organization has released the CAN-related 825 and 826 specifications. SAE Arinc 825 specifies the 29-bit identifier usage and the ISO layers 3, 4, 6, and 7. It uses a bandwidth management concept known as "Time Triggered Bus Scheduling". This concept provides a means of computing the busload based on the number of messages in a network segment and adjusting their transmission rates. SAE Arinc 826 is a protocol for downloading software over CAN. It allows Loadable Software Aircraft Parts to be transmitted in a verifiable and secure manner to avionics Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) and Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs). An adaption for CAN FD based networks is under development.