MilCAN is a deterministic
protocol
Protocol may refer to:
Sociology and politics
* Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states
* Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state
* Etiquette, a code of personal behavior
Science and technology
...
that can be applied to
Controller Area Network
A Controller Area Network (CAN bus) is a robust vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other's applications without a host computer. It is a message-based protocol, designed originally for mu ...
(CAN) technology as specified by
ISO 11898
A Controller Area Network (CAN bus) is a robust vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other's applications without a host computer. It is a message-based protocol, designed originally for mu ...
. MilCAN has been defined by a group of interested companies and government bodies associated with the specification, manufacture and test of
military vehicle
A military vehicle is any vehicle for land-based military transport and activity, including combat vehicles; both specifically designed for, or significantly used by military and armed forces. Most military vehicles require off-road capabiliti ...
s.
The MilCAN
working group
A working group, or working party, is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. The groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdis ...
was formed in 1999 as a sub-group of the International High Speed
Data Bus
In computer architecture, a bus (shortened form of the Latin '' omnibus'', and historically also called data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers. This ex ...
- Users Group (IHSDB-UG) when a need was recognised to standardise the implementation of CANbus within the military vehicle community. The
mission statement
A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation ...
of this group was “To develop, for various application classes in all military vehicles, a common
interface
Interface or interfacing may refer to:
Academic journals
* ''Interface'' (journal), by the Electrochemical Society
* ''Interface, Journal of Applied Linguistics'', now merged with ''ITL International Journal of Applied Linguistics''
* '' Inte ...
implementation specification based on CANbus”.
Although initially developed for the military land systems domain, MilCAN may be applied wherever there is a requirement for deterministic
data transfer
Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point or ...
.
Meetings of the MilCAN work group are held about every six months, and are hosted by one of the group members.
External links
MilCAN working group
Serial buses