Extending CAN segments with IEEE 802.11 WLAN

Summary form only given. Controller area networks (CAN) are currently employed in many distributed real-time control applications in industrial environments. The CAN protocol based on a CSMA/CD+CR access mechanism with the use of priorities is a serial communication protocol and is used to support distributed real-time control and multiplexing. CAN-based distributed control systems have two main problems. They are the size of distributed area and the need for communication with other LANs and with remote CAN segments. A straightforward solution is to use interworking devices with wireless support to extend CAN segments, exploiting an IEEE 802.11 WLAN that is low cost technology with high data rates. This research study aims at designing and implementing such an interworking device called a wireless internetworking unit (WIU) that is capable of connecting remote CAN 2.0A nodes over IEEE 802.11b WLAN using an encapsulation method. Computer modeling and simulation of the proposed approach realized using OPNET Modeler and analysis of the simulation results obtained are also presented.