Welcome to our explanation of the CAN protocol. CAN stands for Controller Area Network, a robust vehicle bus standard designed for microcontroller communication. Originally developed for automotive applications to reduce wiring complexity, it's now widely used across many industries for reliable device communication.
The CAN bus structure uses a differential pair of wires: CAN High and CAN Low. These two wires carry the signal in opposite states - when one is high, the other is low. All nodes in the network connect to this single bus, creating a simple but robust communication system where messages are broadcast to all nodes simultaneously.