CAN is a serial bus system developed by Robert Bosch GmbH for automobiles. All CAN nodes are able to transmit data and several CAN nodes can request the bus simultaneously. CAN is message based not address based. Another words, the CAN node sending the message does not address the node it wants to talk to. It simply puts the message on the data bus for all other nodes to receive. It is up to the node(s) to receive the message and process the message if it was intended for it by an identifier in the message. This would simplify communication by only having to send the message once and if needed, can be received and process by several other nodes.

Advantages of CAN are:
• High speed communication with error detection, which is used for engine management.
• Low cost. Two wire or Single wire CAN uses less wiring between nodes.
• CAN is also used for industrial field bus systems and medical.
• Is an international standard: ISO 11898

More information on CAN can be found at http://www.can.bosch.com