No. 16 - November 15, 2024

A word from the CiA Managing Director

Do you know the so-called Conway ‘law’: “.. organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.” (“How do committees invent?” by Melvin E. Conway, article published in Datamation, April 1968).

Recently, Dr. Ken Tindell, working with the CiA member JK Energy, referenced this ‘law’ in a LinkedIn post: “Conway's law is the bane of my existence. I'm either talking to security people about real-time issues or talking to embedded real-time networking people about security issues. And in neither case do the issues I raise resonate much: security people don't know about watchdog or lock-step core fault resets, and networking people don't know about the subtle intricacies of replay attacks. This is why there are key agreement protocols that will freeze communication for 100 ms+ and there are cryptographic CAN messaging schemes that can be side-stepped by a theft device clipped to the bus. Time to repeal Conway's law.”

I have had similar experiences with Conway’s law where technical structures were related to human structures: Many engineers designing CAN-based automation systems implement communication rules as used between officer and soldier, master and slave (these terms should not more be used, because of non-inclusive terminology), or commander and responder. The CAN data link layer protocols themselves are more democratic. CANopen protocols keep some of this democratic communication regarding PDO (process data object) and SDO (service data object). CANopen nodes may send and consume PDOs or provide an SDO client to any other CANopen node, which implements a corresponding SDO server. There are few exceptions: NMT (network management) services are initiated by one dedicated CANopen node with NMT manager functionality, one TIME producer service for the global network time, and one SYNC producer service for coordinating the PDO transmission of different CANopen nodes. This is somehow similar to democratic meetings, where a chairperson opens and closes the meeting and schedules the breaks. Of course, you can do this also in a democratic discussion; however, this would cost time, which could be better used for discussions of the agenda topics.

I would like to go a step further: Engineers with an open-minded culture are able to develop communication technologies, which protect human rights in any respect.

Coming back to the cybersecure communication in real-time control networks. It is even more complicated, when there is additionally a functional-safe communication required. In this case, the functional-safe network is normally certified by a legal authority. You lose this certificate, when you change the hard-, firm-, or software. On the other hand, when a cybersecurity vulnerability is detected, you should immediately update your hard-, firm-, or software. This leads to a dilemma: To secure your communication, you lose the functional safety or you can secure the communication, because you do not want to lose the functional-safety certificate.

There might be additional conflicts between different sets of regulations such as the right-to-repair versus cybersecurity and functional safety.

As Dr. Ken Tindell stated, it is time to listen to other experts and to find together innovative solutions to make CAN-based networks safe and secure, not reducing the real-time capability. CiA has established the Interest Group (IG) safety and security, in order to develop solutions for CAN-based networks fulfilling all these requirements. We try to open our minds and to listen carefully to all experts.
 

Technical inquiry online service

Since many years, CiA provides a free-of-charge “hotline”, responding to technical question by phone and email. For CiA members, an additional online service is offered: By means of a short Zoom meeting, CiA members can discuss with CiA staff technical questions in a more convinient way. Because of the possibility to share document and to show figures as well as drawings, the communication can be made more efficient. This service is not often used, because not all CiA members know it. Send us, as in the past, your technical questions to CiA office by email and request a short Zoom meeting to discuss your topic. Do not be shy: There are no stupid questions, there are only stupid answers.

IG01 SIG01 (CANopen CC application layer) re-awaked

On an external request, the CiA 320 specification (CANopen services and protocols for sleep and wake-up handling) needs to be reviewed. Therefore, CiA calls for experts interested in revising this document. Besides some editorial improvements, the technical description requires some clarifications, in order to avoid misinterpretations. Interested parties can contact CiA office.

CAN questionnaire by HMS

CiA member HMS has started a CAN-related questionnaire. CiA had given some advise regarding the questions. The summary results will be made available to those, who filled in the questionnaire.

CAN Newsletter magazine

The December issue of the CAN Newsletter magazine is in preparation and will be available beginning of December.

The already published issues from March 2012 to September 2024 can be downloaded free of charge from the CiA website.

iCC papers from 1994 to 2020

The papers of the international CAN Conferences (iCC) are again online for a free-of-charge download. The list of papers includes the author, the title, the abstract, and keywords. They are a matter to be searched. The papers of the 18th iCC are not yet online, they will be available beginning of next year.

Marketing group CANopen

CiA is going to re-establish a CANopen marketing group (MG), to promote CANopen CC (classic) and CANopen FD. There are new application domains addressed such as embedded greenhouse automation networking, modular (service) robot control, camera moving control, body application unit networking for rescue vehicles, etc. The MG will coordinate joint marketing activities including scheduling of CiA-organized online events such as webinars and technology days. Another marketing activity is the organization of in-person events in dedicated locations. Interested parties should contact CiA office.

CiA at Bauma China 2024

CAN in Automation is exhibiting at the Bauma China trade show in Shanghai from November 26 to 29, 2024. The trade show is dedicated for construction machinery, building material machines, mining machines, construction vehicles, and construction equipment. CiA is present in the hall N2 on the German joint stand 727. We are looking forward to meet you at the CiA’s booth. It is also possible to make an appointment in advance via email.
 

New video on Youtube

New CiA member since the last CCN

  • SoDoQ (DE)

CiA has 774 members (November 15, 2024)

CiA Product Guides

Renewed entries:
  • CANopen: emotas embedded communication

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Editors: Olga Fischer, Holger Zeltwanger (responsible according to the press law)
Advertising: Birgit Ruedel (responsible according to the press law)

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