BRIDGE FOR CAN TO TCP/IP CONNECTION

A method and corresponding apparatus for communicating a controller area network (CAN) message between a sending node, attached to a sending CAN network, and a receiving node, where the sending and receiving nodes are interconnected by a network communicating according to transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP). The invention provides for having the sending node extract the CAN message payload (arbitration field, control field and data field if any) from a CAN message, having it embed the CAN message payload in a TCP/IP frame as the TCP/IP data field of the TCP/IP frame, having it refer to a routing form to determine the address on the TCP/IP network of the receiving node; and having it transmit the TCP/IP frame over the TCP/IP network using the address for the receiving node from the routing form. The invention also provides for having the receiving node extract the CAN message payload from the TCP/IP frame, and alter the identifier of the CAN message payload, as needed, so as to correspond to the CAN message content at the receiving node (i.e. in case the receiving node is attached to a receiving CAN network, to correspond to the CAN message content of the receiving CAN network, but if the receiving node hosts a browser and is not attached to a receiving CAN network, to correspond to the CAN message content according to the preference of the user of the browser), the altering performed by reference to a mapping relating identifiers based on the network address of the sending node.