Dynamic CAN bus system configuration and messaging

A method and system for communicating over a controller area network (CAN) bus (-) enables messages to be routed from a controlling software component (-) to one or more processor-enabled peripheral devices (-) on a discrete basis over the CAN bus (-) to control the plurality of processor-enabled peripheral devices (-). By overlaying a hardware device protocol on a CAN bus protocol to realize CAN bus messaging, the controlling software components (-) can discretely communicate with the external processor-controlled peripheral devices (-) using the multiple multi-drop CAN busses (-). In addition, a method and system for handling registration of a processor-enabled peripheral device (-) with a controlling software component (-) includes creating a logical connection between the processor-enabled peripheral device (-) and the controlling software component (-) and breaking the logical connection between the processor-enabled peripheral device (-) and the controlling software component (-) if the processor-enabled peripheral device (-) is removed and re-introduced or if the controlling software component (-) is reset for re-registration purposes to provide plug-and-play capabilities and dynamic registration of processor-enabled peripheral devices (-).