Embedded Systems/Common Protocols

This is a list of common protocols used in embedded systems. Eventually, this list will become hyperlinks to sources of information on each. Many of them are byte-stream protocols that can be transmitted by a variety of serial protocols on a variety of hardware.

• I 2 C
• RS-485 is an extremely common hardware arrangement used by many embedded protocols:
  • CAN on top of RS485
  • DeviceNet on top of CAN. Wikipedia: DeviceNet
  • NMEA 2000 on top of DeviceNet. Wikipedia: NMEA 2000
  • DMX on top of RS485. Wikipedia: DMX512
  • Modbus on top of RS485
  • see Serial Programming/RS-485, Robotics/Computer Control/The Interface/Networks#RS485, Embedded Control Systems Design/Field busses, Embedded Systems/Serial and Parallel IO#RS-485
  • Modbus RTU over RS-485
  • Modbus ASCII over 7-bit asynchronous serial lines
  • Modbus TCP over Ethernet

  Further reading

  If you are designing a new protocol because none of these meet your needs (which are what, exactly?), you may want to consider the w:Network protocol design principles, some Serial Programming/Forming Data Packets tips, ponder Communication Systems and Data Coding Theory, select one of the Serial Programming/Error Correction Methods, and post rough drafts to the PICA standards wiki for expert review.

  Typically an embedded system has one "main" CPU and a bunch of peripheral devices. Is there a way for the main CPU to automatically find out how many peripheral devices are currently connected, and the unique ID of each device? Yes, several ways—some of them are listed on a page at the Electronics and Robotics site.

  • "Consistent Overhead Byte Stuffing" by Stuart Cheshire and Mary Baker, 1999.
  • Internet Technologies/Protocols
  • "Good RS232-based Protocols for Embedded to Computer Communication"
  • "Networking, Protocols, and Devices" forum [3]