Patent ID: 7289446

Claim:
A controller area network (CAN) communication device formed such that a plurality of nodes are connected to communication channels in a controller area network, each of the nodes comprising: transmission/reception means for transmitting and receiving data including a CAN-ID field formed of bits containing function information; ID-setting means for setting predetermined function information to the bits of the CAN-ID field contained in the data transmitted from the transmission/reception means; and ID-analyzing means for analyzing the predetermined function information set in the CAN-ID field included in the data when the data containing the predetermined function information set by the ID-setting means has been received by the transmission/reception means, wherein the ID-setting means groups the predetermined function information in units of a predetermined function, assigns a data-transmission priority, assigns a general function group ID, and assigns a communication category code ID used to identify a communication content to each item of the grouped predetermined function information to be set to part of the bits of the CAN-ID field.