The networking standard CANopen does not specify or standardize an application
programming interface (API) for accessing the CANopen network protocol stack
of CANopen nodes. Most existing CANopen implementations use their own API
and as a result once a specific CANopen solution is implemented, there is no easy
migration path to port an existing CANopen application to a different CANopen
protocol stack.
This document describes an open application programming interface (API) for
CANopen slave nodes. All CANopen solutions providing this API are
interchangeable and allow the developer of a CANopen node to switch between
different implementations with different functionality or performance. A
CANopen design started based on a basic or minimal CANopen implementation
could still be upgraded later.
One of the main goals of the API is to hide as many CANopen specific details
from the host (application process) as possible. The host only worries about the
process data it exchanges with the network. When and how the data is transmitted