Trunk and drop line lengths

Suggested maximum lengths of trunklines and droplines

baud rate	max. trunk line length	max. drop line lenght	max. lenght of all drop lines	max. drop line lenght at multiport tap	max. lenght of trunklines with multiport tap (without droplines)
50 kbit/s	1000 m	50 m	250 m	-	-
125 kbit/s	500 m	20 m	100 m	4,8 m	310 m
250 kbit/s	250 m	10 m	50 m	2,4 m	120 m
500 kbit/s	100 m	5 m	25 m	1,2 m	66 m
1 Mbit/s	20 m	1 m	5 m	0,3 m	13 m

The same length restrictions apply in the CAN FD network. The information in the table refers to the arbitration baud rate.

More resources

Suggested bit timing and bus length

It is important for smooth operation of the components – especially when the maximum bus lengths are reached – to use exactly the same bit timing in all nodes.

Suggested bit timing and bus length

The ten CAN commandments

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The ten CAN commandments

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What gain in knowledge can you expect when you measure your CAN bus on the physical level ?