Layer
Data Link L2
Frames, MACs, arbitration, link control.
CAN 2.0B
Lab readyClassical Controller Area Network with 11-bit and 29-bit identifiers, CSMA/CR arbitration, and up to 8 data bytes. Dominant/recessive wir…
CAN FD
Lab readyCAN Flexible Data-Rate extends classical CAN with up to 64 data bytes and a faster data-phase bitrate after arbitration. BRS and ESI bits…
UART / RS-232
Lab readyAsynchronous character framing with start bit, 5–9 data bits, optional parity, and one or two stop bits. RS-232 defines voltage levels an…
I²C
Lab readyTwo-wire multi-master bus (SCL/SDA) with open-drain wired-AND, 7/10-bit addressing, and ACK bits after every byte. Start/stop conditions …
SPI
Lab readyFull-duplex synchronous bus with SCLK, MOSI, MISO, and per-device chip select. Mode is defined by CPOL/CPHA (or mode 0–3); there is no st…
SWD
Lab readyARM two-pin debug protocol (SWDIO/SWCLK) replacing full JTAG for Cortex-M. Packets select DP/AP registers for memory access, breakpoints,…
Modbus RTU
Lab readyBinary Modbus ADU on serial lines: address, PDU (function + data), and CRC-16. Silent intervals of 3.5 character times delimit frames; fu…
ISDN PRI
Lab readyPrimary Rate ISDN: T1 23B+D or E1 30B+D with a 64 kb/s D-channel for Q.931/LAPD. Timeslots map B-channels; framing and line coding come f…
SS7 MSU
Lab readySS7 Message Signal Units carry user-part payloads over MTP. Level-2 framing wraps length, sequence/ACK bits, and SIO/SIF; Level-3 routing…
RoCEv2
Lab readyRDMA over UDP/IPv4/IPv6 on Ethernet: InfiniBand BTH follows the UDP header (port 4791). Routable across L3 with ECN/PFC/DCQCN for congest…
InfiniBand
Lab readyLossless switched fabric with its own L2/L3 (LID/GID), subnet manager, and verbs transport (RC/UD/…). Credits, VLs, and partition keys pr…
Ethernet II
Lab readyUbiquitous LAN frame: 6-byte MACs, 2-byte EtherType, payload, and 32-bit FCS. Preamble/SFD precede the frame on the wire; 802.1Q inserts …
LIN
Lab readyLow-cost single-master UART-based vehicle bus for body electronics. Schedule tables, break/sync/ID framing, and enhanced checksum define …
JTAG
Lab readyBoundary-scan and debug TAP with TMS/TCK/TDI/TDO state machine. Chains, IR/DR lengths, and adaptive clocking matter when probing multi-ch…
1-Wire
Lab readySingle-wire half-duplex bus with parasite power for sensors and ID chips. Presence pulse, ROM commands, and strict slot timing are the us…
SMBus
Lab readyI²C-derived management bus with timeouts, PEC, and defined commands for power/thermal devices. Stricter electrical and timing rules than …
QSPI
Lab readySPI variant with 1/2/4 IO lines for flash and peripherals. Address/command phases and dummy cycles dominate throughput; mode and DDR opti…
SENT
Lab readySingle-edge nibble transmission for automotive sensors. Tick time, sync pulse, and CRC nibble framing are fixed; Fast/Slow channels carry…
PMBus
Lab readyCommand set layered on SMBus for digital power converters: voltage setpoints, telemetry, sequencing, and fault logs. Transaction types (w…
MDIO / MII Management
Lab readyManagement interface for Ethernet PHYs: MDC clock plus bidirectional MDIO with preamble, start, op, PHYAD, and REGAD fields. Clause 22 ex…
SDIO
Lab readySD card command/response/data protocol extended so non-memory functions (Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth) enumerate as SDIO devices. CMD/DAT lines,…
FlexRay
Lab readyTime-triggered dual-channel automotive network with static TDMA and dynamic mini-slot segments inside a communication cycle. Sync frames …
MOST
Lab readyRing-topology multimedia network historically used for in-vehicle audio, video, and control. Synchronous, packet, and control channels sh…
Automotive Ethernet
Lab readySingle-pair Ethernet PHYs (OPEN Alliance / IEEE 802.3bw/bp and successors) built for vehicle harnesses, often with TSN for latency and sh…
SAE J1939
Lab readyHeavy-duty CAN application layer used on trucks, buses, and off-highway machines. 29-bit CAN IDs encode priority, PGN, and source address…
CANopen
Lab readyCAN application profile (CiA 301) built around an Object Dictionary, PDOs for realtime process data, SDOs for configuration, and an NMT s…
PROFIBUS
Lab readyToken-passing RS-485 fieldbus from PI for DP masters and slaves in factory automation. Baud rate, station addresses, and GSD device descr…
PROFINET
Lab readyIndustrial Ethernet from PROFIBUS International with Real-Time (RT) and Isochronous Real-Time (IRT) classes for cyclic IO. Device descrip…
EtherCAT
Lab readyEthernet fieldbus where each slave processes and forwards a circulating frame on the fly for sub-cycle IO updates. Process data, distribu…
DeviceNet
Lab readyCIP on CAN for device-level networks — sensors, VFDs, and I/O blocks — with baud and MAC IDs set by switches or software. It shares the C…
Bluetooth LE
Lab readyShort-range low-power radio using advertising, connections, and GATT attribute tables for application data. PHY rates (1M/2M/Coded), ATT …
Zigbee
Lab readyMesh networking on IEEE 802.15.4 with APS endpoints and Zigbee Cluster Library (ZCL) application semantics. Coordinators form networks; r…
Thread
Lab readyIPv6 mesh on IEEE 802.15.4 using 6LoWPAN compression, mesh forwarding, and border routers to upstream Ethernet/Wi-Fi. It often carries Ma…
LoRaWAN
Lab readyLPWAN MAC over LoRa chirp spread-spectrum PHY with OTAA/ABP join, session keys, and adaptive data rate. Uplink/downlink windows, duty-cyc…
nRF Proprietary / ESB
Lab readyNordic Semiconductor short-range proprietary packet modes, including Enhanced ShockBurst, for low-latency links on nRF radios. Address fi…
USB 2.0
Lab readyHost-centric shared bus with control, bulk, interrupt, and isochronous transfers at low/full/high speed. Device identity lives in descrip…
MTP Level 2
Lab readySS7 link-layer framing with flags, sequence numbers (BSN/FSN), FIB/BIB retransmission bits, and FISU/LSSU/MSU SU types. Alignment procedu…
M2PA
Lab readySIGTRAN adaptation that replaces MTP2 over SCTP while preserving MTP3 peer semantics between IP-connected SS7 nodes. Link status and sequ…
M2UA
Lab readySIGTRAN adaptation that backhauls MTP2 user primitives over SCTP between a signaling gateway (SGP) and application server (ASP). It separ…
ISDN BRI
Lab readyISDN Basic Rate Interface providing two 64 kb/s B-channels plus a 16 kb/s D-channel for Q.931 signaling (2B+D). S/T and U interfaces diff…
DMR
Lab readyDigital Mobile Radio — an ETSI TDMA LMR standard with two slots in a 12.5 kHz channel for voice, data, and trunking control. Tier I/II/II…
Project 25
Lab readyAPCO Project 25 public-safety digital radio with FDMA Phase 1 and TDMA Phase 2 common air interfaces. IMBE/AMBE vocoders, trunking contro…
RoCE v1
Lab readyRDMA over Converged Ethernet version 1 encapsulates InfiniBand verbs in Ethernet frames without IP/UDP headers. It is an L2-only design l…
PFC / ECN
Lab readyLossless and ECN tools for datacenter Ethernet: Priority Flow Control pauses individual priorities, while Explicit Congestion Notificatio…
NVLink
Lab readyNVIDIA high-bandwidth GPU interconnect for peer-to-peer and coherent-ish memory traffic inside a node or NVSwitch domain. Generations dif…
NVSwitch
Lab readySwitch fabric chip that stitches many NVLink ports into all-to-all GPU topologies in DGX/HGX-class systems. Enables full-bandwidth collec…
CXL
Lab readyCompute Express Link — a cache-coherent interconnect riding PCIe PHY for memory expanders and accelerators. .io, .cache, and .mem protoco…
UCIe
Lab readyUniversal Chiplet Interconnect Express — a die-to-die standard with streaming and protocol mappings (including PCIe/CXL). Advanced packag…
PCI Express
Lab readyPCI Express — packetized serial I/O with lanes, LTSSM link training, and TLP/DLLP layers. Gen5/Gen6 rates and retimers define reach; ACS …
Wi-Fi
Lab readyIEEE 802.11 wireless LAN using CSMA/CA with management, control, and data frames plus WPA-family security. PHY generations (n/ac/ax/be) c…
Bluetooth Classic
Lab readyBR/EDR Bluetooth forming piconets for audio and serial profiles such as A2DP, HFP, and SPP. Frequency hopping and ACL/SCO/eSCO logical li…
SATA
Lab readySerial ATA disk interconnect using FIS frames and typically an AHCI host interface. Link speed negotiation and Native Command Queuing def…