Introduction to the Universal Measurement and Calibration Protocol XCP

The Universal Measurement and Calibration Protocol Family or XCP specification has expanded the limits of the original CAN Calibration Protocol or CCP. CCP has proved the usefulness of having reusable software for measurement and calibration. The XCP specification no longer limits users to using CAN as the transport media. The XCP specification has been expanded to allow for ease of use, not only in Electronic Control Units (ECUs) but in measuring instruments as well.

To help raise the awareness of the new version of the specification, this paper introduces the history, purpose, and the upper-level structure of the protocol layer. Finally, there are some specific examples of the advantages of using XCP via CAN over CCP 2.1.