What is a arbitration in CAN protocol?

Whenever the bus is free, any unit may start to transmit a message. If 2 or more units start transmitting messages at the same time, the bus access conflict is resolved by bitwise arbitration using the IDENTIFIER. The mechanism of arbitration guarantees that neither information nor time is lost. If a DATA FRAME and a REMOTE FRAME with the same IDENTIFIER are initiated at the same time, the DATA FRAME prevails over the REMOTE FRAME. During the arbitration, every transmitter compares the level of the bit transmitted with the level that is monitored on the bus. If these levels are equal the unit may continue to send. When a ’recessive’ level is sent and a ’dominant’ level is monitored (see Bus Values), the unit has lost arbitration and must withdraw without sending one more bit.