As a way to build more efficient and intelligent container cranes for todays hub ports, communication networks are used to interconnect numerous sensors, actuators, controllers, and operator switches and consoles that are spatially distributed over a crane. Various signals such as sensor values and operator's commands are digitized and broadcast on the network instead of using separate wiring cables. This not only makes the design and manufacturing of a crane more efficient, but also easier implementation of intelligent control algorithms. This paper presents the performance evaluation of CAN(Controller Area Network), TTP(Time Triggered Protocol) and Byteflight that can be used for cranes. Through discrete event simulation, several important quantitative performance factors such as the probability of a transmission failure, average system delay (data latency) and maximum system delay have been evaluated.