This application discloses an electronic control unit coupled to a bus in a vehicle communication network. The electronic control unit includes a processing system configured to generate an instruction including an identifier of a type of signal exchanged through a vehicle communication network and including a command associated with exchange of a signal value corresponding to the type of the signal. The electronic control unit includes a communication circuitry configured to identify, based on the type of the signal in the instruction, a packet having a section allocated for the signal value corresponding to the type of the signal. The communication circuitry also can perform packet operations on the section of the packet allocated for the signal value based, at least in part, on the command included in the instruction. The packet operations can include packing the signal value into the packet or extracting the signal value from the packet.