<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Autonomous truck and trailer configurations face challenges when operating in reverse due to the lack of sensing on the trailer. It is anticipated that sensor packages will be installed on existing trailers to extend autonomous operations while operating in reverse in uncontrolled environments, like a customer's loading dock. Power Line Communication (PLC) between the trailer and the tractor cannot support high bandwidth and low latency communication. This paper explores the impact of using Ethernet or a wireless medium for commercial trailer-tractor communication on the lifecycle and operation of trailer electronic control units (ECUs) from a Systems Engineering perspective to address system requirements, integration, and security. Additionally, content-based and host-based networking approaches for in-vehicle communication, such as Named Data Networking (NDN) and IP-based networking are compared. Implementation, testing and evaluation of prototype trailer ECU communication with the tractor ECUs over Ethernet is shown by transmitting different data types simultaneously. The implementation is tested with two networking approaches, Named Data Networking, and Data Distribution Service (DDS) and the test indicated that NDN over TCP is an efficient approach that is capable of meeting automotive communication requirements. Using Ethernet or a wireless harness and NDN for commercial trailer Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) ECU provides adequate resources for the operation of autonomous trucks and the expansion of its capabilities, and at the same time significantly reduces the complexities compared to when new features are added to legacy communication systems. Using a wireless medium for tractor-trailer communication will bring new cybersecurity challenges and requirements which requires new development and lifecycle considerations.</div></div>

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<p> Abstract—Autonomous vehicles use variety of automotive  communication protocols in order for different Electronic Control  Units (ECUs) to intra-communicate such as Controller Area  Network (CAN), FlexRay or Ethernet to address the requirements  of ultra-low latency and higher bandwidth due to the increased  number of sensors. This leads to an increased number of wires,  complexity and weight of the harness needed to connect each ECU  to the network. In the case of an autonomous tractor trailer with  autonomy sensors, tractor-trailer communication harness with  new wires to be able to communicate with additional  communication protocols at the tractor side and the trailer  harness will be required to be plugged or unplugged every time a  trailer gets coupled or uncoupled with a tractor. In this paper, we  propose a new network architecture and intra-communication  link for an autonomous tractor trailer ECU with additional  autonomy sensors to reduce the number of wires needed to  communicate different data types to the autonomous tractor  network buses to two wires or eliminate the wires in case of a  conventional tractor-trailer using a wireless medium, in addition  to a method to manage multi-protocol data transfer between the  trailer and the tractor. We conducted an experiment to evaluate  the performance of Named Data Networking (NDN) when used in  communication between ECUs that had positive outcome and  indicated the high potential compatibility of NDN with vehicular  communication.  1 </p>