Abstract

To address the limitations of traditional in-vehicle electrical communication in supporting cooperative adaptive lane changing (CALC) for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), this paper proposes a solution integrating optical Ethernet and a communication scheduling strategy. A central-zonal electronic and electrical (E/E) architecture with optical Ethernet as the backbone is designed to provide high-speed, anti-interference data transmission. A link delay analysis model is established to characterize loop delays from intra- and inter-vehicle communication. Furthermore, a fractional basic period scheduling-dynamic priority elevation (FBP-DPE) strategy is developed to mitigate heterogeneous delay impacts, ensuring deterministic transmission of time-sensitive data. Simulation results show that compared with unscheduled LQR control, the proposed approach reduces loop delay, suppresses overshoot and fluctuations in lateral displacement and steering angle, and achieves smoother speed tracking, significantly enhancing platoon stability and riding comfort.