Bi2Bi Communication: Toward Encouragement of Sustainable Smart Mobility

Abstract

Sustainable urban mobility refers to the sustainable transportation mode in terms of social, environmental, and climate impacts. Cycling has emerged as one of the most sustainable means of urban travel due to its flexibility, low costs, reduced carbon emissions, improved traffic, and mobility in cities. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication is becoming a reality standard. Non-motorized vehicles, such as bikes, are expected to participate in V2V and Vehicle-To-Everything (V2X) networking alongside cars and trucks, although they have gotten significantly less attention. In this paper, we analyze and experimentally evaluate Bike-to-Bike (Bi2Bi) wireless communication in different urban scenarios, considering full topo-morphological characteristics of urban environments by means of deterministic 3D Ray Launching hybrid simulations. Communication and data exchange between bikes relies on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, and specifically, on ZigBee. We analyze Bi2Bi communication and cooperation towards sustainable smart mobility, following a holistic approach providing a tool based on the city platform to monitor and understand the impact of mobility at both city and citizen level and to provide accurate information on carbon footprint reduction, for multiple city/system stakeholders.