PhD Defence Khalil Ben Fredj | B2X: BLE-Based Bicycle To Everything Wireless Communications

B2X: BLE-Based Bicycle To Everything Wireless Communications

Khalil Ben Fredj is a PhD student in the department Computer Science. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr.ir. G.J. Heijenk and dr.ing. Y. Huang from the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS), University of Twente.

Cycling plays an increasingly important role in creating sustainable, healthy, and accessible cities. At the same time, the rapid growth of cycling, together with the rising popularity of e-bicycles and speed pedelecs, has introduced new challenges. Higher cycling speeds, increasing traffic density, and limited awareness of surrounding road users can lead to safety risks and reduced traffic efficiency, particularly at intersections and in mixed-traffic environments.

This reasearch investigates how wireless communication between bicycles, vehicles, and roadside infrastructure can help address these challenges. Specifically, it explores the feasibility of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as a low-cost, energy-efficient technology for connected cycling applications. While existing vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication systems are primarily designed for motor vehicles, connected bicycles require solutions that can be integrated into compact, battery-powered devices and deployed at scale.

The research combines analytical modelling, simulation, and real-world experiments to evaluate the performance of BLE-based bicycle-to-everything (B2X) communication. Mathematical models are developed to assess key performance indicators such as reliability, latency, information freshness, and energy consumption under a wide range of operating conditions. The work provides new insights into how BLE communication parameters influence system performance and identifies practical trade-offs between reliability, responsiveness, and energy efficiency.