Optical Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces Aided Optical Wireless Communications: Opportunities, Challenges, And Trends

As communication technology continues to develop, the demand for capacity and spectrum resources is also increasing. With the abundant spectrum resources and high energy efficiency, optical wireless communication (OWC) has become one of the key technologies in future wireless communication systems. However, due to the high frequency characteristics of optical signals, traditional OWC systems, such as free space optical communication (FSO) and visible light communication (VLC), suffer from low degrees of freedom, low robustness, and low energy efficiency, which limits its application. Optical reconfigurable intelligent surface (ORIS), as a new type of optical communication device, can change the direction, shape, amplitude, phase, and other characteristics of the optical beam. ORIS is expected to improve the defects and expand the application scenarios of OWC systems. In this article, we provide an overview of ORIS technologies and architectures, study typical cases of ORIS-aided OWC systems, and highlight key challenges in this area.