A Hybrid (FSO-RF) System Model with Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces for Early Warning of Natural Disasters: Conceptual Approach

Hybrid systems integrating Free-Space Optics (FSO) and Radio Frequency (RF) technologies can provide robust early warning capabilities for natural disasters. By combining the advantages of both FSO and RF, such systems offer redundancy, reliability, and increased coverage, ensuring timely alerts and communication in the event of disasters. Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces can indeed be utilized to dynamically switch between RF and FSO communication modes, offering a flexible and efficient approach to adapt to changing environmental conditions. However, the deployment of Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRS) in hybrid RF/FSO systems is still relatively limited and requires further investigations to fully understand and optimize their integration. In this paper, the concept of integrating a Liquid Crystal IRS (LC-IRS) into a hybrid FSO/RF system for early warning and identification of natural disasters is discussed. The concept relies on sending data between a set of sensor nodes when a disaster does not exist and reflecting it back to a controlling base station when a natural disaster exists. The switching between these paths is controlled by the IRS. The IRS also works to control switching between the FSO and RF communication links based on the existing weather conditions. The variation in the reflection angle of the LC-IRS can be controlled by an external field as indicated in this paper. The suggested model in this paper provides a conceptual approach for the deployment of IRS in early warning systems.