Channel Characterization of IRS-Based Visible Light Communication Systems

This paper studies the temporal characteristics of the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-based visible light communication (VLC) channel using radiometric concepts. Throughout this study, we account for the delays experienced by the transmitted power along the continuum of paths originating at the source, passing through the IRS, reaching the detector. Then, we derive the impulse response of multi-element phase-tunable metasurface and orientation-tunable mirror array-based reflector setups for a general setting of source, reflector, and detector dimensions and relative positions. In addition, we derive simpler expressions for the two special cases, namely, the point source and the large-source small-reflector. Moreover, we present the exact expression for the delay spread and derive lower, upper bounds and asymptotic expressions when the number of reflecting elements increases for both reflector types. Finally, we study the impact of several system parameters on the temporal characterization of the two IRS-based VLC systems.