Modeling and Design of IRS-Assisted Multilink FSO Systems

In this paper, we investigate the modeling and design of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted optical communication systems, which can circumvent the line-of-sight (LOS) requirement in multi-link free space optical (FSO) systems. The FSO laser beams incident on the optical IRSs have a Gaussian power intensity profile and a nonlinear phase profile, whereas the plane waves in radio frequency (RF) systems have a uniform power intensity profile and a linear phase profile. Given these substantial differences, the results available for IRS-assisted RF systems are not applicable to IRS-assisted FSO systems. Therefore, we develop a new analytical channel model for point-to-point IRS-assisted FSO systems based on the Huygens-Fresnel principle. Our analytical model captures the impact of the size, position, and orientation of the IRS as well as its phase shift profile on the end-to-end channel. To allow the sharing of the optical IRS by multiple FSO links, we propose three different protocols, namely the time division (TD), IRS-division (IRSD), and IRS homogenization (IRSH) protocols. The proposed protocols address the specific characteristics of FSO systems including the non-uniformity and possible misalignment of the laser beams. Furthermore, to compare the proposed IRS sharing protocols, we analyze the bit error rate (BER) and the outage probability of IRS-assisted multi-link FSO systems in the presence of inter-link interference. Our simulation results validate the accuracy of the proposed analytical channel model for IRS-assisted FSO systems and confirm that this model is applicable for both large and intermediate IRS-receiver lens distances. Furthermore, we show that for the proposed IRSD and IRSH protocols, inter-link interference becomes negligible if the laser beams are properly centered on the IRS and the transceivers are carefully positioned, respectively. Moreover, in the absence of misalignment errors, the IRSD protocol outperforms the other protocols, whereas in the presence of misalignment errors, the IRSH protocol performs significantly better than the IRSD protocol.