Survey on Optical Wireless Communication with Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript provides an overview of optical wireless communication using the Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) method. The topic is both interesting and innovative, and the organization of the manuscript is appropriate. However, several aspects need attention:

1-     Since the authors have not introduced any new work, it is advisable to include "review" or "survey" in the title to accurately reflect the nature of the manuscript.

2-     Provide a detailed discussion on the physical mechanism of the IRS method, including the effects of dielectrics, permeability, permittivity, reflective indexes, etc.

3-     Add explanations about the mechanism of each work discussed. This should include IRS structures, insulating materials, beamforming discussion, electromagnetic fields, characteristics of the design, and other relevant aspects.

4-     Categorize the applications and present information such as working frequencies, wavelengths, dimensions, and costs in a tabular format for easy reference.

5-     Include statistical reports to support the analysis. These reports can be generated by the authors, focusing on aspects like application, frequency, type of mechanism, year of introduction, and others.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1,

We sincerely appreciate the time and effort you have taken to review our manuscript. Your insightful comments and suggestions have been invaluable in helping us improve the quality of our work. We have carefully considered all of your feedback and have made the necessary revisions to the manuscript.

Attached, you will find our detailed responses to each of your comments in the document titled "Response to Reviewer 1 Comments." We believe that the revisions have strengthened the manuscript, and we hope that it now meets your expectations.

Thank you once again for your constructive feedback.

Best regards,
Chengwei Fang

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper presents an overview of the application of 19 IRS in OWC systems. The study is valuable to the OWC and IRS research community. However, followings comments need to be addressed prior to the acceptance.

1). The organization of the introduction section need further improvements.

2). There are different studies focused on OWC with IRS and different problems such as blockage avoidance, handover, IRS assignments. Such studies have not been considered in this study. Followings are few suggestions.

K. W. S. Palitharathna, A. Maria Vegni and H. A. Suraweera, "SLIVER: A SLIPT-enabled IRS-assisted VLC System for Energy Optimization," 2023 IEEE 20th International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS), Toronto, ON, Canada, 2023, pp. 143-151.

K. W. S. Palitharathna, A. M. Vegni, P. D. Diamantoulakis, H. A. Suraweera and I. Krikidis, "Handover Management through Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for VLC under Blockage Conditions," 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), Singapore, Singapore, 2024.

3). The NLOS channel gain has different models such as diffusion-based models, and ray tracing-based models. Such model comparison is needed in this study.

4). In addition to the use of wall mounted IRS, recent literature discusses the use of IRS at the transmitter/receiver. Such studies have not been provided. Please refer the following papers.

A. R. Ndjiongue, T. M. N. Ngatched, O. A. Dobre and H. Haas, "Re-Configurable Intelligent Surface-Based VLC Receivers Using Tunable Liquid-Crystals: The Concept," in Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 39, no. 10, pp. 3193-3200, 15 May15, 2021

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The use of English is good. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

We sincerely appreciate the time and effort you have taken to review our manuscript. Your insightful comments and suggestions have been invaluable in helping us improve the quality of our work. We have carefully considered all of your feedback and have made the necessary revisions to the manuscript.

Attached, you will find our detailed responses to each of your comments in the document titled "Response to Reviewer 2 Comments." We believe that the revisions have strengthened the manuscript, and we hope that it now meets your expectations.

Thank you once again for your constructive feedback.

Best regards,
Chengwei Fang

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Now this manuscript can be published in this journal.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Authors have well addressed the comments from the reviewer. No further comments from the reviewer.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English has been improved